Defense ETFs: all 22 compared
See every defense ETF by what it holds, not by its name. Funds that hold defence primes, weapons and munitions makers, and military aerospace and electronics suppliers. 22 funds, largest first. Updated Oct 21, 2026. The typical fund carries 41% of its weight in S&P 500 names, the 17th most of the 53 themes with filed books.
The short answers
What these funds actually own
Between them the 22 funds' ten largest holdings name 117 companies, of which 28 appear in more than one. LOCKHEED MARTIN is among the ten largest of 13 of them, at an average of 5.4% of the fund.
Defense ETFs, the companies their ten largest holdings name. The 15 most widely held of 117. Source: each fund's latest SEC filing or its issuer’s own daily holdings file, read by ETFIQ.
How this is counted
Each row counts the ten largest holdings of each fund, so a fund missing from a row may still hold that company lower down. Weights are of the funds that name it, not of the theme.
Share of each fund's weight in S&P 500 companies. Above half, the fund is mostly the S&P 500.
White marker is the S&P 500 over the same days, +16.4%, for reference. Last column is the gap to the fund's own benchmark, in points.
The 10 largest defense ETFs
ETFIQ covers 22 defense ETFs. The largest are ITA ($11.9bn), PPA ($7.4bn) and SHLD ($6.3bn); fees run 0.10% to 0.75%, as of .
- 1ITA$11.9bn0.37%iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF
- 2PPA$7.4bn0.58%Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF
- 3SHLD$6.3bn0.50%Global X Defense Tech ETF
- 4XAR$5.0bn0.35%State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF
- 5IDEF$3.6bn0.55%iShares Defense Industrials and Tech Active ETF
- 6EUAD$1.2bn0.50%Select STOXX Europe Aerospace & Defense ETF
- 7MISL$667m0.60%First Trust Indxx Aerospace & Defense ETF
- 8KDEF$157m0.65%PLUS Korea Defense Industry Index ETF
- 9NATO$101m0.35%Themes Transatlantic Defense ETF
- 10WDEF$88m0.45%WisdomTree Europe Defense Fund
Every defense ETF, largest first
Click a column to sortPoints (pts) are percentage points.
How much of each pair is the same fund
The closest pair is ITA and PPA, which hold 71% of their weight in the same companies. The furthest apart is WDEF and XAR at 0%. The middle pair of the 45 is 26%. The grid is the 10 largest of 22 funds.
Defense ETFs, the share of each pair’s weight held in the same companies. Read across or down; the figure is the same either way. Cells are shaded against the closest pair here, 71%. Source: each fund’s own filed or daily holdings, read by ETFIQ.
How to read the grid
Weight overlap adds the smaller of the two weights for every company both funds hold. Funds with a cut-short book are left out, not compared short.
What each fund holds alone
The largest holding no other fund in the grid holds, and how much of the fund is in names none of the others own.
Defense ETFs, the largest holding no other fund in the grid holds. Source: ETFIQ.
Questions people ask
- How many defense ETFs are there?
- ETFIQ covers 22 US listed defense ETFs as of Oct 21, 2026. That is every one it can measure from the fund’s own published holdings.
- What is the largest defense ETF?
- ITA, iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF, at $11.9bn in net assets as of Oct 20, 2026, the largest of the 22 defense ETFs with a published size.
- What is the cheapest defense ETF?
- GCAD, Gabelli Commercial Aerospace and Defense ETF, at 0.10% a year by its prospectus filed May 5, 2026, the lowest fee of the 22 defense ETFs that publish one.
- Which defense ETF has performed best over the past year?
- FOWF, Pacer Solactive Whitney Future of Warfare ETF, at +10.8% total return over the year to Oct 21, 2026, the highest of the 14 defense ETFs with a full year of trading behind them. Past returns do not predict future ones.
- What do defense ETFs hold?
- Funds that hold defence primes, weapons and munitions makers, and military aerospace and electronics suppliers. Between them the 22 defense ETFs ETFIQ can read name 117 companies in their ten largest holdings, by holdings dated May 31, 2026 to Oct 21, 2026, most widely LOCKHEED MARTIN, which is among the ten largest of 13 of them.
- Do defense ETFs hold the same companies?
- It depends which two. Across the 45 pairs of the 10 defense ETFs with a full published book, by holdings dated May 31, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026, ITA and PPA hold 71% of their weight in the same companies, WDEF and XAR hold 0%, and the middle pair holds 26%. Two funds sold on one theme are not the same fund.
What the issuers say about this theme
About these links
The issuers behind these defense funds publish their own work on this theme. These are their pages and words, not ETFIQ’s. A fund company writing about a theme it sells is making a case.
Issuer material on this theme. Links leave ETFIQ. Source: each issuer’s own site.
ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. Standards and sources →
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<figure style="margin:0;max-width:640px">
<a href="https://etfiq.com/themes/defense"><img src="https://etfiq.com/assistant/api/embed/theme/defense.svg" alt="Defense ETFs, one-year total return to Oct 21, 2026: FOWF +10.8%, GCAD +9.4%, ITA −3.3%, MISL −3.8%, IDEF −3.9%, NATO −5.4%, EUAD −8.4%, KDEF −17.3%." width="640" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<figcaption style="font:13px/1.5 sans-serif">Defense ETFs, one-year total return to Oct 21, 2026: FOWF +10.8%, GCAD +9.4%, ITA −3.3%, MISL −3.8%, IDEF −3.9%, NATO −5.4%, EUAD −8.4%, KDEF −17.3%. Data: <a href="https://etfiq.com/themes/defense">ETFIQ</a></figcaption>
</figure>Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown
ETFIQ, Defense ETFs: all 22 compared, data as of Oct 21, 2026. https://etfiq.com/themes/defense
ETFIQ. (Oct 21, 2026). Defense ETFs: all 22 compared. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/themes/defense
[Defense ETFs: all 22 compared (ETFIQ, Oct 21, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/themes/defense)
Free to use with attribution for figures ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms. The underlying files are at Open data.