Air Industries Group AIRI recently secured an $11 million contract to provide landing gear assemblies for the U.S. Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. Per the contract, production of the landing gear assemblies is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2025 and the finished products’ delivery will start in the first quarter of 2026.

What’s Favoring AIRI Stock?

Increasing global socio-political unrest has led nations to invest heavily in securing their borders, with fighter jets being essential for defense. Additionally, the rise in commercial air traffic has increased the demand for both commercial and fighter jets. With increased need for more aircraft, the demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services is also growing.

This must have led the Grand View Research firm to predict that the global aircraft MRO market will witness a CAGR of 4.8% during the 2025-2030 period.

Air Industries is well-positioned to benefit from the growing aircraft MRO market, with its long history of providing key components for defense and commercial aerospace. The company’s expertise in complex machining of hard metals, deep-hole drilling, high-speed machining of aluminum and complete assemblies makes it a reliable partner for ensuring aircraft performance and safety. With products like landing gear, thrust struts, turbine engine components and other critical parts, Air Industries helps keep aircraft operational and safe.

Opportunities for Other Defense Stocks

Other defense contractors that are anticipated to benefit from the expanding aircraft MRO market are discussed below.

RTX Corporation RTX: The company’s Collins Aerospace unit is a well-known provider of aircraft MRO services. In October 2024, this unit signed a 10-year contract with Air Europa to provide comprehensive MRO services for the airline's fleet of 787 aircraft.

RTX has a long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate of 10.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RTX’s 2024 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 7.2%.

Lockheed Martin LMT: Its Sikorsky unit’s Overhaul and Repair organization offers a diversified range of system services, repairing and overhauling dynamic systems, blades, avionics and numerous other components, from aircraft tip to tail.
 
Lockheed Martin has a long-term earnings growth rate of 4.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LMT’s 2024 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 5.5%.

AAR Corp. AIR: The company is the largest independent MRO provider in North America, serving a global customer base. In September 2024, AAR won a contract with an aggregate ceiling value of $1.2 billion to provide depot airframe maintenance and depot field team support for P-8A Poseidon jets.

AAR Corp. delivered an average earnings surprise of 1.80% in the last four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIR’s fiscal 2025 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 16.4%.

Air Industries Stock’s Price Movement

Shares of AIRI have gained 26.1% in the past six months against the industry’s 2.2% decline.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

AIRI Stock’s Zacks Rank

AIRI currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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