Can Instability Be an Asset Class?

Aerospace and Defense (A&D) ETFs have shown remarkable performance in 2025, with funds like XAR achieving a 49.11% year-to-date return. This surge follows President Trump's October 2025 directive to resume U.S. nuclear weapons testing after a 33-year moratorium, a decisive policy shift responding to recent Russian weapons demonstrations. The move signals the formalization of Great Power Competition into a sustained, technology-intensive arms race, transforming A&D spending from discretionary to structurally mandatory. Investors now view defense appropriations as a guaranteed source of funding, creating what analysts call a permanent "instability premium" on sector valuations.

The financial fundamentals supporting this outlook are substantial. The FY2026 defense budget allocates $87 billion for nuclear modernization alone, a 26% increase in funding for critical programs like the B-21 bomber, Sentinel ICBM, and Columbia-class submarines. Major contractors are reporting exceptional results: Lockheed Martin established a record $179 billion backlog while raising its 2025 outlook, effectively creating multi-year revenue certainty that functions like a long-duration bond. In 2023, global military spending reached $2.443 trillion, with NATO allies driving over $170 billion in U.S. foreign military sales, which extended revenue visibility beyond domestic congressional cycles.

Technological competition is accelerating investments in hypersonics, digital engineering, and modernized command-and-control systems. The shift toward AI-driven warfare, resilient space-based architectures, and advanced manufacturing processes (exemplified by Lockheed's digital twin technology for the Precision Strike Missile program) is transforming defense contracting into a hybrid hardware-software model with sustained high-margin revenue streams. The modernization of Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) systems and implementation of Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) strategy require continuous, multi-decade investments in cybersecurity and advanced integration capabilities.

The investment thesis reflects structural certainty: legally mandated nuclear modernization programs are immune to typical budget cuts, contractors hold unprecedented backlogs, and technological superiority demands perpetual high-margin research and development. The resumption of nuclear testing, driven by strategic signaling rather than technical necessity, has created a self-fulfilling cycle that guarantees future expenditures. With geopolitical escalation, macroeconomic certainty through front-loaded appropriations, and rapid technological innovation converging simultaneously, the A&D sector has emerged as an essential component of institutional portfolios, supported by what analysts characterize as "geopolitics guaranteeing profits."