Sweden's Saab and Italy's Leonardo grew net profits more than fivefold in 2020-2025, far outpacing big US defence contractors, Ukrainian outlet Slovo i Dilo found on October 28.
Saab (STO: SAAB-B) lifted net profit to $640mn in 2025 from $120mn in 2020, a rise of 433%, and Leonardo (BIT: LDO) to $1.38bn from $270mn, up 411%. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), the world's biggest arms maker, earned less in 2025 than it did five years earlier.
The comparison covers the period since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the rearmament drive that followed, which also produced the world's largest defence IPO when Czechoslovak Group listed in Amsterdam in January. The European groups started from a much smaller base: RTX (NYSE: RTX) alone booked revenue of $88.6bn in 2025, more than ten times Saab's.
The analysts took the four largest US companies and the largest company from several European countries and Israel from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's ranking of arms producers, and used net income data in dollars from the financial data site macrotrends.net.
Company accounts bear out the European numbers in local currency. Saab's net income rose to SEK6.36bn ($640mn) in 2025, nearly six times its 2020 level, and Leonardo's to €1.33bn from €241mn, according to the two groups' annual results.
Germany's Rheinmetall (ETR: RHM) more than doubled its profit to $790mn from $310mn and Britain's BAE Systems (LON: BA) raised its own by 63% to $2.72bn from $1.67bn, on the comparison's figures. BAE reported a 2025 profit for the year of GBP2.15bn ($2.86bn).
Two of the 2020 starting points were in fact losses. RTX, then Raytheon Technologies, made a net loss of $3.52bn in 2020, the year of its merger, according to its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, so its 2025 profit of $6.73bn is a swing into the black rather than the 91% rise the comparison shows. Airbus (EPA: AIR) lost €1.13bn in 2020 as the pandemic grounded airliners, then earned €5.22bn in 2025.
Among the US groups, General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) each made about $4.2bn in 2025, up from $3.17bn and $3.19bn respectively, gains of just over 30%. Lockheed's net earnings fell to $5.02bn from $6.83bn, its SEC filings show. Israel's Elbit Systems raised profit by 121%, most of it in 2025.
| Company | Country | 2020 net income | 2025 net income | Change |
| Saab | Sweden | $120mn | $640mn | +433% |
| Leonardo | Italy | $270mn | $1.38bn | +411% |
| Airbus | EU | -$1.29bn (loss) | $5.91bn | swing to profit |
| Rheinmetall | Germany | $310mn | $790mn | +155% |
| BAE Systems | UK | $1.67bn | $2.72bn | +63% |
| RTX | US | -$3.52bn (loss) | $6.73bn | swing to profit |
| General Dynamics | US | $3.17bn | $4.21bn | +33% |
| Northrop Grumman | US | $3.19bn | $4.18bn | +31% |
| Lockheed Martin | US | $6.83bn | $5.02bn | -27% |
Net income in US dollars. Source: Slovo i Dilo, from macrotrends.net data; 2020 Airbus and RTX results shown as losses per company filings.
Saab's revenue rose 109.6% in dollar terms over the five years, Rheinmetall's 76.3% and BAE's 51%, against 56.5% at RTX, 38.6% at General Dynamics, 14.8% at Lockheed and 14% at Northrop, according to Slovo i Dilo. Saab's own accounts show sales more than doubling over the period to SEK79.1bn ($7.97bn) in 2025.
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