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Missile defense has quietly become one of the steadier growth stories in U.S. defense spending, and the companies that make its smallest components are feeling the effects directly in their order books. According to a report from Fortune Business Insights, the global market for military connectors, the rugged parts that carry power and data through radars, missiles, and combat vehicles, is projected to grow from $3.12 billion in 2026 to $5.05 billion by 2034, a compound annual growth rate of 6.2%. Congress has backed that growth with real money. The fiscal year 2026 defense appropriations bill added $2.1 billion above the Pentagon’s original request for munitions programs, including $500 million for PATRIOT PAC 3 missiles and $300 million for THAAD interceptors.
That kind of funding does not stop with the large prime contractors that build entire missile systems. It also flows down to the smaller companies that supply the parts inside those systems, and few illustrate that flow better than a family run manufacturer based in Brooklyn, New York.
For more than 85 years, IEH Corporation (OTCQX: IEHC) has designed and built printed circuit board connectors and custom interconnects for customers in defense, aerospace, medical, and space applications. Its Hyperboloid connector technology is built to withstand extreme vibration, temperature swings, and electromagnetic interference, which is part of why it turns up inside some of the country’s most heavily used missile and radar systems.
IEH has announced it had received $6.5 million in new orders over the prior two weeks for Hyperboloid connectors supporting the APKWS precision guided rocket program. That order pushed the company’s total backlog above $45 million, nearly three times where it stood a year earlier. President and CEO Dave Offerman said the new orders sit on top of an already historically high backlog and reflect surging demand for the connectors IEH supplies to the nation’s missile and air defense programs. He pointed to APKWS, PATRIOT, and THAAD as the systems driving the current wave of business, and said the company plans to add capacity and increase production to keep pace.
The jump is part of a longer pattern rather than a single event. IEH’s backlog had already more than doubled over the twelve months ending in early 2026, and it grew nearly 30% in just the first two months of that year, according to an earlier company disclosure. For the year to date, the company’s shares are up over 240% and are currently trading near the top of their range for the past twelve months, with the company’s market value sitting around $79 million. Those figures describe a company small enough that a single multimillion dollar order can meaningfully shift its near term outlook.
Backlog matters in this industry because it offers a window into revenue that has not been booked yet. IEH has said its current backlog should convert into revenue over the next 12 to 18 months, giving investors and customers some visibility into where the business is headed. That kind of forward looking signal is harder to find among smaller manufacturers, many of which depend on one time contracts rather than a steady, growing pipeline of defense work.
None of this happens apart from the broader defense budget picture. Global military spending has climbed steadily for several years, and U.S. lawmakers have continued directing additional funding toward munitions and missile defense on top of the Pentagon’s own requests. IEH has also had to manage cost pressures from gold, a key input in its connectors, along with tariffs and rising healthcare expenses, all of which weigh on margins even as revenue prospects improve. Whether the company can turn its record backlog into consistent profit will likely depend as much on managing those costs as on the continued strength of missile defense demand itself.
