# Defense ETFs: 15 Ranked by Fee, Nov 2026

> 15 defense ETFs ranked by fee, as of Nov 4, 2026. GCAD leads at 0.10% a year. AV is second at 0.35% a year. Rebuilt every trading night.

Data as of Nov 4, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.

As of Nov 4, 2026 . Rebuilt every trading night.

## The cheapest defense ETFs

See 15 funds ranked by the annual fee the fund charges. Updated Nov 4, 2026. A fee is one fact, not a verdict. Funds on one theme can hold different companies, and the holdings are on the theme page.

| # | Ticker | Fund | Fee | Net assets | Weight in S&P 500 companies | Total return, 1Y |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | GCAD | Gabelli Commercial Aerospace and Defense | 0.10% | $44m | 40.1% | +9.4% |
| 2 | AV | Corgi Aerospace & Commercial Aviation ET | 0.35% | $800,703 | 67.0% | too new |
| 3 | NATO | Themes Transatlantic Defense ETF | 0.35% | $88m | 54.5% | −1.8% |
| 4 | WR | Corgi U.S. War Machine ETF | 0.35% | $932,169 | 68.0% | too new |
| 5 | XAR | State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defens | 0.35% | $5.3bn | 40.1% | −6.6% |
| 6 | XDEF | Xtrackers Europe Defense Technologies ET | 0.35% | $4.3m | 0.0% | too new |
| 7 | ITA | iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF | 0.37% | $12.2bn | 80.8% | +0.8% |
| 8 | DUTY | U.S. Defense ETF | 0.45% | $2.1m | 61.7% | too new |
| 9 | WDAF | WisdomTree Asia Defense Fund | 0.45% | $22m | 0.0% | −16.2% |
| 10 | WDEF | WisdomTree Europe Defense Fund | 0.45% | $88m | 0.0% | −5.6% |
| 11 | WDGF | WisdomTree Global Defense Fund | 0.45% | $5.3m | 34.9% | −2.9% |
| 12 | FOWF | Pacer Solactive Whitney Future of Warfar | 0.49% | $15m | 74.8% | +12.2% |
| 13 | EUAD | Select STOXX Europe Aerospace & Defense | 0.50% | $1.1bn | 0.0% | −8.0% |
| 14 | SHLD | Global X Defense Tech ETF | 0.50% | $6.3bn | 52.8% | −8.5% |
| 15 | IDEF | iShares Defense Industrials and Tech Act | 0.55% | $3.6bn | 40.1% | −5.8% |

### Method

The 22 of 22 ETFs in the defense theme that publish an expense ratio, cheapest first. Across the funds listed here the annual fee runs from 0.1% to 0.6%. A fee is the one number a fund controls and the one a holder always pays. The list sorts one published number, with no scoring or weighting. Every fund ETFIQ covers in this category is eligible, closed funds included.

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### Sources

Links are sources, not endorsements.

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 cheapest defense ETFs, ranked by the annual fee the fund charges, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/rankings/themes-cheapest-defense
Licence: https://etfiq.com/license/ Data ETFIQ computes is free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.
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