Integrity-EDS Articles

It's becoming abundantly clear that companies with heavy defense business have been able to endure the coronavirus pandemic much better than those with sizable commercial aerospace portfolios. That group: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. "All in all we weathered the storm of the second quarter reasonably well," said General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic, during this week's earnings call. "This will be the low point of the year as we and many of the analysts had anticipated." Companies with a lot of commercial exposure, like Boeing and Raytheon Technologies, are having a far rougher go as they predict it will take at least three years for airline passenger travel to return to 2019 levels. It's led to layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts. As I wrote Tuesday: "A strong commercial business could allow a company to place a competitive low bid when competing for Pentagon contracts and make larger investments in military-related research and development." It could also prevent strategic investments, like buying a company with a unique technology. Here are some other highlights from the companies reporting secord quarter earnings this week: Northrop continues to win big classified contracts. The company booked $5.9 billion in classified space deals in the second quarter, CEO Kathy Warden said Thursday on the company's second quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts, largely off of a single contract award. "It is quite significant," Warden said. "I can't provide any color on what it is, but suffice it to say, this is a long-term program as a result of the size of the effort." Classified Pentagon contracts have been fueling Northrop's growth in recent years.

Why didn't Northrop's Warden join her CEO peers in lobbying for the bailout? "I want to make it clear, though, that we are supportive of a strong national defense and recognize that funds need to be appropriated to support that objective and we are directly engaged in supporting that cause," she said. "However, we did see that our impacts from COVID were less significant than we are seeing projected elsewhere. Therefore, we have continued to focus on that very issue making these impacts as small as possible, so that we are not in a position where we have an additional bill for taxpayers to get capability delivered. And we'll continue to be focused on that as our primary objective."