Page 70 – Defense Daily

Brits Receive First Autonomous Anti-Mine Vessel

The U.K. Ministry of Defense last week announced it received its first new end-to-end autonomous mine hunting vessel, the unmanned surface vessel (USV) RNMB Ariadne.

In a March 14 announcement, the government said this vessel was designed and built in the U.K. under a $239 million contract with Thales U.K

. The Ariadne is about 39 feet long and can be deployed from a harbor or mother ship to hunt and destroy mines on the seabed using the towed Thales TSAM sonar system.

The ministry noted this delivery is part of its Defense Equipment and Support (DE&S)-led mine hunting capability program, which aims to move the Royal Navy from conventional mine countermeasures (MCM) vessels to autonomous maritime system, akin to how the U.S. is replacing Avenger-class MCM vessels with MCM mission packages using helicopters and USVs based off Littoral Combat Ships.

The Royal Navy plans to gradually phase out the conventional crewed MCM vessels as the autonomous Maritime Mine Countermeasure (MMCM) system transitions into service in the next five years.

Thales said the Royal Navy is scheduled to receive the first four MMCM systems this year. The units include the USV, the towed sonar, a Remotely Operated Vehicle, a lightweight operations center and a command and control system.

“We are incredibly proud to deliver this world-first autonomous mine hunting system to the U.K. Royal Navy. With the introduction of AI and advanced sensor technology, this innovation represents a new era in maritime defense technology and demonstrates our unwavering commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions that enhance the capabilities of our defense forces,” Phil Sivester, CEO of Thales in the U.K., said in a statement.

Thales noted it developed a new MiMap sonar analysis application to process sonar data up to four times faster, which will allow for more precise detection and classification of seafloor mines.

“This delivery marks a significant milestone in our mine-hunting capabilities and the autonomous technology will keep Britain and our Royal Navy sailors safer by identifying & removing mines,” Maria Eagle, Minister for Defense Procurement and Industry, added.

Previously, in September 2024, the program conducted successful trials with the prototype USV, RNMB Apollo in the Firth of Clyde. Royal Navy personnel are now moving to start training with Thales’ support before conducting Operational Evaluation and starting to deploy the MCM on active duty.

Notably, this USV MCM program is part of a $468 million joint U.K.-France initiative, managed by the Organization for Joint Armament Co-operation (OCCAR).

OCCAR is a six-country group formed via a convention and finalized in 2001 that works to help manage complex cooperative defense equipment programs. Members are the U.K., France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain.

“The MMCM project, even if it takes place within separate umbrella programs– the MHC (Mine Hunting Capability) program in the U.K. and the SLAMF (Système de Lutte Anti-Mines Futur) one in France – constitutes a genuine cooperation between the U.K. and France. It has been entrusted to an able international contractual agency, OCCAR,” “Sébastien Bidaud, Deputy Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom, said in a statement.

Bidaud noted the new uncrewed MCM system is being delivered by an international team including both Thales U.K. and Thales France, alongside the contribution of subcontractors Saab, L3Harris Technologies [LHX] and EXAIL Prototyping.

Darren Ash, head of programs at OCCAR-EA, added that this limestone comes 10 years after the MMCM prototyping phase contract award as stage 2.

“It’s been a remarkable joint endeavour with Industry, National Experts and OCCAR collaboratively resolving the challenge of developing and producing this cutting-edge technology; I thank you all for your commitment and professionalism. OCCAR with its Industry Partners is committed to delivering the remaining order book and In-Service support with additional primary systems for both nations due this year,” Ash said.

Booz Allen, Shield AI Partner On Autonomous Solutions For U.S. Military

Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH] and Shield AI are collaborating to bring artificial intelligence-powered autonomous solutions to warfighters.

The partnership leverages Booz Allen’s mission expertise and Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomous pilot software with the goal being to speed the use of autonomy into various unmanned systems that can be fielded by the Defense Department amid demand for more affordable platforms that can operate in contested environments.

“Shield AI is pioneering AI-powered autonomy, and this partnership catalyzes the capabilities of both teams to support our nation’s no-fail missions,” Steve Escaravage, president of Booz Allen’s Defense Technology Group, said in a statement.

Booz Allen’s thesis is that as the DoD incorporates more autonomous warfighting platforms into its arsenal it will have to buy and operate software differently, realize that software payloads will have to be updated and changed for different missions, and that software and hardware acquisition pathways must be separated to take advantage of a diverse and leading-edge technological vendor base that works with prime contractors.

“The best technology is useless unless it can be quickly and seamlessly deployed in real life, high stakes environments,” Brandon Tseng, president and co-founder of Shield AI, said in a statement. “That’s why we chose to partner with Booz Allen. They know the technology, they understand what warfighters need, and they can see to it that we swiftly accomplish this mission—maintaining superiority over adversaries and protecting service members.”

Booz Allen is an investor in Shield AI. The company recently made its largest venture capital investment as part of a $240 million F-1 funding round disclosed by Shield AI earlier this month to accelerate growth of its Hivemind Enterprise software suite (

Defense Daily, March 6).

Shield AI’s Hivemind pilot software and algorithms have been used to autonomously fly eight different aircraft, including an F-16.

Mach Industries To Manufacture UAS For HevenDrones In New Partnership

Mach Industries will manufacture drones designed by HevenDrones

under a new partnership between the companies that will allow the Miami-based developer of the unmanned aircraft (UAS) to scale its production capacity, Mach said on Tuesday.

Moreover, the partnership includes co-development of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) components such as avionics, fuel sources, propulsion systems, and radios for use by HevenDrones and other companies to strengthen the defense industrial base in support of drone production.

The UAS and components will be manufactured at Mach Industries’ Forge plant in Huntington Beach, Calif. Forge Huntington exceeds 115,000 square feet.

The HevenDrones’ UAS to be built at Forge Huntington include the heavy-lift vertical take-off and landing H100 multirotor, the hydrogen-powered extended-endurance Raider, and the hydrogen-powered multirotor H2D55.

Both companies also plan to expand the Forge manufacturing centers into allied countries.

“With HevenDrones as our global partner, together we play a key role in empowering the defense sector with advanced, high-performance drones, strengthening domestic manufacturing infrastructure to keep our military safe and at the forefront of technology,” Ethan Thornton, CEO and founder of Mach Industries, said in a statement.

Mach Industries, a venture-backed startup, is developing several platforms. One is Viper, a vertical takeoff cruise missile it is flight-testing for the Army (Defense Daily, March 4). Viper is already being produced at low rates.

Production of HevenDrones’ UAS at Forge is expected to begin in the coming months and is likely to be produced at scale before Mach Industries’ systems are built in large numbers.

“Our customers urgently need thousands, and eventually tens of thousands, of drones to be deployed in-theater,” Bentzion Levinson, CEO of HevenDrones, said in a statement. “Our goal is to provide quick-turn, full-scale American manufacturing of the most versatile, reliable, and powerful platforms available to the warfighter.”

In addition to Viper, Mach Industries is also developing a high-altitude-dropped transonic glider called Glide to deliver munitions “across thousands of miles” in global navigation satellite system-denied environments, and STRATOS, a stratospheric balloon that carries sensors, comms, and effects at extreme altitudes,” the company says.

Ukrainian ‘Air Denial’ Strategy Under Strain

Since the second Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the Ukrainian military has been able to stifle Russian manned aircraft strikes, but that deterrence may not hold without continued aid from the United States in niche areas, such as long-range missile attack, an analyst cautioned during last month’s U.S.-Ukraine Security Dialogue in Washington, D.C.

The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) “was 10 times the size of Ukraine’s at the start of the war and also more technologically advanced,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center.

“If Russia were able to unleash the full power of the VKS, I think it would change the course of the war dramatically and make it much harder for Ukraine to hold onto the territory that it has,” she said. “Some of this has had to do with Russian ineptitude in that the Russians failed early on to conduct a suppression of enemy air defense campaign. They did make an attempt, but they didn’t really follow up on that.”

“But I don’t think that’s really the story here,” Grieco said. “I actually think it’s much more about Ukraine making some very smart strategy choices early on in the war. They have practiced a strategy of air denial to limit or deny the other side from achieving air superiority. You may not be able to achieve air superiority yourself, but you’re able to deny that air superiority to the other side to keep the air space contested. This is what Ukraine has done in two ways—maintaining a ‘fleet in being’ with its mobile ground-based air defenses and conducting ground-based air attacks through things like drones or long-range air strikes, even on Russian soil.”

Mobile air defense systems are hard to pinpoint, as the U.S. discovered during its failed attempts to find Iraqi mobile Scud launchers during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and Ukraine has had an effective “volumetric” air defense at different ranges and altitudes, she said, including the use of mobile RTX [RTX] TPY-2 radars that Russian fighters flew low to try to locate, thus putting themselves within the scope of man-portable air defense systems.

“Layers of air defense is really important, especially moving forward,” Grieco said. “This is still contested, and I think the best evidence of that is the Russians largely avoid entering Ukrainian airspace. To the extent they use airpower, it’s often lobbing bombs into Ukraine so air denial is still largely intact, but it is very much under strain. The problem with air denial is that it is a costly strategy in that it tends to turn this into a battle of attrition in the air. Looking at open source data, the ratio of losses is about 2 to 1 Ukraine to Russia in air defense systems.” Ukraine has seen a higher loss of longer-range systems, as Russia has targeted them from its own territory, while Russia has absorbed a disproportionate loss in shorter range systems.

Ukraine has a small number of RTX MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems, and a Patriot missile production line may open in Schrobenhausen, Germany. Europe has provided shorter-range IRIS-T and NASAMS and one medium-range Surface-to-Air Missile Platform/Terrain (SAMP/T) battery to Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last month that Europe must provide the “disproportionate share” of future weapons aid to Ukraine (Defense Daily, Feb. 12).

South Korea Finishes First Major Maintenance Service on U.S. Navy Replenishment Ship

South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean last week successfully completed its first significant maintenance work on a U.S. Navy replenishment ship in a seven-month maintenance regular overhaul (ROH).

The ROH work on the USNS Wally Shirra (T-AKE 8) was the first time a South Korean shipyard bid and won this type of maintenance contract of this sale for a Military Sealift Command (MSC) vessel. Previously, South Koreans shipyards only tackled much smaller voyage repair work for U.S. naval vessels.

The Navy said the work done on the ship included dry docking with more than 300 work items focused on hull corrosion and a full rudder replacement.

“Hanwha addressed extensive deterioration and damage to the hull, propeller, rudder, and rudder post/steering gear. Notably, Hanwha engineers reverse-engineered the damaged rudder, completely replacing the unit when blueprint were not available,” Cmdr. Patrick Moore, commanding officer, MSC Office-Korea, said in a statement.

He said performing the work in South Korea saved significant time and resources it would otherwise need to spend traveling back and forth from a U.S. facility and this now adds more ways to repair the kinds of logistics vessels needed to support U.S. Navy fleet operations.

Moore underscored adding ROH capability to MSC ships in the South Korean shipping industry adds more ways to repair logistics vessels that in turn support fleet operations.

“The Republic of Korea’s ability to conduct large-scale maintenance to USNS ships within the Indo-Pacific Theater demonstrates the strong strategic partnership between the Republic of Korea and the United States. Maintenance in Theater reduces downtime and costs, while enhancing operational readiness. This is a landmark achievement to be celebrated as a symbol of our strengthened partnership and ironclad commitment to the ROK-U.S. alliance,” Rear Adm. Neil Koprowski, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea, added.

This follows the first MSC ship to undergo maintenance work at an Indian shipyard in 2022, sister ship USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10) (Defense Daily, Aug. 18, 2022).

In 2023, then-Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said the Navy was looking at more shipyard repair efforts closer to potential Asia-Pacific conflict zones, including opportunities outside the U.S. He said that included looking for opportunities to perform the kind of maintenance done in India at other places like Japan and the Philippines (Defense Daily, Jan. 12, 2023).

The U.S. Navy also has some limited shipyard repair and maintenance facilities in Japan and Guam.

Navy And Marine Corps Officers Detail Downsides Of Full Year CR

The top officers of the Navy and Marine Corps last week detailed the limitations and downsides of the full year continuing resolution (CR) the Senate approved on March 14.

After the House but before the Senate passed the bill but before the Senate, Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO) and performing the duties of the CNO Adm. James Kilby told a March 12 Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee hearing that “the Navy will need to make hard choices this year if we are operating under a full year continuing resolution.”

U.S. Navy Sailors and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS-IMF) workers shift the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) from its homeport pier in Bremerton, Wash., to a dry dock in PSNS-IMF on March 1, 2018. (Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ian Kinkead) — U.S. Navy Sailors and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS-IMF) workers shift the aircraft carrier USS *Nimitz* (CVN-68) from its homeport pier in Bremerton, Wash., to a dry dock in PSNS-IMF on March 1, 2018. (Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ian Kinkead)

Under questioning by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Kilby said a full-year CR means up to one-fifth of the ships planned may miss their maintenance availability.

“Specifically, 11 ships, those maintenance availabilities are at risk.”

Kilby confirmed that while the Navy goal is to push up from its current 67 percent readiness level to 80 percent by 2027 across surface ships, submarines and aircraft, a full-year CR will cause a “setback to reaching 80 percent readiness.”

He clarified surface ships are currently at the 67 percent level but submarines are “a little less.”

When pressed by Kaine, Kilby with the CR “we’ll take a penalty there, we’ll have to bow away that maintenance to the next year, depending on the availability and scheduling of that ship. Worse off, we skip that availability, which means it double downs for the next one, which means we’ll have growth work and a lot of things we didn’t anticipate.”

However, Kilby said if the Navy has enough flexibility to move money around, it may be able to address the maintenance availability but that would in turn just impact something else.

A CR typically means the military cannot do new starts, but this CR allows the DoD to begin new start programs if they were included in the fiscal year 2025 House and Senate appropriations bills and can reprogram up to $8 billion with Congress. It also includes additional funding for a third destroyer, more ship-to-shore connectors, cuts most frigate funds as the program is delayed three years, and hits the Navy’s submarine funding requests (Defense Daily, March 12).

Kilby also said while a CR will slow the Navy’s progress getting the weapons and equipment they need to modernize the fleet and slow shipbuilding, the Navy’s priority is its readiness accounts, “which are most vulnerable under CR or sequestration.”

The VCNO reiterated anomalies and allowances for new starts in the CR will be key to adapting to changing the force.

He underscored how hostilities in the Red Sea over the past year helped them redirect more counter-UAS (C-UAS) systems and a CR would normally restrict the flexibility to make recent changes like bolting on new C-UAS capabilities, citing the RTX [RTX] Coyote or Anduril Road Runner.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith, addresses attendees during a change of command ceremony for Training and Education Command at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. on August 9, 2024. (Photo: Lance Cpl. Ethan Miller, U.S Marine Corps) — Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith, addresses attendees during a change of command ceremony for Training and Education Command at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., on Aug. 9, 2024. (Photo: Lance Cpl. Ethan Miller, U.S Marine Corps)

The next day, Marine Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said the continuing resolution is “really detrimental to our modernization efforts, because it has you spending at last year’s dollars [level].”

Smith underscored not only are all of their force design efforts typically new start-type programs while the CR typically pins all programs to last year’s funding, it also does not take inflation into account.

He said they will concurrently have to continue with a junior enlisted pay raise, but that will add pressure to other elements of the Marine Corps.

“And so what you’ll see is a bigger slice of the pie going to manpower. And what I can’t foresee is we’ll be the best looking outfit to ever get run off a hill, be the best paid outfit to ever get run off a hill. I mean, our young Marines deserve to be paid well. But again, we’ve got to fight and win America’s battles. And to do that, you need equipment. You need training, and training is expensive,” he said during the Defense One State of Defense event on March 13.

Smith confirmed that without enough funding “everything is in danger of slipping. Aviation modernization, our NMESIS, our Navy, Marine Expeditionary Ship and Interdiction System-procurement of those missiles, procurement of our TPS-80 [Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) modernization, Landing Ship Medium. All that starts to slip when there’s a continuing resolution.”

Army Seeks White Papers To Inform New Air-Droppable Air Vehicle Development

The Army is seeking white papers from industry to inform development of a new “air-droppable air vehicle” prototype capable of operating in contested environments.

A new Request for Project Proposals (RPP) notice outlines the Contested Aerial Delivery Development (CADD) effort, which would incorporate an air vehicle prototype that can carry a payload of at least 250 pounds as well as development of a navigation sensor kit for GPS-denied environments, mission planning software and command and control tools.

Riggers with the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) Traveled to Fort Stewart to train on the Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS). Photo by Sgt. Vance Williamson, 528th Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations)(Airborne)

“In a contested, anti-aircraft/area denial environment, traditional forms of aerial delivery are not possible due to the presence of both kinetic and electronic defenses. Advances are required in aerial delivery vehicles to increase their operable deployment range from target, which puts aircraft out of harm’s way. Additionally, advances in sensor technology are required to allow these aerial delivery vehicles to operate nominally in the presence of electronic warfare,” the Army writes in the notice published on March 6.

The CADD effort would tie-in with the larger Joint Precision Air Drop System (JPADS) program of record, the Army added in an update to the notice published on Monday.

JPADS is the Army’s “military airdrop capability to resupply warfighters on the frontline in areas incapable of using global positioning systems,” according to the service.

“The purpose of this RPP is to request white papers to inform system development, testing and evaluation of a preliminary design for a CADD capability,” the Army writes in the new notice.

For the air-droppable air vehicle component of CADD, the Army noted payload compartments “must provide quick-release latching mechanisms for efficient unloading” and in a potential future evaluation should demonstrate “successful delivery of payloads with no significant damage across five airdrop trials under operational conditions.”

The air vehicle prototypes must have a minimum range of 150 nautical miles, be able to operate at altitudes of 5,000 to 15,000 feet and support payload release velocities between 90 and 130 knots of airspeed, according to the RPP.

“The intended launch modality for this effort is airdrop. No special consideration will be given for other launch modalities,” the Army writes in the update published Monday.

Along with the air vehicle, CADD would include developing a navigation sensor kit that must “maintain accuracy for up to five hours of continuous operation without external GPS input” in contested environments, as well as in dust, heavy rain or up to certain electromagnetic interference levels.

“The sensor kit must provide modular components and enable plug-and-play functionality for seamless swapping of components, with integration and configuration times of under 2 hours,” the RPP states.

CADD is also expected to incorporate development of mission planning software to generate optimized flight paths, communication tools to support “secure, real-time data exchange between the air vehicle and ground control station over encrypted channels” and a command and control interface “to enable operators to monitor vehicle status (e.g., position, speed, fuel/power levels) and issue commands (e.g., rerouting, altitude adjustments) in real time.”

Albedo Space Says Clarity-1 to Show VLEO Is ‘Next Frontier’

The Clarity-1 very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) imaging satellite by Denver’s Albedo Space and the first microsatellite owned and operated by Norway’s Kongsberg are among the 74 payloads that reached orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched for the Transporter-13 rideshare mission on March 15 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.

Kongsberg’s Arvaker-1 in LEO is to be part of a three-satellite constellation contracted by the Norwegian government to monitor smuggling, illegal fishing, and environmental crimes in Norwegian waters and to enable aid to ships in distress, the company said.

LEO satellites typically orbit about 500 miles above Earth, while VLEO are to operate at half that altitude and lower.

“Clarity-1 is the world’s first commercial satellite designed to operate in VLEO,” Albedo said. “Clarity-1 will deliver unprecedented resolution — 10 centimeter visible imagery and 2 meter thermal imagery — that was previously only achievable using aircraft.”

AyJay Lasater, Albedo’s co-founder and chief technology officer, said in the company’s statement on the March 15th launch that “Clarity-1 will serve as the proof point that VLEO is the next frontier.” Albedo’s mission statement is to “make exquisite imaging available to the world to generate new possibilities for innovation and market growth.”

In 2023, Albedo was among companies awarded National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Strategic Commercial Enhancements (SCE) contracts “to assess and leverage commercial electro-optical capabilities” (Defense Daily, Dec. 5, 2023). Mountain View, Calif.’s Muon Space and Irvine, Calif.’s Turion Space were two other SCE awardees, which, like Albedo, had payloads on Transporter-13.

The NRO said that its Advanced Systems & Technology Directorate (AS&T) designed and is operating two 6U cube satellites on Transporter-13 for “an NRO experimental technology research mission.”

“This mission is the second NRO R&D demonstrator launched in 2025 and follows the launch of the Otter R&D payload on SpaceX’s Transporter-12 rideshare mission in January,” the agency said.

Aaron Weiner, the director of NRO’s AS&T, said in the agency statement on the NRO’s cube satellites on Transporter-13 that “through efforts like this, AS&T is posturing the NRO to maintain its advantage in delivering space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems that are responsive to future national security challenges.”

Finland’s ICEYE said that Transporter-13 includes four of its Generation 4, 25 centimeter resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites with “more than double the imaging area, ranging from 150 km to 400 km swath width.”

“The images contain 30 percent greater information density,” ICEYE said. “The improvements also include advanced orbit control for target imaging, and more imaging capacity for congested areas in a single satellite pass…ICEYE has launched 48 SAR satellites into orbit for the company and its customers since 2018 and plans to launch more than 20 new satellites annually in 2025, 2026, and beyond.”

El Segundo, Calif.-based Varda Space Industries said that Transporter-13 is testing the company’s Winnebago-3 (W-3) capsule, which carries an inertial measurement unit payload developed by the U.S. Air Force and Dayton, Ohio’s Innovative Scientific Solutions Inc. to improve the accuracy of high-hypersonic reentry vehicles.

“Varda’s capsule reenters the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 25, a unique environment that offers researchers a chance to gather data for multiple applications, expanding the possibilities for the orbital economy and supporting U.S. national security interests in low Earth orbit,” Varda said. “W-3 will spend a few weeks on orbit before reentering and landing safely at the Koonibba Test Range in south Australia.”

Despite Mixed Signals, SAIC Seeing No Major Impact To Business From Trump Efficiency Effort

The Trump administration’s government efficiency initiative has created “mixed signals” related to the federal contractor environment but impacts so far on Science Applications International Corp.’s [SAIC] business has been minimal, company officials said on Monday.

Executive orders that have flowed from the White House the past two months and program terminations have had a “nominal” impact, although the company is “prepared should conditions change,” Toni Townes-Whitley, SAIC’s CEO, said during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.

Net income in the quarter more than doubled to $98 million, $2 earnings per share (EPS), from $39 million (74 cents EPS) from a year ago. Excluding non-recurring expenses such as acquisition, integration, restructuring, and impairment costs, adjusted earnings of $2.57 EPS clobbered consensus estimates of $2.09 EPS.

Sales increased 6 percent to $1.8 billion from $1.7 billion driven by growth in the company’s Civilian segment and to a lesser extent by slight gain in the Defense and Intelligence segment.

For fiscal year 2025, net income fell 24 percent to $362 million ($7.17 EPS) from $477 million ($8.68 EPS) a year ago and adjusted earnings were $9.13 EPS. Sales were relatively flat at just over $7.5 billion versus just under $7.5 billion a year ago.

Solid organic growth the second half of SAIC’s FY ’25, “betting on ourselves a little” to maintain the momentum, congressional approval of a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through Sept. 30, spending flexibility for agencies under the CR, and “educating” customers about the mission critical nature of SAIC’s work led it to increase the low end of its sales guidance for FY ’26 by $50 million to between $7.6 billion and $7.8 billion, Townes-Whitley, and Prabu Natarajan, chief financial officer, said during the call.

The increase would present between 2 and 4 percent organic growth over FY ’25. In FY ’27, SAIC projects organic growth of about 5 percent.

SAIC also boosted its adjusted earnings guidance by 20 cents to between $9.10 and $9.30 EPS. Free cash flow is still projected to be between $510 million and $530 million. In FY ’25, free cash flow was $499 million.

“And so, I actually feel like it’s moving toward a little more stability,” Townes-Whitley said. “Not to say [there] won’t be new initiatives that are introduced, but we are seeing at least some coalescing around clarity on the CR, clarity on flexibility within the CR, clarity on who SAIC is, engaging with the new administration, and as they learn more about who we are, I think it’s going to become very, very clear on the mission role we play.”

Backlog at the end of the quarter stood at $21.9 billion, down 4 percent from $22.8 billion a year ago. SAIC tallied $6.6 billion in orders for the year, representing a book-to-bill ration of about 90 percent of sales.

General Electric May Receive Up to $5 Billion for F110-129 Engines for Foreign F-15s

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Cincinnati’s General Electric Aerospace [GE] a contract worth up to $5 billion to provide the company’s F110-129 engines for Boeing [BA] F-15 fighters and Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-16s for the Royal Saudi Air Force, Royal Jordanian Air Force, Bulgaria and possibly other countries that have agreed in Letters of Offer and Acceptance to sole-source such engines with GE.

“This contract provides five years of pricing for F110-129 install and spare engines, with modernized engine monitoring system computers and spare engine accessories supporting FMS customers,” DoD said in a Friday contract announcement. “Work will be performed at Cincinnati, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2030.”

The Air Force said last July that it was sticking with the F110-129 for the F-15EX and would not outfit that aircraft–the latest F-15 model–with the RTX [RTX] Pratt & Whitney F100-229 engine (Defense Daily, July 9, 2024).

In 2021, the Air Force chose GE over Pratt & Whitney to build up to 329 engines for the F-15EX under a nearly $1.6 billion contract.

The Air Force had picked GE to build eight engines for F-15EX Lot 1 but opened Lots 2-9 to competition.

Foreign nations, including Indonesia and Poland, are interested in buying the fly-by-wire F-15EX, which is based on the two-seat Qatari F-15QA configuration upgraded with U.S. Air Force-only features, including the BAE Systems‘ Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS) and the F-15 Operational Flight Program software.