# The defense ETFs that returned most

> The defense ETFs that returned most, ranked by total return with distributions reinvested, one year, as of Oct 20, 2026.

Data as of Oct 20, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.

As of Oct 20, 2026 . Rebuilt every trading night.

## 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.

| # | 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% |

### 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%. 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.

### Where to next

### Where these figures came from

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement.

A ranking is not a recommendation or an opinion. ETFIQ is an independent publisher, not an adviser. Standards and sources

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Source: ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.
Cite: 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
Licence: https://etfiq.com/license/ Figures ETFIQ computes are free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.
HTML: https://etfiq.com/rankings/themes-best-year-defense