With many if not most of the world’s countries afraid of their neighbors and several active military conflicts unfortunately occurring, it’s a good time to be a defense contractor. It is also a good time to invest in certain military stocks. There appears to be no end in sight to the was in the Ukraine. Furthermore, many European nations have been increasing their military spending in response to the conflict. In the Mideast, Israel is at war with two Iranian proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. Now, it appears to be at war with Iran itself as well.

Also importantly, the United States continues to spend huge amounts of money on its military. Here are three military stocks to buy now.

Elbit Systems (ESLT)

Last weekend, Israel, the U.S., and Jordan were able to intercept about 99% of the hundreds of drones, missiles, and other projectiles that Iran fired at the Jewish State. Many if not most of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel’s state-of-the-art missile defense system, and little damage was caused to Israeli infrastructure while only one Israeli was badly hurt.

Following this impressive performance of Israeli military technology, Israeli defense firms, including Elbit Systems (NASDAQ:ESLT), are likely to benefit from meaningful increases in their orders and revenue. The Street appears to agree with the latter assessment, as ESLT stock was advancing nearly 6% in pre-market trading on April 15.

Also noteworthy is that Elbit has developed an airplane-based, laser-powered missile defense system. Lasers are much cheaper to use than missile-defense systems that utilize projectiles to shoot down missiles. I was not able to find information about when the system will be ready, but a land-based version, created by another firm whose shares are not publicly traded, is reportedly slated to be ready in 2025. As a result, I think that Elbit will probably start taking orders for its system soon.

And finally, with the conflict between Israel and Iran heating up, Israel is likely to spend much more money on Elbit’s products going forward.

RTX (RTX)

RTX (NYSE:RTX), which includes the defense company formerly known as Raytheon and airplane engine maker Pratt & Whitney, reported strong financial results on Jan 23. Most importantly, its revenue jumped 10% last quarter versus the same period a year earlier while its free cash flow for all of 2023 advanced 12% to $5.468 billion.

Last quarter alone, RTX received $2.8 billion of orders for its Patriot anti-missile system, $838 million of orders for the maintenance of F135 planes, and $408 million for the development of its Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile. The company’s overall backlog at the end of last year was a huge $196 billion.

Clearly, RTX is benefiting a great deal from the multiple wars and huge tensions around the world, making it one of the best military stocks to buy.

Finally, given the firm’s strong growth and high profits, its forward price-earnings ratio of 18.9 times is quite low.

Northrop Grumman (NOC)

As of the end of last year, Northrop’s (NYSE:NOC) backlog reached an impressive record of $84 billion as its ratio of orders to revenue came in at 1.14 to 1.

Also importantly, Congress appropriated $826 million last month “for 285 anti-radar missiles ” developed by NOC.

And as I reported in a previous column,  “Last November, the firm obtained a huge $11.5 billion deal to provide 65 advanced MQ-4C drones for the U.S. Navy.” Also noteworthy is that, prior to the latter deal, NOC already controlled 20% ” of the North American military drone market.” Given the high and rising popularity of military drones around the world, NOC is likely to generate a great deal of revenue by selling drones to America’s allies.

In January, Northrop announced that it would buy back $1 billion of NOC stock, showing confidence in its shares’ outlook.

On the date of publication, Larry Ramer did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines