"Overseas," so to speak, there's BAE Systems (BAESY: OTCBB), although the company has a solid presence in U.S. defense markets. BAE is a conglomerate of sorts, producing everything from small aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, to electronic flight controls for Boeing.

In the shipbuilding department, BAE runs the largest shipyard in the United Kingdom -- still "united" after the Scotland referendum. Indeed, there was some question about BAE's business base had Scotland bailed; but that issue is now resolved. I foresee more and more business -- British and other -- for BAE, considering the growing tensions in Europe (due to Ukraine) and the Middle East.

At the same time as it builds big ships, BAE has important dealings with tiny POET Technologies (POETF: OTCBB), to support development of the small firm's highly innovative planar optical electronic technology (hence the "POET" acronym). Evidently, BAE wants to see more of what POET is doing.

POET shares sold down recently, essentially due to broad market concerns about the chip sector. That is, all chippers took hits -- Intel, Micron, Taiwan Semi and more. POET got slammed, too. With POET, however, we're dealing with a cashed-up small play that's on the cusp of seeing its ideas adopted across the chip industry. Investment-wise, it's admittedly speculative; but with significant upside if/when things play out."