Aerospace product and parts manufacturing
This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing aircraft, missiles, space vehicles and their engines, propulsion units, auxiliary equipment, and parts thereof. The development and production of prototypes is classified in this industry, as is the factory overhaul and conversion of aircraft and propulsion systems. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A
- Establishments · CanadaA
- 283
- Under 10 employeesA
- 37%
- Establishments · USA
- 1,840
- Employment · USA
- 421,482
- Payroll · USA
- $43.5B
Size and shape
How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.
Canadian establishments by number of employeesA
Of 283 Canadian establishments with employees, 37% have fewer than ten — an industry where large establishments carry real weight.
Where they areA
Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.
Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.
How businesses here compete
The structural profile of subsector 336, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.
A tiered supply chain in which price is dictated downward. The reachable ends are specialty vehicles, trailers, truck bodies and aftermarket.
- Who sets the price
- A few OEMs, through tiered supply contracts.
- The software it runs on
- Automotive and aerospace quality systems, supplier portals, product lifecycle management.
Market screens and studies
Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.
This is the one corner of aerospace where demand really has moved. AeroVironment's revenue went from $820.6M to $1,976.8M in its year to April 2026 [A], with $1.46B of funded backlog by August [A]. Ukraine's procurement agency signed UAH 333.6 billion of drone contracts in the first half of 2026, twice the year before [A], and the EU set up a €150B loan instrument for common defence buying [A]. Capital is not short either: Anduril raised $5B at $61B, Shield AI $2B, Quantum Systems $1.2B and Helsing $1.8B, all in 2026 [B]. The cut is what has to be in place before the first government sale, and none of it is money an ordinary entrant can raise. In the US a buyer is choosing from the Defense Contract Management Agency's Blue UAS list, and since December 2025 the FCC has closed the normal authorisation route to new foreign-produced drones and critical components [A, as described in Red Cat's 10-K]. In the EU, SAFE money needs at least 65% of component costs from the EU, Ukraine or the EEA [A]. In Ukraine, 80% of drone money goes to products rated on combat data, and only 20% is kept for testing new ones [A]. Add facility clearance, ITAR and CMMC, and the entrant is funding years of qualification against a budget that is mostly still a request: the Pentagon asked for $54.6B for its Defense Autonomous Warfare Group in FY27 after giving it $226M in FY26, and $53.6B of that rides on a reconciliation bill that may not pass [B]. A programme win does not end the cost. Red Cat, an Army Short Range Reconnaissance winner, lost $61.8M on $35.7M of revenue in the first half of 2026 [A]. Incumbents widen the gap by buying in: AeroVironment paid $3.48B for BlueHalo [A]. The sibling record 336410 reads the Canadian side the same way. What can be entered is the supply chain under the primes: compliant components, test services and compliance tooling.
The largest and fastest-growing market in the portfolio, and the one where enthusiasm and executable opportunity are most badly mismatched. Budget headlines are not revenue.
Software serving this industry
The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.
Sold across the wider branch
Catalogued categories — named, not analysed
And what every business buys · 33 generic categories
Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.
Companies in this industry · 8
Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.
| Company | Filed under | Revenue | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| AeroVironmentNASDAQ:AVAV | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | $2.0B | 1/8 |
| Quantum SystemsPrivate | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | €300M | 2/8 |
| DroneshieldASX:DRO | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | AUD 217M | 3/8 |
| Red Cat HoldingsPrivate | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | $41M | 4/8 |
| General Atomics Aeronautical SystemsPrivate | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | — | 5/8 |
| HelsingPrivate | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | — | 6/8 |
| Kratos Defense & Security SolutionsPrivate | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | — | 7/8 |
| ShieldPrivate | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing33641 | — | 8/8 |
Who works here
The occupations employed in Manufacturing, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.
Tagged to this industry
Concentrated in this sectorA
These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.
And the jobs every business has
Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.
Inside this industry
1 row sits directly beneath 3364, and 2 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.
| Code | Industry | Establishments · CA | What is known |
|---|---|---|---|
| 33641 | Aerospace product and parts manufacturing | 283 | Military Drones & Counter-UASAerospace, Defence & Space Systems |