Themes · ranked by total return with distributions reinvested, one year

The defense ETFs that returned most

See 14 funds ranked by total return with distributions reinvested, one year. Updated Oct 20, 2026. Funds on one theme can hold different companies, so the gap from top to bottom of this list reflects what they own, not the theme.

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Points (pts) are percentage points.

The defense ETFs that returned most
#	Ticker	Fund	Total return, 1Y ↓	vs its benchmark 1Y	Weight in S&P 500 companies	Fee
1	FOWF	Pacer Solactive Whitney Future of Warfar	+10.6%	−4.2 pts vs URTH	74.8%	0.49%
2	GCAD	Gabelli Commercial Aerospace and Defense	+9.4%	−6.5 pts vs VOO	40.1%	0.10%
3	PPA	Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF	+0.5%	−15.3 pts vs IVV	76.8%	0.58%
4	ITA	iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF	−1.4%	not measured	80.4%	0.37%
5	NATO	Themes Transatlantic Defense ETF	−3.9%	−19.1 pts vs ACWI	58.2%	0.35%
6	MISL	First Trust Indxx Aerospace & Defense ET	−4.2%	−20.1 pts vs VOO	65.9%	0.60%
7	IDEF	iShares Defense Industrials and Tech Act	−4.3%	not measured	41.3%	0.55%
8	WDGF	WisdomTree Global Defense Fund	−4.4%	−19.5 pts vs ACWI	34.9%	0.45%
9	EUAD	Select STOXX Europe Aerospace & Defense	−7.6%	not measured	0.0%	0.50%
10	XAR	State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defens	−7.8%	−23.7 pts vs VOO	39.2%	0.35%
11	WDEF	WisdomTree Europe Defense Fund	−8.0%	not measured	0.0%	0.45%
12	SHLD	Global X Defense Tech ETF	−8.0%	not measured	44.6%	0.50%
13	WDAF	WisdomTree Asia Defense Fund	−9.5%	not measured	0.0%	0.45%
14	KDEF	PLUS Korea Defense Industry Index ETF	−16.3%	not measured	0.0%	0.65%

As of Oct 20, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

Method

The 14 of 22 ETFs in the defense theme with a full year of trading, highest first, each over the same year to Oct 20, 2026 with distributions reinvested. Across the funds listed here the one year total return runs from -16.3% to 10.6%.

The rest of the method

A year says what happened, not what happens next. The list sorts one published figure, with no scoring or weighting. Every fund ETFIQ covers in this category is eligible, closed funds included.

How these figures are computed →Standards and sources →

Where to next

Every defense ETF and what it holds→The largest defense ETFs15 →

Where these figures came from

Fund holdings from SEC Form N-PORT and from the issuers own daily files ↗SEC EDGAR, full-text search of fund filings ↗SEC Form N-PORT, what a fund filed it holds ↗Rule 19a-1, what a distribution notice must say ↗

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. A ranking is not a recommendation or an opinion.

Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, The defense ETFs that returned most, ranked by total return with distributions reinvested, data as of Oct 20, 2026. https://etfiq.com/rankings/themes-best-year-defense

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