B. Riley
Securities' Equity Research team hosted the 3rd edition of our Space & Defense Technologies
Symposium. Led by Mike
Crawford, Senior Managing Director & Head of Discovery
Group, Griffin Boss,
Research Analyst, and Remi
Johnson, Research Associate, the virtual symposium featured
eight fireside chats with six public company CEOs discussing the latest
developments in the space and defense domain.
Here are the key themes that defined the day:
What happens in space
doesn't stay in space
Superiority in the space domain is increasingly linked to outcomes on the
ground, from earth observation and resilient communications to access denial,
domain awareness, and force projection.
The global space economy
is at a record high
A July Space Foundation report found that the global space economy reached $686
billion in 2025, up 12% year-over-year. Government spending came in at $141
billion, up 7.4%, with defense as the fastest-growing priority.
Defense budgets are moving
in one direction
The Pentagon's FY27 budget request aims to more than double the Space Force's
top line to over $71 billion, and that's before factoring in NASA's Moon Base
ambitions, a forthcoming expansion of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services
program, Golden Dome, and a defense budget request approaching $1.5 trillion.
We continue to see this as a generational recapitalization of global defense
systems.
Resilience and affordable
mass are the investment themes of the moment
These two concepts came up repeatedly throughout the day alongside a bipartisan
sense of urgency to keep pace with Russia and China in hypersonics and
space.
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