Capstone Aerospace & Defense

We predict future policy changes, quantify their impact on your business, and develop strategies
to unlock hidden revenue opportunities.

We Predict Policy, Quantify Impact, and Create Strategy

The defense and national security landscape is more consequential—and more complex—than at any point in a generation. Shifting budget priorities, new acquisition paradigms, the commercialization of dual-use technology, and an increasingly contested geopolitical environment create both risk and opportunity for investors and their portfolio companies at every stage of the transaction lifecycle.

Private equity and the broader investor community rely on Capstone’s aerospace and defense expertise to gain differentiated insight into the risks and opportunities that determine investment outcomes. Our process is designed to uncover innovative policy-driven ideas, advising institutional investors and corporations on the impact of regulation on potential and existing investments. We translate the opaque workings of the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, and the broader national security community, plus careful market analysis, into bespoke diligence and perspectives tailored for each specific investment opportunity or strategy development process.

Select Aerospace & Defense Transactions

Capstone has been a trusted adviser on many public transactions. Below is a selection of recent transactions.​

Capstone’s Approach to Due Diligence for Aerospace & Defense

Capstone’s policy, regulatory and market diligence offering for the A&D sector assesses the full commercial picture: the durability of programs of record, competitive positioning within the defense industrial base, and the forward-looking spending environment across DoD mission areas. Our work is designed to validate—or challenge—your investment thesis with the rigor and specificity that an Investment Committee demands. 

The defense market is also shaped as much by policy as by commercial forces. Budget cycles, statutory mandates, acquisition reform, and geopolitical developments all create material risks and opportunities that traditional financial due diligence can miss. Capstone’s policy and regulatory diligence is built to answer the questions that matter most.

Aerospace & Defense Capabilities

Federal Policy Analysis

Leverage institutional knowledge and conversations with Capstone’s proprietary network of former officials, Hill staff, and industry executives to provide forward-looking, probability-weighted scenario analyses of defense authorization, appropriations, and acquisition policy.

Build impact analysis by tying existing policy and forward-looking legislative and regulatory scenarios to program economics, contractor positioning, and portfolio strategy.

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Defense Program Level Diligence

Leverage Capstone’s network of former program executives, acquisition officials, and Hill staff to deliver 360° forward-looking assessments of Programs of Record (POR) — evaluating programmatic effectiveness, alignment to policy and political priorities, and congressional sentiment.

Build diligence conclusions by tying program performance, funding trajectory, and milestone decisions to political and budgetary risk, informing investment, M&A, and portfolio decisions.

Assessment areas include: program funding stability (FYDP), milestone/acquisition schedule risk, PEO and service priorities, congressional support/opposition, and competitive/incumbency positioning.

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Market Sizing and Share

Leverage open-source, proprietary, and vended datasets to build granular, high-fidelity bottom-up market sizing and market share model.​ Supplement bottom-up build with expert interviews and surveys to develop top-down validation and perform sensitivity analysis. GET EXPERT GUIDANCE

Competitive Positioning and VoC

Leverage institutional knowledge, datasets, interviews, and surveys to understand where an asset sits in the market, how it competes, how it performs relative to competitors, and how its customers view it.

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Capstone’s Aerospace & Defense Edge: Real-time insights, investment-driven analysis, and deal team partnership yields tailored, concise, and actionable products

What Separates Capstone Aerospace & Defense from the Competition​

1
Proprietary Network

Capstone leverages a proprietary and purpose-built network of experts and other professionals involved in policy formation, influence, and analysis, including current and former policymakers, trade associations, lobbyists, government affairs staff, think tanks, and other policy thought leaders.

Real-Time 360 Policy/Regulatory Channel Checks

Instead of relying exclusively on former policymakers, institutional knowledge, and prior engagement work, Capstone provides real-time insights and channel checks. Capstone is non-partisan and agnostic to policy outcomes (i.e., we do not advocate/lobby), which keeps lines of communication open and honest.

2
Diverse Client Set

Capstone works across both the capital structure and the investment lifecycle. Our diversified client set includes private equity, growth equity, and venture capital firms; private credit and direct lending firms; long-only, long/short, multi-manager, and distressed/opportunistic credit hedge funds; and portfolio companies and corporates.

Investment-Driven Approach and Analysis

Capstone evaluates all policy and regulatory risks through a financial and operational lens, making our products better suited to assess how policy and regulatory changes impact a company’s business model and economics. Our products also clearly identify potential risks, weighed by probability and impact.​​

3
Obsessive Focus on Quality Service and Quality Product
One dedicated team will work with you from scope writing to final deliverable to avoid misplaced incentives or less actionable products. Our involvement from start to finish ensures that no questions are left unanswered and we can direct resources toward policy/commercial considerations that may be less obvious but more impactful.

Partners in the Process

One dedicated team will work with you from scope writing to the final delivery, ensuring alignment and avoiding drawn-out processes and less succinct products. Our involvement in the scoping process ensures that no questions are left unanswered and directs resources toward policy areas that may be less obvious but more impactful. As part of our process, Capstone also brainstorms with clients to develop risk mitigation strategies, if applicable.​​

4
Access to Capstone Events

Capstone’s private markets clients have access to client-only events with industry leaders. Recent guest speakers include the current Chief of Space Operations at the US Space Force, the Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience, among others. ​

Selected Issues

Case Studies

Capstone has a proven track record of providing in-depth analysis across a wide range of policy and regulatory issues. Our case studies demonstrate our team’s ability to help clients navigate complex policy challenges and develop targeted revenue-driving strategies.

Our Latest Aerospace & Defense Insights

Graham Russia Sanctions Bill: Hurdles, Impact and Questions

Graham Russia Sanctions Bill: Hurdles, Impact and Questions

The Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which passed its first procedural hurdle on July 28th, will likely become law by being attached to a must-pass measure in November or December. The bill would mandate sanctions against Russian President Vladimir...

Navy Investment to Expand the Maritime Industrial Base

Navy Investment to Expand the Maritime Industrial Base

The US shipbuilding industry is poised to grow significantly in the next five years as the Department of the Navy receives funding to build new vessels and for maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). These investments will increase demand for an expanded maritime...

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