Never so many returns in the last ten years. To cash in record earnings they are the shareholders of the major European groups of defensewhich will close 2025 with a record remuneration of 5 billion euros, the highest in the last decade. According to an analysis by Vertical Research Partners for the Financial Timesto the growth of returns – due to the surge in global military spending following the war in Ukraine – is accompanied by a strengthening of investments: since before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the share of revenues allocated to capital expenditure and research and development is estimated to increase from 6.4% to 7.9%. The groups that have earned the most are Bae Systems, Thales, Dassault, Rheinmetall, the Italian defense giant LeonardoBabcock, Saab, Hensoldt.
It should be noted that the research excludes Airbus given its extensive commercial activities. In the first nine months of 2025 Leonardofresh from the memorandum of understanding with Airbus e Thales to unify their respective space activities and driven by the rearm European Union and the boom in orders in the aeronautical sector, recorded revenues of 13.4 billion euros (+11.3%) and an operating result of 945 million (+18.9%). Ordinary net profit rose to 466 million (+28%) and net debt fell to 2.3 billion, down by more than a quarter compared to a year ago.
In the United Stateswrites the Financial Timesthe dynamics are different. After the 2023 peak, i returns for the shareholders of the main defense companies (Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, L3Harris Technologies and Huntington Ingalls) are decreased and so do he investments recorded a slight decline (Boeing is excluded from the research, given its important civil aerospace activities). The sector has come under fire for allegedly favoring share buybacks over production: Donald Trump urged i contractor to invest more, while the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant he spoke of companies “severely late in deliveries” and called for “a little more research and a little less share buybacks”. According to Vertical Research, however, the idea that US industry is underinvesting or “overprofiting” is “not supported by facts”: “stock repurchases and dividends, as a share of market capitalization, have nearly halved over the past two years.”
