RTX benefits from Pratt & Whitney's recovering jet-engine business alongside rising global defense budgets. In Q3 FY26, sales rose 11%, operating profit 32% with margins expanding, and net income to common 35%; basic EPS rose from $1.43 to $1.91. Grade A: RTX sits in the sweet spot as the world rearms and flies more. x.com 

Lockheed Martin is a strong geopolitical diversifier alongside the energy complex for investors heavily long semiconductors. It landed a Pentagon deal for 850 F-35 jets and raised its annual forecast; the multi-model signal has been long since October 16. x.com 

Defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and RTX always dump the day peace headlines land, because the conflict buildup was the trade. Explanations about how Patriot and THAAD performed, as @HyperTechInvest suggests, are what people tell themselves afterward. x.com 

Rising regional conflicts and soaring NATO spending commitments favor defense companies such as Rocket Lab and RTX, which carry massive multi-year backlogs. Rocket Lab, a $40 billion space launch and defense technology player, is up about 2,700% from its lows. RTX is up a more modest 69% but acts as a remarkably safe, high-yielding haven when institutions rotate. Both sit on the winning side of a 2026 market where money is rotating into favored sectors rather than lifting the whole index. x.com 

Defense spending of $1-1.5 trillion and rising NATO budgets are the theme of the decade, making Palantir, Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman and L3Harris the top five defense stocks to own. Palantir is the purest defense-AI play: Q4 revenue jumped 70%, free cash flow reached $2.27B, and a $448M Navy shipbuilding modernization contract shows its government pipeline accelerating. At 232 times earnings, it is priced as the operating system for modern warfare, not a contractor. x.com 

RTX, a $300B company, now depends on a US budget burdened by $1.7T of interest expense on $40-42T of debt. That is the response to @JaguarAnalytics' bullish read on Raytheon's $22.9B multiyear Navy contract for Tomahawk cruise missiles, which supports a production ramp to more than 1,000 missiles a year. x.com 

RTX's constraint has shifted from finding demand to building fast enough, as a commercial travel recovery and global rearmament land in one company. All three businesses expanded margins while orders outpaced shipments. Pratt & Whitney certified the GTF Advantage engine and sharply lifted PW1100 shop visits; Raytheon more than doubled first-half munitions output and won GEM-T awards; Collins' Sidekick software was picked for the Air Force's CCA program. Full-year guidance rose. x.com 

RTX's roughly $51 billion in recent multi-year missile deals and expanding backlog support a bullish setup. Backlog reached $289 billion last quarter, up 22% year over year, and management raised full-year sales, EPS and free cash flow guidance. The trigger is $193.90, with chart targets of $197.35, $200.41 and $202.67. x.com 

Drone stocks fell in 2026 even as backlogs hit records: Ukraine turned aircraft into ammunition, and the Pentagon's 2027 request holds nearly $75B for drones and counter-drone. AeroVironment's reordered loitering munitions and Kratos's jet drones are highest conviction. Counter-drone names Ondas, Axon, Motorola Solutions, Safe Pro, DroneShield and Rheinmetall gain as threats grow, Unusual Machines from Chinese-parts bans. Primes bury drone exposure; pure plays may not convert backlog. x.com  … Show more

Selling defense primes RTX, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris on peace hopes is misguided because the US has a whole arsenal of munitions to replace and modernize. The war showed Washington how far behind it is. Lawmakers including Sen. Mark Kelly warned that Congress will likely face supplemental funding requests as stockpiles deplete quickly against Iran's large missile and drone arsenal. x.com