Missile Makers: Long-Range Strike in the Ukraine War

What Defines This Group

The companies below share one trait: each builds guided missiles or precision-strike weapons that have featured directly in Ukraine. Some are sprawling, US-listed prime contractors; one is a private multinational joint venture; two are mid-cap European specialists whose share prices have soared on rearmament. The table compares their listing, scale and signature weapons.

⚠ Market caps are approximate and change daily. RTX ~$245B and Lockheed Martin ~$130B as of June 2026 (source); Kongsberg ~270B NOK as of 4 June 2026 and Saab ~283B SEK as of 11 June 2026 (source). MBDA is a private joint venture with no separate listing.

Deep Strike Comes to Ukraine

For the first eighteen months of the full-scale war, Ukraine’s ability to hit targets far behind the front line was sharply limited. That changed in mid-2023, when the United Kingdom and France became the first allies to provide a genuine long-range strike capability, supplying MBDA’s Storm Shadow and its French twin, the SCALP-EG. These air-launched cruise missiles, with a reach of roughly 250 kilometres, let Ukraine strike Russian command posts, ammunition depots and logistics hubs that had previously been untouchable.

Washington followed by clearing the ground-launched Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), built by Lockheed Martin and fired from HIMARS and M270 launchers at ranges up to about 300 kilometres. Together, Storm Shadow/SCALP and ATACMS formed the backbone of Ukraine’s longer-range Western arsenal through 2024 and 2025, even as political restrictions on their use against targets inside Russia were repeatedly debated and eventually loosened.

By the opening months of 2026, two trends were clear. First, Ukraine had begun fielding its own domestically produced long-range strike systems, reducing dependence on scarce Western stocks. Second, low inventories of precision missiles across European arsenals had become a strategic concern, sharpening the focus on the firms that build them.

RTX: From AMRAAM to Tomahawk

RTX Corporation, the parent group formed from the 2020 Raytheon–United Technologies merger and renamed RTX in 2023, is the largest pure missile maker on this list by market value. As of June 2026 its market capitalisation sat near $245 billion. Its Raytheon business unit produces an unusually broad missile portfolio: the AMRAAM air-to-air missile, the ship-launched Standard Missile family, and the Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile.

Several of these weapons have direct relevance to Ukraine. AMRAAM rounds feed the NASAMS air-defence systems protecting Ukrainian cities, while the Standard Missile family underpins layered naval and land air defence among allies. RTX also co-produces the Naval Strike Missile with Kongsberg for the US market, linking the American giant to a European specialist.

RTX is, alongside Lockheed Martin, a partner in the Javelin Joint Venture, which builds the shoulder-fired anti-tank missile that became an early symbol of Ukrainian resistance in 2022. Soaring demand for that and other munitions has helped push RTX’s valuation to record levels.

Lockheed: ATACMS, GMLRS, Javelin

Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest defence contractor overall, though its market capitalisation — roughly $130 billion in mid-June 2026, depending on the data source — trails RTX because its mix tilts heavily toward aircraft such as the F-35. Within missiles, however, Lockheed’s products have been central to Ukraine’s war effort.

The company builds ATACMS, the long-range ballistic missile fired from HIMARS, as well as the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rounds that gave Ukraine precise, GPS-guided fires at ranges around 70 to 80 kilometres. Lockheed also produces the air-launched JASSM cruise missile and the HIMARS launcher itself, one of the most consequential systems of the war.

Through the Javelin Joint Venture with RTX’s Raytheon, Lockheed shares responsibility for the anti-tank missile that destroyed scores of Russian armoured vehicles. The two firms have been ramping Javelin output, targeting production approaching 4,000 rounds a year to replenish stocks drawn down by Ukraine transfers.

European Missiles: MBDA, Kongsberg, Saab

MBDA is the standout European missile house, but it is structurally different from its American peers. It is a privately held joint venture owned by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, and it is not separately listed on any stock exchange — so it carries no individual market capitalisation. MBDA builds the Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missile and the Brimstone precision munition, both of which Ukraine has used to strike Russian targets with notable effect.

Norway’s Kongsberg Gruppen, listed in Oslo with a market value near 270 billion NOK as of early June 2026, makes the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) and its air-launched Joint Strike Missile (JSM) derivative. Kongsberg co-produces NSM with RTX for the US Navy, and its strong order book and share-price run reflect Europe’s rush to expand sovereign missile capacity.

Sweden’s Saab AB, listed in Stockholm with a market value around 283 billion SEK in mid-June 2026, rounds out the European trio. Saab builds the RBS15 anti-ship and land-attack missile and a range of guided munitions, and it is a partner on the NLAW anti-tank weapon that has been widely supplied to Ukraine. Like Kongsberg, Saab’s shares have climbed sharply on the wave of European rearmament.

Production and Outlook

The defining industrial story of the missile sector since 2022 has been the scramble to expand production. Years of peacetime efficiency had left precision-munition lines thin, and the pace of consumption in Ukraine exposed how quickly stocks could run down. Prime contractors and governments alike have since poured money into new capacity, multi-year procurement contracts and supply-chain resilience.

For the US listed primes, this has meant record backlogs and elevated valuations, though their broad portfolios mean missile growth is only part of the picture. For the European specialists, the effect has been more concentrated: Kongsberg and Saab have seen some of the strongest share-price gains in the entire defence sector, as European governments prioritise buying from European suppliers.

The strategic question for the years ahead is whether output can keep pace with both Ukraine’s needs and NATO’s own replenishment. Lead times for complex missiles remain long, and bottlenecks in components such as rocket motors and seekers persist. The makers profiled here will remain central to that effort — and to the analytics tracked across this site.