On Aug. 30, off the coast of Hawaii, sailors aboard the USS John Paul Jones tracked, intercepted, and shot down a medium-range ballistic missile.

It was a milestone in our nation’s defense system.

Doing so put North Korea and Kim Jong-un on notice that we can shoot down their missiles before those missiles reach the U.S. mainland or one of our Asian-Pacific allies.

And it’s about time.

North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs have developed much, much faster than the Pentagon predicted. And that has created a threat that has jump-started our need for advanced missile defense technologies – and spending on them.

Indeed, missile defense technology is so critical to the United States right now that it was a big driver behind Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC)’s just announced plan to acquire Orbital ATK Inc. (NSE: OA) for $9.2 billion.

Orbital specializes in the missile defense technology that we so badly need right now.

And so the deal reaffirms our belief that Northrop is the best of the Big Defense plays out there. Northrop has soared nearly 46% since our first recommendation in April 2016 – including a 10% gain since the Sept. 17 announcement of the Orbital deal.

Today I want to go in-depth on why that Orbital deal reinforces our “case” for Northrop.

And I want to show you how you can take a ride on all the defense industry M&A deals we’ll be seeing over the next few years.

This single investment gained just 1.75% in 2015 – but 19% in 2016.

So far this year, it’s up nearly 30%.

Now imagine what it’s going to do in the future as the Trump administration bulks up our military spending…

Enter Orbital

With North Korea testing a series of missiles and threatening the United States with nuclear war, high-tech missile defense systems have moved from the “should have” category to the “must have” one.

According to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the missile-intercept system we used on Aug. 30 off Hawaii has an 83% success rate.