RUAG is active in both civil and military markets and takes advantage of the resulting synergies. Military applications benefit from technological advances in the civil sector, for example in telecommunications, self-driving vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles, and simulation software. The civil sector benefits from the strong military basis that RUAG possesses as technology supplier to the Swiss Armed Forces.

RUAG's activities are broadly diversified across numerous competencies in aerospace, security and military technology. At the same time, RUAG systematically focuses its activities, both as a Group and in the individual divisions, on specific core competencies. In these areas the Group strives to differentiate itself with mission-critical technical components and undertakes focused investments for growth.

As an international technology corporation, RUAG has operations in Europe, North and South America and the Asia / Pacific region. It has production sites in Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Australia and the USA. The corporation already generates over half of its sales outside the Swiss domestic market and is working actively to penetrate international growth markets.

RUAG's strategy is based on the expectations of the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation as owner. These are formulated in the strategic goals for 2016–19. The core of these expectations has always been RUAG's ability to reliably support the Swiss Armed Forces as technology supplier even in crisis situations. As a result, RUAG's strategy will evolve in parallel with the continuing development of the Swiss Armed Forces. As is true elsewhere, information technologies are steadily growing in importance and digitalization is becoming an ever greater priority for the armed forces. New technologies and their applications therefore increasingly originate in the civil world, and innovation clusters are often located outside Switzerland. As a result, RUAG's mission is this:

We support the Swiss Armed Forces as a reliable technology supplier on the path to digitalization. To achieve this we develop and build the requisite capabilities in Switzerland and, when necessary, abroad. The civil sector, due in large part to restrictive export conditions for military equipment and dual-use goods, plays an increasingly important role in these efforts.