Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX: PME) and DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) operate in different industries, but I think both have significant opportunities ahead of them.
For investors prepared to think in years rather than months, here is why I would be happy to buy and hold both ASX growth shares.
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Pro Medicus shares
Pro Medicus has built an enviable position in the US healthcare market with its Visage medical imaging platform.
What interests me most from here is how much further that position could spread.
Visage 7 is already used for radiology imaging at 11 of the 20 top-rated US hospitals. Pro Medicus is also increasingly winning large integrated healthcare networks, which can include numerous hospitals and thousands of clinicians under a single contract.
I think this creates a long runway because replacing medical imaging systems is a major decision for hospitals. Once Pro Medicus wins a customer and successfully rolls out Visage, that relationship can potentially last for many years.
Its transaction-based model adds another layer to the growth story. Most US contracts include minimum examination volumes, with additional revenue possible as customers process more scans. That means Pro Medicus can benefit from growth within hospitals it has already won, alongside signing new customers.
The opportunity is also becoming broader than radiology. Newer contracts are increasingly taking multiple Visage products, including Viewer, Workflow, and Open Archive. Cardiology is beginning to join that list as well. TidalHealth, for example, recently selected the full Visage stack together with Cardiology Imaging.
I think that could become particularly important over the next decade. Pro Medicus has an opportunity to expand from providing outstanding radiology software into a much broader enterprise imaging platform.
DroneShield shares
DroneShield is a much higher-risk business, but the potential growth opportunity is also enormous.
Its technology is designed to detect, identify, and defeat drone threats, with customers spanning military, government, law enforcement, and critical infrastructure.
The demand story is already becoming tangible. By late July, DroneShield had secured $206 million of committed FY26 revenue, almost equal to its entire FY25 revenue with five months of the year still remaining. I think that provides strong evidence that counter-drone spending is translating into real orders rather than simply creating an interesting future market.
The next challenge is making sure DroneShield can deliver as demand grows.
That is why I like the company's investment in manufacturing. DroneShield is expanding its global production footprint, including establishing manufacturing in Europe, and expects combined annual production capacity to reach around $2.4 billion by the end of 2026.
It is also continuing to develop the technology itself. DroneShield has started rolling out what management describes as the most significant product cycle in its history, with further releases expected through 2027. Its existing hardware can also receive expanded capabilities through software subscriptions as the company's radio-frequency intelligence dataset grows.
If the counter-drone market continues expanding, I think the combination of technology, manufacturing scale, and an established customer base could put DroneShield in a strong position to capture that demand.
What about the valuations?
Both shares trade on high P/E ratios, so investors are already paying for substantial future growth.
I think that can be justified when a business has a realistic opportunity to become considerably larger over a long period. It also means expectations are high, and disappointing execution could lead to sharp share price falls.
That is something I would accept as part of owning these growth shares for the long term.
Foolish Takeaway
Pro Medicus and DroneShield give investors exposure to two different structural growth opportunities.
Pro Medicus can keep expanding its footprint across major healthcare organisations and sell more of the Visage platform into each customer. DroneShield has an opportunity to grow alongside global demand for counter-drone technology while building the manufacturing capability needed to compete for larger contracts.
For those reasons, I would be happy to buy both ASX shares and hold them for many years.
