ARK Space and Defense Rockets Past Invesco Aerospace and Defense. Which ETF is Better?

Brendan Coffey, The Motley Fool

Fri, June 12, 2026 astatine 12:13 PM CDT 4 min read

The Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT:PPA) offers a lower-cost, lower-volatility attack to defence than the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (NYSEMKT:ARKX), which prioritizes high-growth exertion companies disrupting the abstraction sector.

Both funds people the expanding aerospace and defence industries but instrumentality fundamentally antithetic paths. While ARKX actively hunts for disruptive innovation crossed abstraction exploration and orbital technologies, PPA follows a much established index-based strategy, favoring accepted U.S. defence contractors and homeland information firms that supply a much unchangeable marketplace profile.

Snapshot (cost & size)

Beta measures terms volatility comparative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year monthly returns. The 1-yr instrumentality represents full instrumentality implicit the trailing 12 months. Dividend output is the trailing-12-month organisation yield.

The Invesco money is much affordable for semipermanent holders, with a 0.58% disbursal ratio compared to the ARK fund’s 0.75%. This terms spread reflects the quality betwixt progressive absorption and scale tracking.

Performance & hazard examination

What's wrong

The Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF is simply a seasoned money launched successful 2005 that tracks an scale of 61 U.S. defence and homeland information holdings. Its portfolio is heavy concentrated successful industrials astatine 91%, with conscionable 9% successful technology. Its largest positions see The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) astatine 8.7%, GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) astatine 8.3%, and RTX (NYSE:RTX) astatine 6.9%. Over the trailing 12 months, it paid $0.66 per stock successful dividends. With $8 cardinal successful assets nether absorption (AUM), it offers importantly greater standard and liquidity than newer, thematic competitors.

In contrast, the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF was launched successful 2021 and manages $717.3 cardinal successful assets nether absorption (AUM). It holds a tighter handbasket of 45 positions and has not paid a dividend implicit the trailing 12 months. The portfolio has a smaller concern tilt astatine 56% portion carrying important exertion vulnerability astatine 27% and 8% successful connection services. Top holdings include  Rocket Lab USA (NASDAQ:RKLB) astatine 8.7%, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) astatine 7.9%, and L3Harris Technologies  (NYSE:LHX) astatine 7.1%. This creation reflects an progressive absorption benignant that targets disruptive abstraction technologies and innovation alternatively than conscionable accepted defence contractors.