Defiance starts ETF tracking drone and modern warfare companies

Investing.com -- Defiance ETFs on Friday started a fund that includes companies that are developing drones and other next-generation military technologies, while deliberately excluding traditional defense contractors.

The Defiance Drone&Modern Warfare ETF is trading under the ticker JEDI. It will follow the BITA Drone&Modern Warfare Select Index.

The benchmark includes companies that gets at least half of their revenue from areas such as military drones, unmanned systems, cybersecurity, AI–driven warfare, communications warfare, space and satellite systems, and robotics.

Defiance said the fund’s focus reflects U.S. government priorities to accelerate drone production and expand space defense to counter China’s advances in those sectors.

Among the early holdings includes Palantir Technologies Inc, which is around 7.38% of net assets. Other names include AeroVironment Inc which constitutes about 6.14% of funds assets. Companies such as Kratos Defense&Security Solutions Inc, RTX Corp, L3Harris are also in the fund.

“The JEDI ETF captures the future of defense with military drones, cyber, AI-driven warfare, and space warfare—leaving legacy defense behind and positioning investors to seize modern warfare innovation,” said Sylvia Jablonski, CIO at Defiance ETFs.”


There is a broader shift in U.S. policy with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum titled “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance.”

The plan calls for prioritizing U.S.-made drones and giving frontline units more authority to quickly buy and deploy low-cost unmanned systems.

It is a shift toward building large numbers of agile drones rather than relying mainly on traditional big-ticket weapons platforms.

Founded in 2018, Miami-based Defiance specializes in thematic exchange-traded funds, including leveraged single-stock and cryptocurrency-linked products.

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