** Shares of U.S. defense firms surge premarket on Monday as Middle East tensions spike with US strikes in Iran over the weekend

** Lockheed Martin LMT.N up 1.1% and Northrop Grumman NOC.N up 1.5%, RTX Corp RTX.N, formerly Raytheon, gains 1.5%

** Shares of General Dynamics GD.N up 0.5% and L3Harris LHX.N gains nearly 1.3%

** S&P 500 Aerospace & Defense index .SPLRCAERO up 0.9%; index up 21.6% YTD

(Reporting by Rashika Singh in Bengaluru)

((Rashika.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))