Applied Aerospace & Defense Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 12, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record growth and backlog: Second-quarter revenue rose 47.4% year over year to $167.3 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased 38.4% to $36.4 million. Contract backlog reached a record above $1.1 billion, providing visibility through 2026 and into 2027.
  • Positive Sentiment: Strong outlook maintained: Management reaffirmed 2026 guidance of $670 million–$690 million in revenue and $150 million–$155 million in adjusted EBITDA, with revenue expected to build through the year and the fourth quarter projected to be the largest.
  • Positive Sentiment: Balance sheet strengthened by IPO: The offering generated $635.7 million in net proceeds, enabling debt repayment of $626.2 million and reducing pro forma net leverage to approximately 2.7x. The company also expects to generate positive free cash flow in the second half.
  • Negative Sentiment: Near-term margin and cash-flow pressures remain: Gross margin was affected by the ramp-up of early-stage programs and learning-curve costs, while first-half operating cash flow was negative $82.1 million due to IPO and acquisition costs and a $36 million working-capital build. Supply-chain congestion and raw-material inflation are additional risks, though management expects margin improvement as programs mature.
  • Positive Sentiment: Demand momentum spans key markets: Management cited continued strength in commercial space, defense aviation aftermarket activity, collaborative combat aircraft, precision strike, and solid rocket motor cases, alongside an active M&A pipeline and opportunities with both major defense primes and newer entrants.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Applied Aerospace & Defense Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Welcome to the Applied Aerospace & Defense Second Quarter 2026 Earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Tom Cook, Managing Director at ICR. Thank you, Tom. You may begin.

Tom Cook
Managing Director at ICR

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Applied Aerospace & Defense's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With me on the call today are Trip Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer, Chris Rogers, President and Chief Strategy Officer, and Jeff McRae, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that our remarks may include forward-looking statements about our expectations, plans, outlook, and future performance, which we make pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Please refer to the forward-looking statements disclosure in our earnings presentation and our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We will also discuss certain financial measures that are not presented in accordance with GAAP.

Tom Cook
Managing Director at ICR

Our earnings presentation includes additional information about these non-GAAP measures, including definitions and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, as applicable. The earnings presentation is available on the investor relations section of our website. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Trip Ferguson. Trip.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Thank you, Tom, and welcome to everyone joining us for our first earnings call as a public company. Before we review our results as a company, I'd like to recognize and thank all of our team members from across our organization at Applied. Applied's success is built on the skill and dedication of our people, and I'm proud of the work they deliver day in and day out. The second quarter saw Applied successfully complete our initial public offering and enter our next season as a public company with real momentum. The IPO meaningfully strengthened our balance sheet and enhanced our financial flexibility. It gave us new resources to invest in our people, our capabilities, and our operations as we scale to support a broad and expanding range of our customers' most critical programs. Importantly, it also reduced our pro forma net leverage to 2.7x.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

In the quarter, we generated record revenue of $167.3 million, up 47.4% year-over-year. On a pro forma basis, giving effect to CVI in both periods, revenue grew 21.3%. We delivered record adjusted EBITDA of $36.4 million, up 38.4%, and importantly, our contract backlog also grew to a record of over $1.1 billion, providing us with a high level of forward visibility. I would like to begin this call by spending a few minutes on who we are, where we are focused, and why customers choose us. Chris Rogers will cover our end markets and our outlook for growth, and Jeff will cover financials. I will then come back with our priorities for the second half of the year before we take your questions. Applied Aerospace & Defense is a premier provider of advanced design, engineering, and vertically integrated manufacturing solutions for leading and next-generation space and defense technology companies.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

We build complex, mission-critical hardware for extreme operating environments across three core end markets: Space and Launch Systems, Defense Aviation & Airborne Systems, and C5ISR & Precision Strike Systems. In the second quarter, those markets were roughly 23%, 47%, and 30% of revenue. I will note that it is not just the diversity of our business across end markets that differentiates us. It is also the high number of programs we support across the entire space and defense ecosystem. Applied sits at the intersection of two powerful long-term and uncorrelated demand drivers. The first is an unprecedented growth outlook for the commercial space economy. The second is a dynamic global threat environment that demands highly capable advanced manufacturing capacity and major new investments in defense technology. Across both, the ability to manufacture highly engineered systems at the speed, quality, and scale our customers require has never been more important.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Applied is purpose-built for this mission, and we are confident our strategy provides an opportunity for asymmetric upside. What differentiates us today is the combination of two things. First, the platform's unique and highly integrated capabilities, and second, our operating philosophy. Let us start with our capabilities. We focus on building highly engineered systems that integrate advanced and high-performance materials to operate in extreme environments. We believe that this integrated capability set is rare, and it is built on three foundational pillars. Deep engineering talent with more than 220 engineers and well more than 400 technical subject matter experts. Real material science know-how and depth across advanced resins and RF transparent materials, all forms of metals, and space-grade polymers, and proprietary process IP that has been built up over decades. Today, we believe roughly 88% of our revenue is tied to products produced using our IP-enabled processes.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

What all this delivers for our customers is faster development, higher quality, lower cost, and proven performance that typically endures for the full life of a program. Now, let me touch on our operating philosophy because it is just as important. First, we are prime-agnostic. We serve nearly all the leaders and innovators in defense and space, and we do not compete with our customers by design. Second, we are a full lifecycle partner, trusted by the proven market leaders and by the bold new innovators, and we believe there are very few companies that can genuinely serve both. Third, we have relentlessly innovative engineering culture. Our people solve problems for our customers. That is how we build proprietary know-how into our processes and how we qualify into positions where, in many cases, we are the only supplier that has completed the requirement qualifications.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Finally, we are built to scale with the agility and the capacity to ramp alongside our customers from early development straight through to full rate production. Here is why all this matters now. The U.S. space and defense industrial base needs exactly this capability set, and it needs it today. We believe that primes and new entrants alike are looking for partners with deeply integrated capabilities who can carry a hard problem from prototype to full production, and there aren't many companies capable of that kind of partnership. That's the single best explanation for the demand we're seeing at Applied. Behind all of this sits our real physical capacity. We draw on more than 120 years of advanced manufacturing heritage, and we operate 11 purpose-built U.S.-based facilities across six states with more than 1.5 million sq ft of production capacity.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

We estimate roughly 40% of that capacity is available today, measured across floor space, equipment capacity, and workforce flexibility. Some of this we invested in strategically and proactively ahead of programs that we won but haven't yet begun to ramp. In today's market, this is proving to be a real advantage, and our entire Applied team is incredibly excited about what lies ahead. Before I turn it over to Chris, I'll note that earlier this week, we announced Chris as President and Chief Strategy Officer, giving him broader strategic and operational oversight across our enterprise alongside the growth functions he already leads. With that, let me turn it over to Chris.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Thanks, Trip. Let me start with backlog because it's the clearest evidence of where we're headed. We grew contract backlog to a record of over $1.1 billion, up from $871 million at year-end. Backlog is one key element from which we derive forward visibility, and it's why we can talk about the second half of this year and what lies beyond with confidence. One observation I'd share from the first half is how many programs in our pipeline now draw on multiple Applied capabilities at once. As one example, we brought together complementary capabilities from across the platform to further vertically integrate our solid rocket motor case manufacturing. That's increasing speed and strengthening our ability to ramp production against the demand signal that we're seeing for a capability that supports multiple high-priority defense programs.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

In another case, a large defense brand came to us looking for integrated production capability on key subsystems for a strategic precision strike program. We organized the full breadth of our capabilities against that opportunity in a way that's very unique to Applied. This is all about complementary and differentiated capabilities that, when integrated, translate into speed, responsiveness, and cost-competitive solutions. It's the platform working exactly the way we built it to deliver. The customer comes to us for one capability and finds three, and we win work we simply couldn't have won as separate businesses. Turning to our markets. In space, momentum is continuing across our commercial launch and satellite programs, and we're deepening relationships with the leading innovators in the sector.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Rising launch cadence and the continued build-out of proliferated constellations point in the same direction, and our capabilities for uncompromising performance in the harsh environments of launch and space sit right in the middle of it. In Defense Aviation, we are ramping our next-generation programs, including our work supporting multiple Collaborative Combat Aircraft platforms and the MV-75. These are the programs that will define the market over the coming decade, and we are positioned on them early, at the point when content decisions get made. Alongside that, our aftermarket positions continue to be a powerful advantage for our platform. Replacing, overhauling, and repairing flight-critical and life-limited parts on large installed fleets directly supports Defense Aviation fleet mission readiness and gives us high recurring demand that does not depend on new production rates. Demand remains high, and we are expecting solid aftermarket performance in the back half of 2026.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Precision Strike is where you can really see the platform coming together. We have strong momentum in solid rocket motor cases, drawing on integrated capabilities from across Applied and serving customers we were not working with a year ago. We have made the capacity investments these ramps require, and we are integrating our capabilities more tightly to drive speed and performance. The pipeline in this market is very dynamic and active. On new business more broadly, we are seeing momentum on two fronts at once: deeper content with the large defense primes we have served for decades and genuinely exciting first-time opportunities with high-potential new customers. Both of these matter. The first will always be our highest certainty growth, and there remains vast white space. The second is one of many ways that we will compound growth. A quick word on M&A.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

CVI is delivering these synergies we underwrote, and our M&A pipeline remains exciting and very active. We know where we want to invest internally and which capabilities we would rather bring in from the outside. That clarity is what keeps us disciplined. Let me leave you with this. What stands out most is the sheer scale of the integrated opportunity that sits in front of us. Applied today is a coordinated platform, and that is what lets us pursue tremendous white space in a coordinated way, drive productivity improvements, and approach M&A thoughtfully. That combination is what we mean when we talk about Applied having asymmetric upside. It has really shown up in our pipeline, and I am more optimistic about the scale of opportunity set in front of us today than I was just a few months ago.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

We are carrying real momentum into the second half, and there is tremendous amount of energy and productive activity taking place all across Applied. With that, I will turn it over to Jeff to walk you through our financials.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Great. Thanks, Chris, and good morning. I am very pleased with our second quarter, as our results reflect strong execution and position us well to deliver on our full-year expectations. Before we get into the details, one note on the basis of the numbers. Everything I discuss today related to financial results as well as our guidance reflects GAAP as reported on a non-pro forma basis. Our acquisition of CVI is only reflected for the period from its March 2nd closing date forward. Where I do reference pro forma figures, I will say so. Let's get into the results for the second quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $167.3 million, reflecting 47.4% growth year-over-year. The strong revenue performance was a result of growth across all three of our end markets.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

On a pro forma basis, including revenue realized by CVI for the same period last year, second quarter revenue grew by 21.3%. We also exceeded our internal revenue plan for the quarter due to some timing dynamics. We saw strong execution on several programs, which resulted in the incremental pull forward of revenue and contracted backlog that we had anticipated converting to revenue in the second half of 2026. This phasing does not alter our outlook for the full year. Now, a few highlights on revenue by end market. Space and Launch Systems revenue was $38.8 million, up 58.5%, on high volumes of content supporting priority launch vehicle and satellite production programs. Specifically, we continue to see strong demand on content enabling SpaceX's Falcon 9 program, as well as ramping demand on Blue Origin's New Glenn program.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Defense Aviation & Airborne Systems revenue was $78.9 million, up 4.8%, with certain next-generation development programs beginning to move into production. Specifically, our support of Anduril on their CCA Fury program and Bell on the V-280 Valor program. This alongside sustained aftermarket demand across a large installed base of aircraft. C5ISR & Precision Strike Systems revenue was $49.6 million, up $13.7 million from the year prior. This market benefited from significant contributions from CVI and was supported by strong demand signals across integrated air and missile defense systems and precision strike programs. From a margin perspective, we saw a heavier weighting of revenue from several early-stage next-generation programs that are now ramping up, and we see those programs accelerating from here. As such, we typically see some compression as we work through product development and initial learning curves with our engineering and production teams.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Importantly, this is a typical short curve for us. On most programs, we will reach our target margin profile within the first several units. As we ascend the learning curves and volumes ramp, efficiencies improve, and we will see margins improve as we progress through the year and into 2027. Consolidated gross margin for the quarter was 22.2%. This did reflect the impact of share-based compensation resulting from the accelerated vesting of equity units at the IPO, which impacted margins by approximately 6%. Adjusting for this, gross margins were in line with the same period a year ago as increased volume and improved throughput offset the lower initial margins on our development programs. Net loss for the quarter was $154 million, including aggregate share-based compensation expense of $110 million from accelerated vesting of equity units.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Higher levels of interest expense for the period prior to our IPO, increased intangible asset amortization when compared with the prior year quarter, and other costs related to our IPO. Excluding these impacts and their corresponding income tax effects, we would have generated net income in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $36.4 million, representing solid year-over-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin, which is a non-GAAP measure, was 21.8% for the quarter compared to 23.2% in the prior year period, which reflects the investment we've made in our business to expand operational support capabilities, as well as investments to support operating in a public company environment. On cash flow for the first six months of the year, net cash used in operating activities was $82.1 million. Three things drove this use of cash, the first two of which were non-recurring.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Elevated IPO and acquisition-related costs, cash interest on the portion of our debt repaid with the proceeds from our IPO, which we carried for most of the period, and a working capital build of roughly $36 million in contract assets and inventory to support second half deliveries and a growing contract backlog. We expect much of that working capital to be converted back to cash as second half deliveries occur, and we project generating positive free cash flow in the second half of the year. On capital expenditures, we spent roughly $21 million in the first half of the year and expect full year spending on capital of roughly $50 million, weighted toward the qualified capacity and efficiency investments that support the production ramps Trip referenced earlier.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Turning to our balance sheet, our June offering of approximately 34.2 million primary shares at $20 per share generated $635.7 million of net proceeds. We used $626.2 million to repay term loan principal, our drawn revolver balance, and accrued interest. Total debt as of June 30 was $405.8 million, down from $643.4 million at year-end. Net debt was $387.7 million, with a cash balance of $18.1 million as of the quarter end. We had our full $125 million available under our revolver. Net leverage based on pro forma trailing 12-month earnings was roughly 2.7x. Now to our outlook. For the full year of 2026, we expect total revenue between $670 million and $690 million, and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA between $150 million and $155 million.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

It is important to note that we have strong backlog coverage supporting our outlook for the second half of the year and well into 2027 and beyond. We expect that revenue will build through the balance of 2026, with the fourth quarter being our most significant quarter. From a supply chain perspective, we are seeing the same environment many of our peers and customers are, and we are actively working to mitigate some supply chain congestion. We see paths to resolution, but will continue to monitor closely. On the material side, we are making a number of forward investments to support growth initiatives and are seeing some raw material inflation as oil prices remain high and impact other inputs. To date, this has primarily been confined to aluminum and has thus far been relatively immaterial. Two last items for modeling.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

We expect our full year 2026 effective tax rate to be approximately 7%, which reflects certain items recognized this year rather than our long-term tax rate that we would expect. We had 172.4 million shares outstanding at June 30, against a weighted average of 148.2 million for the quarter. Our expectations for the full year are essentially unchanged. Relentless execution, proactively managing our supply chains, and working up the learning curve on new programs that are in ramp mode all bode well for 2027 and beyond. With that, let me turn it back to Trip.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Hey, thanks, Jeff. Before we open the call for questions, I'd like to lay out our priorities for the second half of the year. There are three. First, drive operational excellence in building Applied right. That means operational excellence at the enterprise level and within every site. Playing offense within our supply chain, pulling all the right levers to drive efficiencies and exceptional performance, and accelerating the development programs that are ramping today into the growth programs of tomorrow. Building Applied right also means bringing our enterprise together the right way and making sure we have the right leaders and talent base for opportunities set ahead of us. That is what I mean when I say we're building Applied to endure. Second, coordinating and thoughtfully triaging a dynamic new business pipeline.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

As Chris said earlier, we have exceptional momentum with the large primes we've served for decades and real opportunity with high-potential customers we're working with for the first time. That pipeline is dynamic enough that choosing well matters as much as winning, and we're particularly excited about what lies ahead here. Third, executing on our high-growth and next-generation program ramps while continuing to invest ahead of demand and capacity and capabilities. Getting high-potential programs advancing towards full rate production on schedule and at the right cost is one of the most important things we'll be doing this year. With that, let me close where I started. Applied was purpose-built for this moment. We have differentiated capabilities and operating philosophy that our customers value.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Long-tenured relationships with excellent customers, diversified and embedded positions across enduring programs of record and next-generation growth programs, and the qualified capacity to serve them all. Our job for the balance of this year is execution, and I'll tell you that I'm even more optimistic about what is in front of this company today than I was a quarter ago. Before we open up to questions, I'd like to once again personally thank our team members whose work produced this quarter, customers for their trust, our service members for their commitment to our nation, and our shareholders for their confidence. With that, operator, we're ready to take questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question is from Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

Thank you, and good morning, Trip, Jeff, and Chris. Congratulations on the IPO and a big milestone. I wanted to ask two questions, if possible, please. The first one on backlog. It grew to over $1.1 billion, significantly ahead of your IPO levels. Can you maybe discuss the backlog conversion as we think about it over the next 12-24 months, and how we think about it across Space, Defense Aviation, and Precision Strike?

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah, sure, Sheila. Generally, as we look at backlog, we generally view it as a 12-18 month forward view on the business. As we think of conversion of it for 2026, we effectively have the balance of the year sitting in firm backlog, and it is all about then execution. As we look forward into 2027, roughly about half of that backlog should convert to revenue in 2027. The balance of 2027 will be filled out by existing long-term agreements, where additional orders drop into backlog over time. Then it starts positioning us as we start thinking into 2028. So very confident. We love the firm backlog of this business. It gives us great visibility, as we view the forward view of the business. It really is strong across all three end markets.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

We do not provide specific values across the three end markets, but I would say we are in great shape 2026, 2027, as we think backlog conversion across all three end markets.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

Maybe as a follow-up, just to support that growth, can you discuss some of the working capital investments you are making just to support the business going forward?

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah. We are obviously making sure that we are prepared for the growth in the business, both from a working capital, but also from a capital facility and equipment standpoint. As we have talked in the past, we have forward investment in the business to support demand signals that we have there. We continue to do that through 2026. As we mentioned, we have roughly $50 million of capital going into the business. That is combined then with working capital growth. Really, that is supporting that ramp in revenue through the second half of the year.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Sheila, I would also add, we are incredibly excited about 2027 and beyond. We are seeing the same demand signals that many of the primes and our customers are seeing. So we are preparing for success.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

That is great. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question is from Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Yeah. Hi, good morning, and congratulations again on the successful IPO. Maybe just to start, either Trip or Jeff, I guess, as we look at the 2026 guide, it implies a bit of a sequential step-up in the EBITDA margins in the second half. Maybe Jeff, can you just walk through some of the sort of one-time or transitory headwinds to margins you saw here in the first half, and how you think about the step-up, and I guess underneath that is some implied assumptions maybe on some of the costs coming down on some of the newer programs that are ramping.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah. I would say that the most significant driver is that point there, Ken. As we look at the first half of the year, we did see some compression on margins related to startup new development programs. As those programs start to mature through the second half of the year, we will see margin expansion there. If I look at the first half of the year, roughly 20% of the revenue related to those startup programs. As we think about it, we tend to get through a handful of initial production units before we start seeing normalized margins, so working up the learning curve, getting through the engineering. So that is what really kind of drives the second half of the year.

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

There are some mix dynamics as well as we always have, that is helping us in the second half of the year as we see that growth in revenue.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Thanks, Jeff. As a follow-up, Trip, one of your first points as you called out second half priorities was the operational excellence piece. Can you just level set us on where you see integration across the Applied portfolio and what would be some of the next major steps as you think about operational excellence, or I guess with that backdrop, integration of the various businesses and where you are on that journey?

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah, for sure. We are ahead of schedule. Bottom line up front, we have great alignment of all of our senior leaders. We have seen both people, process, and system come together extremely well. One of the things that's a really bright spot is we have seen synergies across sites driving revenue on opportunities supporting our customers. So an example with an emerging innovator who has a Go Fast program, we've been able to leverage our capabilities in a new, thoughtful way that's helping accelerate that program. The key takeaway is, we feel really comfortable with where we stand today and we believe we'll really benefit through the second half of the year, but most importantly, going into 2027. It'll really help us grow the business in all the right ways.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Our next question is from Peter Arment with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Peter Arment
Peter Arment
Analyst at Baird

Yeah. Hey, good morning, Trip, Chris, Jeff. I will echo everyone else's sentiments. Congrats on the quarter and the IPO. Trip, maybe you could talk a little bit about Space and Launch Systems. You guys have exposure to New Glenn, and there has been, obviously, an anomaly there. Just wondering how you think about the business for the second half and going forward.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah, good morning. Thank you for the question. I feel really optimistic about the space economy in general. What I would say, all indicators and direction from Blue Origin have been to continue moving at pace. We have not slowed down, so that reflects also their public statements. I would say, we also see a lot of good tailwinds across, I would say, other emerging areas within space. One area that we have seen growth is really in our proprietary tank business as well. All in all, I would say very exciting, very positive, and we are preparing to really ramp throughout 2027.

Peter Arment
Peter Arment
Analyst at Baird

Got it. Appreciate that. Then just as a follow-up, if you could. A lot of the framework agreements are starting to get firmed up, or at least some of them are. Could you talk a little bit about your exposure there and when you expect to start seeing things flow to Applied? Thanks.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah. I am going to pass it over to Chris and let him. He has been working that directly.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Sure. To start off with, we've got deep content already across a range of the programs that you're seeing in the headlines. A big part of our forward ramp is tied to those programs. We are also working a range of opportunities we're pretty excited about. At the time we were last speaking, I know we did touch on sole source revenue, single source revenue being kind of in the 86% range. Our expectation is that will go down, in part because a lot of the opportunities we're seeing to dual source are ones that are very attractive. They offer us an opportunity to showcase a lot of what we do best in terms of kind of moving fast and being cost-effective. A lot there and probably some more things you'll see from us in the near term.

Peter Arment
Peter Arment
Analyst at Baird

Appreciate it. Thanks, Chris.

Operator

Our next question is from Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Hey, good morning, everyone. I wanted to follow up on the working capital question that was asked earlier. When we think about the timing of the cadence, should we think about 1H as being a negative use of cash or working capital, and 2H is positive? Is that the normal run rate for the business, or are there any one-time items, excluding the IPO stuff, that make this pattern like this this year?

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Thanks for the question, Kristine. Yeah, I think you have it pretty much in line. We will see the conversion to cash of the growth in working capital we saw in the first half of the year, which really is supporting the revenue generation that we see in Q3 with growth then in Q4. I would generally see a pretty linear growth with working capital as we move forward into 2027 and continue to see growth in the business, where you will see some step up. You will see ups and downs by quarters depending on kind of total revenue volume.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Okay, great. Just to confirm, we shouldn't think of this as the pattern where going forward, 1H is a usage of cash, 2H is a generation on an annual basis. This is just the pattern for this year?

Jeff McRae
Jeff McRae
CFO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah, that's correct. We will lay out 2027 in the future for you and give you a little bit more clarity there.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Great. Super helpful. If I could follow up on Starship, perhaps. The Starship, SpaceX's Starship continues to hit some of its launch milestones. I was wondering, can you provide any color on the progress of potentially being a supplier to Starship? How far along are those conversations? If that were to proceed, when should we expect potential timing?

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Sure. It's a couple things to touch on there. SpaceX is a very important customer for us. We view ourselves as that. It's a SpaceX relationship, so while we have meaningful Falcon 9 content, the relationship is with SpaceX, so we're working a range of things related to Starship today. We're also seeing Falcon 9 orders continue to come in. I think our expectation there is that that will run through 2030, which is consistent, I think, with what SpaceX is sharing. I think we're also expecting that for a range of applications, we've got capability that's likely relevant to kind of future state of Starship. When you think about some of what we're doing on composites, while the overwhelming design of Starship ties into metal, there's things as it relates to payloads and others that we think are going to be really relevant.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

A number of those we're working already. We also think that as it relates to kind of SpaceX, there's probably upside, although we've kind of conservatively modeled to be in line with SpaceX's expectations. There's probably a good chance that Falcon 9 actually runs longer. So that's how we're approaching it today and feel very bullish about opportunities that are in Starship and our work on it.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Our next question is from Myles Walton with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question.

Analyst at Wolfe Research

Morning, everyone. This is Emily on for Myles. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the IPO. Just a quick question on the budget landscape. The Senate and the House both voting for CRs to go through at least early to mid-December. How are you guys thinking about that in terms of impact to your guide? Are there any specific programs that are on your radar that could be impacted by any funding constraints? Or are you all pretty much agnostic to the CR?

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah, we are monitoring it closely like many of our customers and other folks that we're working with within the ecosystem. I think one of the benefits of our platform is we are very diversified. Much of our work is on long life enduring programs of record. If you think about the potential to enter into a continuing resolution environment, we're in many ways insulated from that in the near term. Particularly, as Jeff touched on, a lot of our definition of backlog ties into things that are funded kind of purchase order in hand. We are monitoring, excuse me, about some of the things that will be impacted in terms of some of these ramps on next gen programs. That probably ties more into an outlook for 2027.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

That's something we're going to be tied in there in terms of just potential implications probably beyond this year.

Analyst at Wolfe Research

Got it. Thanks. Then one follow-up. In Defense Aviation with the MV-75 being a key growth driver, are you all seeing any impact from the funding gap that Textron is at least attempting to cover?

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah. Good morning. To date, we have not. We have been directed to continue moving forward. It is a monitoring watch item for our team. But we view any near-term kind of headwinds that could come as just near term. We believe that program has very strong backing, and we're very excited about it in 2027, 2028 and beyond.

Analyst at Wolfe Research

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question is from Jonathan Siegmann with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Jonathan Siegmann
Jonathan Siegmann
Analyst at Stifel

Good morning, Trip, Chris, and Jeff. Thanks for taking my question. On these new multi-year munition deals, they're new for the industry. Can you talk about what it means as a supplier? And specifically, is there any trade-off going on with pricing and margins for this longer term visibility on these programs? Thank you.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Sure. We are actively working a number of multi-year agreements. Part of where we've been very forward, I think, has been forward invest in terms of some of the capacity. From a pricing standpoint, our end point is to deliver value, and so much of that ties to kind of the speed at which we can deliver. What we're seeing there are things that are really good fits for our platform. If you look at kind of what we can deliver relative to kind of the customer set, it's pricing that works, pricing that's fair, pricing delivers a high level of value and I think exactly kind of the type of capabilities sort of kind of the nation needs.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

These are all fairly real time in terms of what we're working, but we're pretty bullish in terms of kind of what that means for both the mission, getting a lot of this kit kind of into the hands of our customers and ultimately out to the war fighters.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Yeah. Jon, I would add, one of the great things about good visibility volume, it really allows you to provide efficiency in your manufacturing operations. That's one thing that we are very focused on as we think about how we support mission and customer in the areas you asked about.

Jonathan Siegmann
Jonathan Siegmann
Analyst at Stifel

Thank you. Then you've highlighted consistently some great exposures to some of the name brand programs that we're all familiar with. When we think about the push for lower cost, affordable mass, can you just talk about how your capabilities might fit with some of those lower cost programs and whether that's a fit for your capabilities? Thank you.

Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers
President and Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Aerospace & Defense

That's an area we're actively working with a range of customers who I would consider kind of non-traditional new entrants. Our capability set's incredibly relevant to them. Why? Because we can be super responsive from some of the early stage prototype working to also ability to ramp. While we've not publicly disclosed some of the work that we're doing, many of those are folks that are non-traditionals that are aiming to deliver that type of very kind of cost effective, higher volume type of capability. So it will be more of kind of the future state of our business for sure.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

The Applied playbook drives us to have discipline and focus. We are working to partner with the teams and new emerging innovators that we believe will have long-term success. Not everything that looks flashy. So we're just being very disciplined as we look forward.

Jonathan Siegmann
Jonathan Siegmann
Analyst at Stifel

Thank you.

Operator

We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Trip Ferguson for closing comments.

Trip Ferguson
Trip Ferguson
CEO at Applied Aerospace & Defense

Thank you, operator. Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to updating you in November. And once again, thank you to the team at Applied for all of your hard work and effort and focus on mission.

Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Executives
    • Trip Ferguson
      Trip Ferguson
      CEO
    • Chris Rogers
      Chris Rogers
      President and Chief Strategy Officer
    • Jeff McRae
      Jeff McRae
      CFO
Analysts
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