The World is on a "Doomsday" Shopping Spree As Pentagon Drops $7.8B On New Toys…

Dick Cheney be like: “I was born too early…” 

The U.S. Air Force just went shopping with your tax dollars, and came back with a cart full of explosives: $4.3 billion worth of JASSMs and LRASMs from Lockheed Martin, plus another $3.5 billion of AMRAAMs from RTX. Total haul: $7.8 billion in bigly new missiles. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, Lockheed Martin got the bigger order on paper, but after it’s all said and done… RTX will probably walk away with fatter, thiccer, and girthier margins. For context, Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control division...supposedly the crown jewel of American war-factory capitalism... is coughing up an anemic 4.2% operating margin. That’s Dollar General economics. RTX’s Raytheon missile shop, meanwhile, is sitting pretty at nearly 10%. Translation: For every missile Lockheed sells, RTX makes double the profit. This is why RTX trades at 2.5x sales while Lockheed limps along at 1.4x.

(Source: Axios) 

As for the contract, it sounds massive… and they are, in absolute terms. But spread over six or seven years, they’re a bean counting error. Case in point: Lockheed’s $4.3 billion order works out to maybe a 0.7% annual bump on $71 billion in revenue. RTX’s contract adds less than 1% a year on an $84 billion base. You don’t buy these stocks because a contract “moves the needle.” You buy them because Uncle Sam is a repeat customer who never shops around, never negotiates price, and never, ever misses a payment.

With that said, allies are also quietly arming up. Finland, Japan, Poland, Taiwan, Israel… It kind of feels like a doomsday prepper shopping list going on. And the Pentagon is 100% here for it. However, it’s not just topping off U.S. arsenals, it’s seeding NATO and its friends with long-range toys that can sink ships, crack bunkers, and turn the next “regional conflict” into a fireworks show. 

(Source: Giphy) 

And yet, again, while Lockheed’s the bigger name, they're grinding out missile profits like a contractor trying to make margin on a bathroom remodel. RTX, for all its Boeing-sized baggage, is the one actually minting money. War may be hell, but Raytheon is the one that looks to be chasin’ checks and snappin’ necks with it. 

Meaning, yes, a $7.8 billion missile order sounds like headline magic. But step back and it’s just another reminder that in the defense game, revenue is vanity, backlog is security, and margin is the only real kill shot. Investors know it, Washington knows it, and RTX is quietly laughing all the way to the bank while Lockheed pretends scale still matters. Of course, in the end, it’s still a win for both stocks… but it’s important to know which one will eat the most. Which means keep your eyes on this story and place your bets accordingly as more details come out. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.