Offense Contractors Right on Schedule to Finish off what's left of the United States

Growth in defense stocks is on pace to surpass the S&P 500 Index in 2007 for an eight consecutive year, according to market research released Wednesday.

The Defense Spade Index's has a year-to-date gain of 21.5 percent, or nearly 20 percent better than the widely followed S&P 500 broad-market index.

The defense and homeland-security benchmark has outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 10 percent in six of the past eight yearly periods and gained more than 19 percent in four of the previous five years.

"Although much of the gains can be attributed to government spending in the aftermath of 9/11 and the war in Iraq, the defense sector's positive performance predates the 9/11 attack on the U.S., and trends suggest that growth may continue even after a pullback from Iraq occurs," said Scott Sacknoff, president of the Defense Spade index.