Additive, Avionics and the Parts Nobody NamesThin moat

GE Aerospace (GE) — moat facet

Four brands, one revenue line, and the components a jet engine maker would otherwise have to queue for.

Inside the defence segment sits a collection of businesses that are not engines at all, and together they have grown from $3,034 million in 2023 to $3,980 million in 20251.

Inside Defense & Propulsion Technologies, in $m5,927D&S 20236,574D&S 20253,034P&AT 20233,980P&AT 2025Avio Aero, Unison, Dowty Propellers and Colibrium Additive. P&AT grew 18% in 2025 against D&S at 8%.
The components a jet engine maker would otherwise have to queue for, in a company whose constraint was supply.

Propulsion & Additive Technologies designs and supports aircraft components and systems for commercial and military users under the Avio Aero, Unison, Dowty Propellers and Colibrium Additive brands: small turboprop engines, aeroengine mechanical transmissions, turbines, combustors and controls, additive manufacturing, propeller systems, ignition systems, sensors and engine accessories2.

The strategic logic is that these are the components a jet engine maker would otherwise buy, and that owning them shortens the supply chain in an industry where supply has been the binding constraint. GE Aerospace has spent four years unable to build as many engines as it could sell because of supplier capacity3, and the businesses in this group make exactly the kinds of part that go missing.

Additive manufacturing is the most interesting piece and the least proven. Colibrium Additive makes the machines; GE Aerospace has been printing engine components for a decade, and additive production changes the economics of complex parts by removing assembly steps and tooling. It also, in principle, makes spare parts cheaper to produce — which matters in a business whose margin is spare parts.

The honest scale is small. $3,980 million of revenue inside a $45,855 million company, sitting in the segment that earns 12.3%4, and not separately margined.

What would settle it is whether P&AT grows faster than the engine businesses it supports. It rose eighteen per cent in 2025 against Defense & Systems at eight per cent5, which is the shape you would want. Sustained at that rate it becomes a meaningful second source of supply. At the current size it is a rounding difference in the corporate margin.

Moat trajectory: Widening

Propulsion & Additive Technologies grew from $3,034 million in 2023 to $3,980 million in 2025, eighteen per cent in the last year against Defense & Systems at eight. In a company whose binding constraint has been supplier capacity, owning more of the chain is worth more than the standalone margin suggests.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Propulsion & Additive Technologies revenue
$3,980M, from $3,034M in 2023

Avio Aero, Unison, Dowty Propellers and Colibrium Additive, growing 18% in 2025 against Defense & Systems at 8%. No separate margin or return is disclosed, so the supply-chain argument cannot be tested from outside. A separate disclosure would itself be the signal that it has become material.

Source: GE Aerospace Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025 ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
Buying Adjacencies Is Not the Same as Owning One
No margin, no return on capital, no backlog — the strategic claim cannot be tested from outside.
References
  1. ReportedInside the defence segment sits a collection of businesses that are not engines at all, and together they have grown from $3,034 million in 2023 to $3,980 million in 2025.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Segment Operations — Defense & Propulsion Technologies: segment revenue split between Defense & Systems and Propulsion & Additive Technologies, equipment and services revenue, segment profit and margin, defence engine unit deliveries, the DPT remaining performance obligation, the US Air Force F110-GE-129 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract valued up to $5 billion, the Hindustan Aeronautics F404-GE-IN20 order valued at $1.6 billion, and the government-funding discussion. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedPropulsion & Additive Technologies designs and supports aircraft components and systems for commercial and military users under the Avio Aero, Unison, Dowty Propellers and Colibrium Additive brands: small turboprop engines, aeroengine mechanical transmissions, turbines, combustors and controls, additive manufacturing, propeller systems, ignition systems, sensors and engine accessories.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 Business — segment descriptions for Commercial Engines & Services and Defense & Propulsion Technologies, the CFM International 50-50 non-consolidated joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines, the commercial engine platforms (LEAP, CFM56, GEnx, GE9X, CF6, GE90), the defence platforms (F110, F404, F414, T408, T700, T901, LM2500), the Propulsion & Additive Technologies brands, the CFM RISE programme, the customer description including airframers and sole-source positions, and the segment revenue and services shares. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedGE Aerospace has spent four years unable to build as many engines as it could sell because of supplier capacity, and the businesses in this group make exactly the kinds of part that go missing.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1A Risk Factors — supply chain and supplier capacity, product safety and quality, run-off insurance and the Bank BPH mortgage portfolio in Poland including the Genworth trust counterparty exposure, borrowings and liquidity, and regulatory and legal risks. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  4. Reported$3,980 million of revenue inside a $45,855 million company, sitting in the segment that earns 12.3%, and not separately margined.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Segment Operations — Defense & Propulsion Technologies: segment revenue split between Defense & Systems and Propulsion & Additive Technologies, equipment and services revenue, segment profit and margin, defence engine unit deliveries, the DPT remaining performance obligation, the US Air Force F110-GE-129 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract valued up to $5 billion, the Hindustan Aeronautics F404-GE-IN20 order valued at $1.6 billion, and the government-funding discussion. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedIt rose eighteen per cent in 2025 against Defense & Systems at eight per cent, which is the shape you would want.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Segment Operations — Defense & Propulsion Technologies: segment revenue split between Defense & Systems and Propulsion & Additive Technologies, equipment and services revenue, segment profit and margin, defence engine unit deliveries, the DPT remaining performance obligation, the US Air Force F110-GE-129 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract valued up to $5 billion, the Hindustan Aeronautics F404-GE-IN20 order valued at $1.6 billion, and the government-funding discussion. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026