KRATOS DEFENSE SECURITY SOLUTIONS INC
For the period ended Dec 29, 2024. Filed Feb 26, 2025.
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FY2024 · Filed Feb 26, 2025
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Item 1. Business
Overview
Kratos is a technology, hardware, products, system and software company addressing the defense, national security, and commercial markets. Kratos makes true internally funded research, development, capital and other investments, to rapidly develop, produce and field systems and solutions that address our customers’ and partners’ mission critical needs and requirements. At Kratos, affordability is a technology, and we seek to utilize proven, leading edge approaches and technology, not unproven bleeding edge approaches or technology, with Kratos’ approach designed to reduce cost, schedule and risk, enabling us to be first to market with cost effective solutions. We believe that Kratos is known as the innovative disruptive change agent in the industry, a company that is an expert in designing hardware products and systems up front for successful rapid, large quantity, low cost future manufacturing, which is a value add competitive differentiator for our large traditional prime system integrator partners and also to our government and commercial customers. At Kratos, we strive to deliver more for less to our customers and partners. Kratos intends to pursue program and contract opportunities as the prime or lead contractor when we believe our probability of win is high and any investment required by Kratos is within our capital resource comfort level. We intend to partner and team with a large, traditional system integrator when our assessment of probability of win is greater or required investment is beyond Kratos comfort level. Kratos’ primary business areas include, virtualized ground systems for satellites and space vehicles, including software for command and control (C2) and telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C), space domain awareness, jet powered unmanned aerial drone systems, hypersonic vehicles and rocket systems, propulsion systems for drones, missiles, loitering munitions, supersonic systems, space craft and launch systems, command, control, communication, computing, combat, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) and microwave electronic products for missile, radar, air defense, missile defense, space, satellite, counter unmanned aircraft systems (CUAS), directed energy, communication and other systems, and virtual and augmented reality training systems for the warfighter. We believe that there is a generational recapitalization of weapon systems occurring globally, including with the United States and its allies, to address individual and potential collective peer and near peer threats, including Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, or the so-called Axis of Resistance. The Company currently has at or near record levels of backlog and opportunity pipeline. The Company is currently making significant capital, property, plant, equipment and other internally funded investments to address its current backlog, current opportunity pipeline, and current and expected potential future program and contract awards, including from or with the Department of Defense and traditional legacy prime system integrators and partners. These investments include: unmanned jet powered aircraft such as Kratos Valkyrie to be manufactured ahead of potential contract award; a hypersonic system fabrication, production, test and integration campus and facility in conjunction with our customer, where a significant amount of work under the new Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) 2.0 contract award will be performed, including for Kratos Zeus solid rocket motors (SRMs) and Erinyes hypersonic flight systems; the purchase of long lead items for up to 60 Oriole SRMs for ballistic missile defense-related, hypersonic or other expected customer missions; expansion of our small turbojet engine production capacity in Michigan; establishment of a planned small turbofan jet engine production facility in the United States; expansion of our existing microwave electronics manufacturing facility and capabilities in Israel, establishment of an additional microwave electronics facility in Israel; including a space qualified facility; expansion of our machining, milling, casting, 3D printing and additive manufacturing capable facility in the United States to support our jet engine and other product and system manufacturing requirements; establishment of a new facility related to the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program; expansion of our unmanned jet drone manufacturing capability; and expansion of existing and construction of additional classified facilities for certain programs and contracts.
We were incorporated in the state of New York on December 19, 1994 and began operations in March 1995. We reincorporated in the state of Delaware in 1998.
Industry Update
On March 22, 2024, President Biden signed the second fiscal year 2024 Consolidated Appropriations package into law. This legislation reflects an $886 billion appropriation for national defense, of which $842 billion would be for the U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”) base budget. On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed a bill providing a total of $95.3 billion in additional supplemental funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, including funding for the restocking of U.S. munitions capacity, and a fourth bill to impose sanctions and allow the use of seized Russian assets to assist Ukraine.
On March 11, 2024, President Biden submitted the fiscal year 2025 budget request to Congress. The request included $895 billion for national defense, of which approximately $850 billion is for the DoD base budget. On May 22, 2024, the House Armed Services Committee approved the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill authorizes $849.8 billion in funding for the DoD. On June 28, 2024, the House passed the fiscal year 2025 DoD Appropriations bill H.R. 8774. On July 8, 2024, the Senate Armed Service Committee filed their version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act at a level $25 billion above the President’s budget request.
The Federal fiscal year 2024 ended September 30, 2024, without Congress approving, nor the President signing into law, a Federal fiscal 2025 budget, including the National Security and Department of Defense Budgets. As a result of no Federal fiscal 2025 budget being approved, beginning October 1, 2024, the U.S. Federal Government is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution Authorization (“CRA”), under which, no new contract awards, no increases in existing contract funding, no increases in existing production contracts and no transition from development to production, among other items, can occur. A second CRA passed the House and Senate on December 20, 2024, and was signed by President Biden on December 21, 2024. The bill funds U.S. Government operations through March 14, 2025. In addition to the Continuing Resolution, the President also signed the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act on December 21, 2024, which includes more than $100 billion in supplemental funding. The final version of this bill did not address the debt ceiling, which was set to expire on January 1, 2025. The U.S. Treasury’s available cash and any extraordinary measures taken should delay the risk of default for at least several months after the end of the first quarter of 2025.
On November 5, 2024, the U.S. Presidential and Congressional elections occurred, with Donald Trump being elected President of the United States and the Republican party controlling the Senate and the House of Representatives. President Trump took office on January 20, 2025, and the new Congress and Senate were seated on January 3, 2025. As a result of these recent elections, the current Fiscal 2025 CRA could be significantly extended beyond the current March 14 extension date. There is also the possibility that the industry could experience a full year CRA related to Federal fiscal 2025, with no Federal fiscal 2025 budget enacted. Subsequent to his taking office, President Trump established The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk, with DOGE’s Mission to slash federal spending. In February 2025, President Trump stated that he has directed DOGE to review Pentagon spending for possible waste and fraud. President Trump has also indicated that he may pursue significant reductions to the U.S. defense budget, if both Russia and China would agree to similar cuts in their respective national security spending. The potential impact of DOGE ant the President’s potential intentions on the Defense and National Security industry, and the Company, if any, is unknown at this time.
The potential challenges presented by the recent elections, Presidential and congressional changes and the related transitions, the CRA, the current budgetary and deficit funding environment, Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan funding support, continuing heightened levels of inflation, ongoing supply chain disruption, the challenging appropriations process, and DOGE, among other items, all continue to create significant short and long-term challenges and risks to the industry and the Company.
We believe continued budget and deficit funding pressures (which are expected), CRAs (which are also expected), future Federal Government debt ceiling issues, or Federal Government shutdowns, could have serious negative consequences for the security of our country and the defense industrial base, including the Company and the related customers, employees, suppliers, investors, and communities that rely on companies in the defense industrial base. It is possible that budget and program decisions made in such an uncertain environment would have long-term implications for our Company and the entire defense industry. Additionally, funding for certain programs, including those in which we currently participate or are pursuing, may be reduced, delayed or cancelled, and budget uncertainty or funding cuts globally could adversely affect the viability of our customers, partners, teammates, subcontractors, suppliers, and our employee base.
Such a challenging federal and DoD budgetary environment could have a material adverse effect on our forecasts, estimates, financial position, results of operations and/or cash flows.
As noted, Kratos and the industry continue to be affected by various unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, including adverse supply chain disruptions that continue throughout the industry and for us, and related delays in the receipt and delivery of materials, parts, supplies, etc., which in certain instances and for certain items is significant. To mitigate the impact of these delays, we have implemented advanced and larger lot purchases of certain materials and parts which has resulted in an increased use of our working capital, which is expected to continue. In addition, inflation and the related increased cost of inputs needed to execute our business, including materials, parts, supplies, consultants, subcontractors, vendors, etc. have significantly increased our business costs and have adversely impacted our operations, profit margins and financial forecasts.
Additionally, an industry wide shortage of qualified labor, and the cost of that labor for the Company and its labor base is an operational challenge. The cost of labor has increased significantly and current challenges in hiring, obtaining and retaining employees, including those employees requiring National Security clearances, is adversely impacting Kratos’ ability to execute its business. There is also a significant industry wide labor and talent shortage, including in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) discipline areas, and also including employees willing and/or able to obtain National Security clearances, and for high level manufacturing and production disciplines.
In addition, actions by the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates in the past few years have impacted our interest expense on our outstanding debt borrowings and the related cost of executing Kratos’ business. Although the most recent actions by the Federal Reserve decreased rates slightly, the industry and Kratos are still impacted by rates that are higher than prevailing interest rates over the past several years. Each of these challenges are expected to continue for the foreseeable future and are expected to continue to adversely impact the Company’s operations, financial results and financial forecasts.
We believe that our business is well-positioned in areas that the Trump Administration, the DoD and other customers currently indicate are priorities for future defense spending, and also including as identified in the 2024 defense budget and related Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), the President’s 2025 National Security and Defense Budget Request. As noted above, we believe that there is a generational recapitalization of weapon systems occurring with the U.S. and its allies to address peer and near peer threats, including Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, and the Company’s positioning as a proven provider of hardware, systems and software to address these threats for and with our customers and partners is recognized in the industry. We believe that the Company’s hardware, software and solution offerings, including jet unmanned aerial drones, rocket and hypersonic systems, C5ISR and air defense systems, jet engine and propulsion systems for missiles, drones, hypersonic and supersonic vehicles, microwave electronics for missile, radar and air defense systems, space and satellite, C2, TT&C, and ADA capabilities and training systems, address mission critical priority areas of the DoD.
Our Consolidated Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations reflect estimates and assumptions made by management as of December 29, 2024. Events and changes in circumstances arising after December 29, 2024, including those resulting from the continuing impacts of the current unfavorable macroeconomic climate, will be reflected in management’s estimates for future periods.
Current Reporting Segments
The Company currently operates in two reportable segments. The Kratos Government Solutions (“KGS”) reportable segment is comprised of an aggregation of KGS operating segments, including our microwave electronic products, space, satellite and cyber, training solutions, C5ISR/modular systems, turbine technologies, and defense and rocket support services operating segments. The Unmanned Systems (“US”) reportable segment is comprised of an aggregation of US operating segments, including our unmanned aerial, unmanned ground, unmanned seaborne and related command, control and communications system businesses.
We organize our operating segments based primarily on the nature of the products, solutions and services offered. Transactions between segments are negotiated and accounted for under terms and conditions similar to other government and commercial contracts, and these intercompany transactions are eliminated in consolidation. For additional information regarding our reportable segments, see Note 13 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained within this Annual Report. From a customer and solutions perspective, we view our business as an integrated whole, leveraging skills and assets wherever possible.
Competitive Strengths
We believe that Kratos being a technology company, focused on affordability and the composition and experience of our Board of Directors and Executive management team, our ability to act and make decisions quickly, our culture of rapid innovation and our investments to develop and maintain intellectual property, proprietary products, and technology, are strongly aligned with certain of the highest priority spending areas of the DoD, the U.S. National Security Strategy, and the DoD’s focus on leveraging technology to defeat or deter peer and near-peer adversaries, are competitive advantages.
Additionally, we believe Kratos’ strategy of being “first to market” with our hardware systems, products, technology and solutions, is also a competitive differentiator, including in certain areas as compared to the traditional defense industrial complex prime system integrators, as well as venture capital backed defense technology companies. We also believe that our proven ability to rapidly design, develop, demonstrate and field disruptive, transformative and leading technology products and systems, at an affordable cost, also differentiates us from our competitors, both traditional and new. We believe that our reputation, longstanding customer relationships, past-performance qualifications and the designed-in position of our hardware systems, technology and products into our customers’ and partners’ platforms, programs and systems, provide a unique competitive advantage and position us well for future accelerated growth. We routinely partner or team with the large traditional defense industry system integrators when certain opportunities require a significant internally funded investment that Kratos is unwilling to make, or when Kratos believes that teaming significantly increases our probability of win. A recent example of our first to market strategy is our design and development of our low-cost Erinyes, Dark Fury and other hypersonic vehicles and our Zeus solid rocket motors, which have recently had several successful missions.
Kratos’ specialized National Security focus is aligned with mission-critical National Security priorities. Continued and increased concerns related to the threats posed by certain foreign nations, including nations with peer or near peer capabilities, have caused the U.S. Government to identify National Security as an area of enhanced functional and spending priority. Budget pressures, particularly related to DoD spending, have placed a premium on rapidly developing and fielding low-cost, high-technology hardware, systems and solutions, that can be fielded in quantities, i.e. affordable mass, to address National Security requirements. While budget pressures routinely cause delays in contracts or orders for our business, the global threat environment and current budget projections suggest that future years defense spending will continue to be significant, including to address the increasing threats to the United States and its allies. The outlook for defense spending is primarily focused on deterring and defeating our adversaries, power projection, warfighting readiness, lethality, and recapitalization of key strategic defense systems to address peer and near peer threats. We believe that Kratos’ primary capabilities and areas of focus, certain ones which are listed below, are aligned with the objectives of the U.S. Government including those outlined in the 2022 National Defense Strategy document:
Unmanned aerial drones, unmanned ground and unmanned seaborne systems and related autonomy and artificial intelligence.
Satellite communications, C2, TT&C and Space Domain Awareness capabilities and technology.
Microwave electronics, including in support of air defense, missile, radar, space, satellite and communication systems.
Electronic warfare, attack, missile, and radar systems.
Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology, platforms solutions and systems.
Ballistic missile defense, hypersonic and other “High Performance” type systems.
C5ISR systems, including Air Defense, Strategic Deterrence Systems and support of the “Strategic Triad”.
Cybersecurity and information assurance.
Specialized training and operational readiness systems and solutions.
Jet engines for drones, missiles and loitering munitions.
Rocket engines and propulsion systems for hypersonic, space and other systems.
IP-centric technology company with proprietary products, technology and systems which address critical current and emerging threats faced by U.S. and allied militaries. As a technology-focused company at the forefront of the DoD’s strategy for technology rich, transformative, disruptive and affordable systems, our current and growing portfolio of proprietary systems, products, solutions, and related intellectual property addresses certain of the most critical mission needs and requirements of U.S. and allied militaries. At Kratos, affordability is a technology, a core competency and a focus that we believe is disruptive and brings an important value proposition to our customers and partners. Kratos business focus areas include: unmanned systems, space and satellite communications, microwave electronics, cybersecurity/warfare, missile defense, hypersonic systems, C5ISR, turbine technologies, jet and rocket engines and training systems.
Technology-driven company aligned with and supporting our customers’ increased innovation, technology, and strategic National Security initiatives, with focus on speed and affordability. As the DoD works to increase, maintain or achieve a technological advantage over adversaries, it has continued its efforts to create breakthrough technologies for National Security and related commercial markets, accelerate innovation to the warfighter and repurpose current capabilities to create cost-effective, disruptive technology advances that result in rapidly fielded systems and products in quantity. With our focus on delivering proven leading edge systems, products and technologies that address the most critical current and emerging threats, our customers include some of the most technologically advanced organizations of the defense and National Security establishment, including the U.S. Air Force (USAF), the U.S. Navy (USN), the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), the U.S. Space Force and the U.S. Space Command, and others. Additionally, Kratos customers also include the Defense Innovation Unit (“DIU”) (formerly the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (“DIUx”)), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (“DARPA”), Air Force Research Laboratory (“AFRL”), the Strategic Capabilities Office (“SCO”), the Office of the Secretary of Defense (“OSD”), the Strategic Command (“STRATCOM”), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”), the Space Development Agency (SDA), the Space Force, the U.S. intelligence community, and other confidential customers. We believe our focus on low cost, constant innovation, capability improvements across our product and solutions portfolio, speed of development, and engineering, design and development for affordable mass production are key differentiators that are disruptive to certain traditional market norms and align us with and address our customers’ and our traditional large defense system integrator partners’ key initiatives.
In-depth understanding of customer missions. We believe that Kratos has a reputation for being an industry disruptor, including by successfully rapidly designing, developing, demonstrating and fielding mission-critical products, hardware, solutions and services to our customers, at an affordable cost. Our long-term relationships with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and other National Security-related customers and agencies, and commercial and other customers and entities, enable us to develop an in-depth understanding of their missions, problems and technical requirements. In addition, a substantial number of our employees are located at our customer locations, or at secure manufacturing and other secure facilities, all of which provides Kratos with valuable strategic insight into our customers’ ongoing missions and future program and mission requirements. We are also closely aligned with most of the traditional, large, system integrator defense companies. This understanding of our customers’ and partners’ missions, requirements, and needs, in conjunction with the strategic location of our employees, enables us to offer technical solutions tailored to our customers’ and partners’ specific requirements and evolving mission objectives. In addition, once our products are “designed in” to a program or system and we are on-site with a customer and providing our hardware, software, products and solutions, we have historically been successful in winning new and recompete business.
Relevant Products, Systems and Solutions
We believe that Kratos is an industry leader of high performance, jet powered unmanned aerial target drone systems, which represent certain of the highest performance jet powered unmanned aerial aircraft in the world. Kratos is the primary provider of jet target drone systems to the USN, with the BQM-177, the USAF with the BQM-167, and the U.S. Army with the MQM-178. In addition to the United States Armed Services, Kratos sells its target drones to numerous allied countries globally. Kratos is currently under contract with a U.S. Government Agency for a Next Generation Target Drone (5GAT). Kratos is currently in sole source production year 20 for the BQM-167 with the USAF, sole source production year 7 with the USN for BQM-177, and single source production year 12, with the U.S. Army for MQM-178.
Kratos also provides Kratos Mako high performance jet powered tactical unmanned drone, which flew manned/unmanned teaming missions with a USMC manned fighter aircraft in 2015. Kratos’ Fifth Generation Stealth Valkyrie tactical drone systems have flown with the USAF and USMC, is under contract with the USMC and is currently involved with the USMC project Eagle. Other Kratos jet powered tactical drones flying today, include Thanatos, Apollo, Athena, and Air Wolf, each of which is currently under a customer funded contract. Kratos’ tactical drones are recognized for their extreme high performance, low cost and ability to be rapidly fielded. The new Trump Administration, the new Secretary of Defense and other Trump Administration leadership have indicated their support and the potential for increased future funding for unmanned aerial drone systems and related autonomy and artificial intelligence systems.
We believe that Kratos is an industry leader in affordable rocket systems and SRMs which are specifically designed and developed for low cost ballistic missile target, hypersonic, sub orbital and other National Security related missions. Kratos is also a recognized industry leader in low cost hypersonic flight vehicles, ballistic missile targets and “other” systems. Over the past few years, Kratos has been in development on a new solid rocket motor system, Zeus (Zeus 1 and Zeus 2), and related hypersonic flight vehicle systems, including Erinyes and Dark Fury, each of which Kratos has made significant internally funded investments for rapid development, fielding and a first to market position. In November 2024, Kratos announced that Zeus 1 and Zeus 2 SRMs had completed their first successful flight on October 24, 2024, from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia under a customer funded mission. In June 2024, Kratos announced the successful launch and flight of the Kratos Erinyes hypersonic flyer, also under a customer funded mission. The exercise, designated Hypersonic Test Bed-1 (HTB-1), demonstrated hypersonic flight that enabled the collection of data for multiple experiments to be provided to test teams for design and evaluation of new technologies. In February 2025, Kratos announced the second successful flight of the Erinyes Hypersonic flight system in conjunction with its government customers.
Subsequent to the successful initial flights of the Zeus SRM’s and the Erinyes hypersonic system, Kratos was awarded the Mach TB 2.0 hypersonic system related contract, the largest contract in Kratos history with an estimated value of $1.45 billion, if all options are exercised over a five-year period.
Kratos is a recognized industry leader in the rapid development of low cost jet engines for missiles, drones and other systems. Kratos’ engine and propulsion teams are also recognized as industry leaders in the design, engineering and development of hypersonic, space and supersonic propulsion systems, including Kratos being the engine development lead for Boom Supersonics (Concorde commercial supersonic jet replacement) Overture’s aircraft engines, the Symphony.
We believe that Kratos is also an industry leader in hardware, products, systems and microwave electronics for numerous air defense, missile, radar, nuclear, strategic and other systems, including; Iron Dome, Iron Sting, Arrow, Patriot, THAAD, IBCS, IFPC and others.
We believe that Kratos is also an industry leader in ground-based command, control and communications systems (“C3”), Telemetry Tracking and Control (“TT&C”) and other systems for satellites, and a leader in related radio frequency interference identification, geolocation and mitigation, or Space Domain Awareness. Our primary customers include the U.S. Air Force, Space Command, Space Development and other agencies, and also commercial customers, enterprises and entities.
We also believe that our advanced capabilities in the training systems and solutions market, including mixed, virtual and synthetic reality technology, products and systems for aircraft, combat and other vehicles, have allowed us to successfully remain at the forefront of defense industry readiness initiatives.
We believe our strategy of internally funding the research and development of many of our systems, products, software, solutions and capabilities, will continue to enable Kratos to be “first to market”, ahead of the competition and advance our position in high growth markets, such as high performance UCAVs, turbine and engine technologies, hypersonic systems, ballistic missile targets, microwave electronics and satellite communications, and allow us to grow, over the long-term, at a rate greater than that of the industry.
Diverse base of key contracts with low concentration. Kratos’ leading hardware, technology, products and systems, which are focused on many of the highest priority National Security areas allows us the opportunity to bid on and pursue a large number of contract and program opportunities as the lead or prime contractor, while also providing Kratos the opportunity to partner or team on additional large opportunities, better positioning our Company for success. Many of our contracts are single-award and/or sole source in nature, where we or our team are the only awardee by the customer. In certain cases, our ability to obtain single award and/or sole source contracts is due to our intellectual property, proprietary products, historical performance qualifications, relative experience, affordability or Kratos already having demonstrated a first to market working system.
We have a highly diverse base of customers and contracts with no contract representing more than 6% of 2024 revenue. Our fixed-price contracts, the majority of which are production contracts, represent approximately 69% of our 2024 revenue. Our cost-plus-fee contracts and time and materials contracts represent approximately 25% and 6%, respectively, of our 2024 revenue. We believe our diverse base of key contracts and low reliance on any one contract provides us with a stable, balanced revenue stream.
Representative recent major contract awards for Kratos include the $1.45 billion MACH-TB 2.0 contract award, if all options are exercised over a five-year period, to support the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD (R&E)) Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) to support OUSD’s National Hypersonic Initiative 2.0 by creating an affordable flight test bed to rapidly increase hypersonic flight test capacity, a $34.8 million contract from the USMC for Valkyrie mission system integration, a $116.7 million prime contract to create and operate an Advanced Fire Control Ground Infrastructure (AFCGI) from the U.S. Space Development Agency, an approximate $100 million total potential value hypersonic system program award, a $48 million contract for geolocation global support services, a $45 million award related to a new satellite system, a $79.8 million contract (Lot 20) for 60 BQM-167A Target aircraft systems for the U.S. Air Force, a $57.6 million contract for 70 BQM-177A Aerial Targets for the U.S. Navy, a $499 million multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for the design, build, test, and delivery of functioning anti-tamper solutions, a $579 million single award IDIQ, if all options are exercised, for Space Force SATCOM C2 System for the Command and Control (C2) System Consolidated (CCS-C) Sustainment and Resiliency (C-SAR), and an $877 million IDIQ, multiple award sounding rocket award to provide suborbital launch services and launch support.
Significant cash flow visibility driven by stable backlog. As of December 29, 2024 and December 31, 2023, our total backlog (see “Backlog” below) was approximately $1,445.1 million and $1,243.9 million respectively, of which approximately $1,090.1 million was funded in 2024 and $944.6 million was funded in 2023. The majority of our sales are from awards issued under long-term contracts, typically three to five years in duration. Our contract backlog provides visibility into stable future revenue and cash flow over a diverse set of contracts. Importantly, a number of our systems and products are designed-in and support long term, multi-year/multi-decade programs, which provides significant operational and financial visibility to our Company.
Highly skilled employees and an experienced management team. We deliver our systems, products and services through a skilled and primarily engineering and technically oriented workforce of approximately 4,000 employees. Our executives and senior managers have significant experience with technology companies, commercial enterprises, U.S. Government agencies, the U.S. military, U.S. Government contractors and other relevant entities. A significant number of Kratos employees hold National Security clearances. Members of our management team have experience growing commercial, technology and national security focused businesses both organically and through acquisitions and delivering significant value to investors, shareholders and stakeholders. We believe that the cumulative experience and differentiated expertise of our personnel in our core focus areas, coupled with our sizable and technically oriented employee base, allow us to qualify for and bid on larger programs and contracts in a prime contracting role.
Our Strategy
Our strategy is to be a leading technology, hardware, systems, software and products provider to the defense, national security and relevant commercial and related global markets, and to disrupt our market focus areas, by being first to market with internally funded and developed offerings, engineered and designed to be mass produced at an affordable cost. In executing our strategy, Kratos primarily seeks to utilize proven technology, which we modify, adopt, change, integrate and apply to address market opportunities that we identify jointly with our customers and with our partners. This approach allows us to rapidly develop and field relevant offerings, while reducing technical, schedule and financial risk. At Kratos, “affordability is a technology”, and “better is the enemy of good enough”, which we believe are critical elements of the successful execution of our strategy. Additionally, whenever there is a defense/security/commercial “multi use” opportunity for our technology, products and systems, we lever off of this opportunity with increased efficiencies and further reduced cost opportunity via increased quantities provided to dual or multiple markets.
Internal Growth
We are focused on generating internal growth by capitalizing on our ability to rapidly develop, demonstrate and field leading technology systems and products at an affordable cost and by being “first to market” with our offerings. We make targeted discretionary investments in mission critical DoD, National Security and related commercial opportunity priority areas in order to achieve our first to market objective. Primary Kratos business areas include unmanned systems, space and satellite communications, cybersecurity, microwave electronics, hypersonic and rocket systems, missile defense, jet engines, rocket motors, turbine technologies and propulsion systems, and training systems, which we believe have the highest potential for growth, including as based on the recent Fiscal 2025 National Security budget submittal and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In certain areas, Kratos will retain important intellectual property as a result of the internally funded investments we have made. Additionally, due to Kratos’ unique technology, product and potential intellectual property positions, including in the space, satellite, UAS, propulsion, engine, turbine, rocket, hypersonic and other areas, we are routinely approached to partner or team on large, new program and contract opportunities, where Kratos offerings and affordability are an important competitive differentiator. A key aspect of Kratos’ internal growth philosophy is also that “it is better to have a large part of something, than all of nothing”, which is directly relevant to our teaming and partnership approach and strategy, including with the traditional large aerospace and defense system integrators.
Expand technology product, solution and service offerings provided to existing customers. We are focused on expanding the technology, products, systems and solutions we provide to our customers by making targeted internally funded investments in certain core focus areas, by leveraging our strong relationships, technical capabilities, intellectual property and past performance qualifications and by offering a wider range of comprehensive low-cost technology leading and proven products and solutions compared to our competitors. In regard to areas of specialization, our product and solution offerings include the manufacturing of specialized defense electronics; integrated technology and software solutions for satellite command, control and communications; specialized high performance UCAV and drone aircraft for tactical and threat representation target purposes; Unmanned Ground Systems (“UGS”); Unmanned Seaborne Systems; engine and propulsion systems; and rocket, ballistic missile target and hypersonic systems. We believe our understanding of customer needs, missions, requirements and processes, our reputation and past performance qualifications and our ability to rapidly deliver low cost, technology leading hardware, systems, products and solutions, position us well for success in the current National Security and geopolitical threat environment.
Capitalize on current contract base. We are pursuing new program and contract opportunities and awards as we build the business with our expanding technology base, intellectual property ownership, contract portfolio, and product, hardware, solution, software, service offerings and past performance qualifications. We are also aggressively pursuing several National Security priority areas, including high performance UCAVS, satellite communications command, control, communication and signal monitoring products, SDA, satellite microwave electronics for missiles, radars, electronic warfare and communications, cybersecurity solutions, propulsion and engine systems, specialized training systems, autonomy and artificial intelligence systems, robotics, directed energy systems, hypersonic systems and next generation ballistic missile targets. Additionally, we are assessing new program areas and platforms to pursue that are consistent with our core capabilities, technology and intellectual property. These current and existing programs, contracts, customers and related offerings provide Kratos important past performance qualifications and experience, positioning us to credibly pursue new opportunities.
Expand customer and contract base. We are focused on expanding our customer base into areas with significant growth opportunities, including as indicated by the fiscal year 2024 spending bill, the Fiscal 2025 NDAA and the Trump Administration’s initial indicated priority areas, by leveraging our technology, intellectual property, proprietary products, capabilities, industry reputation, past performance qualifications, long-term customer relationships and diverse contract base. We also believe that our ability to rapidly develop, demonstrate and field high technology systems and products, at an affordable cost, is a clear competitive differentiator for our Company. We anticipate that this overall expansion in our capabilities will enable us to pursue larger program opportunities, higher value work and to further diversify our revenue base across additional U.S. Government, international and commercial customers.
Improve operating margins. We believe that we have opportunities to increase our operating margins and improve profitability in the future as we transition from certain development programs, which typically generate inherently lower margins, to production programs, which typically generate higher margins, and by leveraging our corporate infrastructure investments as our business and revenues increase. We are proactively focused on continuously improving efficiencies, reducing costs, and concentrating our efforts on operational excellence.
Invest and Partner in strategic growth areas. Over the past several years, we have made significant internally funded investments in strategic growth areas, including unmanned tactical aircraft drone systems, space and satellite communication software and systems, rocket engines and hypersonic systems, jet engines, turbine and other engine technologies. Specifically, we have increased internally funded research and development, capital and other expenditures, non-recurring engineering expenditures, and infrastructure investments, including executive management, bid, proposal and new business capture, pursuit and related expenses. We have made these investments with the intention of developing, demonstrating, fielding, bringing to production and being first to market in these strategic growth areas. These internally funded investments typically allow us to retain certain intellectual property rights, design and data packages, for these platforms, software and systems, including to ultimately secure sole source technology or production positions in these strategic growth areas. Specifically, since 2013, we have invested over $260 million in our UAS business and since 2019, approximately $252 million in our Space, Satellite and Cyber business, and made investments of approximately $25 million in rocket and hypersonic systems, and engine and turbine technology areas, through internally funded research, development, contract design retrofit costs, contract design costs for new platforms, software design and development, non-recurring engineering costs and capital expenditures related to these strategic growth areas.
Since 2019, we have invested approximately $252 million in Kratos’ Space, Satellite and Cyber business through internally funded research and development, software design and development and capital expenditures, primarily related to our next generation, software based, virtualized satellite C2, TT&C, and other ground-based OpenSpace™ communications systems, which we released “first to market” in 2021, and our global SDA system. Related to certain of these investments, in 2022, we received an approximate $160 million potential contract award from Blue Halo and a significant contract award from Intelsat as a result of Kratos OpenSpace™ products and technology. In 2023, we introduced the satellite industry’s first open edge terminal for satellite communications and other applications and we announced that our OpenSpace platform is the first commercially available, fully virtualized satellite ground system to achieve MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet certification. In 2024, we received a number of contract awards including a $48 million contract for geolocation global support services, a $116.7 million contract from the U.S. Space Development Agency for Ground System to support advanced fire control missions and a $579 million single award IDIQ for Space Form Satcom C2 System.
During 2024 we entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GE Aerospace to partner on the development and production of small affordable engines that could potentially power unmanned aerial systems, collaborative combat aircraft, missile, drone and similar applications. The agreement, once finalized, will replace an existing joint development agreement and which includes a sole-source full-scale engine production position for Kratos. For the last year, GE Aerospace and Kratos have been working together on a small affordable engine.
Over the past few years, Kratos has been in development on a new solid rocket motor system, Zeus (Zeus 1 and Zeus 2), and related hypersonic flight vehicle systems, Erinyes and Dark Fury, all of which Kratos has internally funded through investments totaling $25 million for rapid development, fielding and a first to market position. In November 2024, Kratos announced that Zeus 1 and Zeus 2 SRMs had completed their first successful flight on October 24, 2024, from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia under a customer funded mission. In June 2024, Kratos announced the successful launch and flight of the Kratos Erinyes hypersonic flyer, also under a customer funded mission. The exercise, designated Hypersonic Test Bed-1 (HTB-1), demonstrated hypersonic flight that enabled the collection of data for multiple experiments to be provided to test teams for design and evaluation of new technologies. Subsequent to the successful flights of the Zeus SRMs and the Erinyes hypersonic system, Kratos was awarded the Mach TB 2.0 Hypersonic System related contract, the largest contract in Kratos history at $1.45 billion, if all options are exercised over a five-year period.
Capitalize on corporate infrastructure investments. In recent periods, we have made significant investments in our senior and technical management and corporate infrastructure related to cybersecurity threats to our Company, increased and changing regulations we are subject to, and the changing National Security industry environment. These investments also included hiring senior executives and managers with significant experience in the National Security and technology industries, hiring firms to support us on Capitol Hill, Congressionally and with our customers, strengthening our internal controls over financial reporting and accounting staff in support of increasing public company reporting requirements, expanding our infrastructure in response to increases in cybersecurity protection and related regulatory requirements, including the DoD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (“CMMC”) requirement for all federal contractors, and expanding our backlog and bid and proposal pipeline resources. We have also made significant investments in secure facilities to enable us to bid on, successfully receive and execute on classified programs and opportunities. As a result of these and other investments, we expect to be allocating additional resources in our pursuit of new, larger and highly technical prime contract opportunities. We believe our management experience, technical capabilities, manufacturing, production and corporate infrastructure can support a company with a much larger revenue base than we currently have. Accordingly, we believe that, to the extent our revenue grows, we will be able to leverage this infrastructure base and increase our operating margins.
Customers
A representative list of government customers in our KGS and US segments during 2024 included the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, Missile Defense Agency, Space Command, Space Force, NASA, the AFRL, foreign military sales (“FMS”), the U.S. Southern Command, STRATCOM, the SCO, DIU or DIUx, the Rapid Capabilities Offices, the U.S. intelligence community, DARPA, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and certain confidential customers. A representative list of non-government customers during 2024 included tier one, large U.S. Government contractors and system integrators such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon Technologies, BAE Systems, and L3Harris, as well as Intelsat, Blue Halo, Microsoft, Amazon, Siemens, Rolls Royce, Boom, GE Aerospace and others.
Revenue from the U.S. Government (which includes FMS) includes revenue from contracts for which we are the prime contractor as well as those for which we are a subcontractor and the ultimate customer is the U.S. Government. Revenues from U.S. Government agency customers in aggregate accounted for approximately 67%, 69% and 69% of total revenues in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively.
Backlog
Effective January 1, 2018, we adopted the requirements of Accounting Standards Codification 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”), utilizing the modified retrospective method as discussed in Note 1 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained within this Annual Report. Since our adoption of ASC 606, revenues from remaining performance obligations, also referred to as total backlog, are now calculated as the dollar value of our remaining performance obligations on executed contracts. As of December 29, 2024 and December 31, 2023, our backlog was approximately $1,445.1 million and $1,243.9 million, respectively, of which $1,090.1 million was funded in 2024 and $944.6 million was funded in 2023. Backlog as of December 29, 2024 as compared to December 31, 2023 has increased primarily as a result of contract awards in our Space and Satellite, Microwave Products, C5ISR, Defense and Rocket Support and Unmanned Systems businesses. We expect to recognize approximately 57.0% of the remaining total backlog as revenue in 2025, an additional 17.0% in 2026 and the balance thereafter.
Total backlog is our estimate of the amount of revenue expected to be realized over the remaining life of awarded contracts and task orders that we have in hand as of the measurement date. Total backlog can include award fees, incentive fees, or other variable consideration estimated based on the most likely amount the Company is expected to be entitled to receive, to the extent that it is probable that a significant reversal of cumulative revenue recognized will not occur. Total backlog can include both funded and unfunded future revenue under government contracts. Total backlog does not include orders for which neither party has performed and which each party has the unilateral right to terminate a wholly unperformed contract without compensating the other party. As such, total backlog generally does not include options for additional performance obligations which have not been executed unless they are considered a material right of the base contract. For IDIQ contracts, only awarded or funded task orders are included for backlog purposes.
We define funded backlog as estimated future revenue under government contracts and task orders for which funding has been appropriated by Congress and authorized for expenditure by the applicable agency, plus an estimate of the future revenue expected to be realized from commercial contracts that are under firm orders. Funded backlog does not include the full potential value of the Company’s contracts because Congress often appropriates funds to be used by an agency for a particular program of a contract on a yearly or quarterly basis even though the contract may call for performance over a number of years. As a result, contracts typically are only partially funded at any point during their term, and all or some of the work to be performed under the contracts may remain unfunded unless and until Congress makes subsequent appropriation and the procuring agency allocates funding to the contract.
Contracts undertaken by us may extend beyond one year. Accordingly, portions are carried forward from one year to the next as part of backlog. Because many factors affect the scheduling of projects, no assurance can be given as to when revenue will be realized on projects included in our backlog. Although funded backlog represents only business that is considered to be firm, we cannot guarantee that cancellations or scope adjustments will not occur. The majority of funded backlog represents contracts with terms that would entitle us to all or a portion of our costs incurred and potential fees upon cancellation by the customer.
A significant number of the programs that Kratos’ systems, products and solutions support are multi-year/multi-decade in nature. Accordingly, based on historical customer usage or operational tempo, the Company has reasonable expectations or visibility of what ultimate orders for Kratos’ systems, products and solutions will be. The Company does not include these expected amounts in its backlog until a related contract award is received.
Management believes that year-to-year comparisons of backlog are not necessarily indicative of future revenues. The actual timing of receipt of revenues, if any, on projects included in backlog could change because many factors affect the scheduling of projects. In addition, cancellations or adjustments to contracts may occur. Backlog is typically subject to large variations from quarter to quarter as existing contracts are renewed or new contracts are awarded. Additionally, all U.S. Government contracts included in backlog, whether or not funded, may be terminated at the convenience of the U.S. Government.
Cybersecurity Program
In the normal course of business, we may collect and store personal information and certain sensitive information of the Company and third parties, including proprietary and confidential business information, trade secrets, intellectual property, sensitive third-party information and employee information. To protect this information, our existing cybersecurity policies require monitoring and detection programs, network security measures, encryption of critical data, and security assessment of vendors. We maintain various protections designed to safeguard against cyberattacks, including firewalls and virus detection software. We have established and test our disaster recovery plan and we protect against business interruption by backing up our major systems. In addition, we periodically scan our environment for any vulnerabilities, perform penetration testing and engage cybersecurity consultants to assess effectiveness of our data security practices. A cybersecurity consultant conducts regular network security reviews, scans and audits. In addition, we maintain insurance that includes cybersecurity coverage.
Our cybersecurity program incorporates industry-standard frameworks, policies and practices designed to protect the privacy and security of our sensitive information and sensitive information of third parties with whom we do business. Our cybersecurity team reports to the full Board of Directors typically on an annual basis on information security and cybersecurity matters, or more frequently as needed. Certain members from our Board of Directors have cybersecurity experience. See “Item 1C. Cybersecurity” below for additional information.
Despite the implementation of our cybersecurity program, our security measures cannot guarantee that a significant cyberattack will not occur. A successful attack on our information technology or other systems could have significant consequences to our business. While we devote resources to our security measures to protect our systems and information, these measures cannot provide absolute security. See “Risk Factors” for additional information about the risks to our business associated with a breach or compromise to our information technology systems.
Human Capital Management
As of December 29, 2024, we had a work force of approximately 4,000 full-time, part-time and on-call employees in approximately 14 countries. Our employees are our greatest asset, and the ability to recruit, retain, fairly compensate, and develop our workforce is critical to Kratos’ success.
We work diligently to attract the best talent from a diverse range of sources in order to meet the current and future demands of our business. We have established relationships with local job networks and educational institutions to proactively attract a diverse pool of talent. We also strive to provide a compensation and benefits package that will attract, retain, and motivate employees and reward their performance, including competitive market-based pay and comprehensive benefits. In addition to earning a base salary, eligible employees are compensated for their contributions to the Company’s goals with both short-term cash incentives and long-term equity-based incentives. We are committed to providing fair and equitable pay for employees, utilizing both external and internal benchmarking tools to do so. Eligible employees in the U.S. also have access to a wide range of benefits including medical, dental, and vision plans; life insurance, disability insurance and identity theft insurance; savings and retirement plans; an employee stock purchase plan; and other resources. Programs and benefits differ internationally for a variety of reasons, such as local legal requirements and market practices.
We are also committed to employee development. The Company maintains talent and succession planning processes, including annual reviews and regular touchpoint reviews throughout the year, and periodic succession review of executive management by the Company’s chief executive officer and board of directors. We also provide training opportunities for employees at all levels, including live and online training, on the job training, and tuition reimbursement for formal continuing education. Our training program also includes compliance training to regularly promote and reinforce the Company’s culture of ethics and integrity in business.
Guided by our values, we are committed to creating a company where everyone is included and respected, and where we support each other in reaching our full potential. We are committed to diverse representation across all levels of our workforce to reflect the vibrant and thriving diversity of the communities in which we live and work.
Competition
Our market is competitive and includes a number of companies in the U.S. defense, National Security, venture capital and private equity financed and commercial markets and industries. Most of the companies that we compete against have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and generate greater revenues than we do. Competition in the KGS and US segments include tier one, large U.S. Government contractors, newer defense technology companies including Anduril, XBow, Shield AI, Castellion, Ursa Major, Bee Hive, and others, and system integrators such as Northrop
Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon Technologies, BAE Systems, L3Harris, General Atomics, and Boeing. While we view these and other government contractors and companies in our industry as competitors, we also routinely team or partner with these same companies in joint proposals or in the delivery of our products, solutions and services for customers. In fact, many of our tier one competitors are also our partners and our customers. Tier two competitors include smaller government contractors such as Mercury Systems, Qinetiq, Cobham, CACI, Peraton, Linquest (now owned by KBR), Viasat and AAR Corp. Intense competition and long operating cycles are key characteristics of business within the defense industry. It is also common in the defense industry for work on major programs to be shared among a number of companies. A company competing to be a prime contractor or subcontractor on an award may, upon final award of the contract to another competitor, become a subcontractor for the final prime contractor. It is not unusual to compete for a contract award with a peer company and simultaneously perform as a supplier to or be a customer of that same competitor on other contracts, or vice versa. The nature of major defense programs, conducted under binding contracts, allows companies that perform well to benefit from a level of program continuity not frequently found in other industries.
We believe that the principal competitive factors in our ability to win new business include our ability as a technology company to address the defense, national security and commercial markets, our belief that affordability is a technology, our focus on making internally funded investments, our ability to rapidly develop and produce actual working products and systems, our ability to manufacture military qualified and specified hardware and our strategy of being first to market with relevant systems, products and technology, focused on priority DoD requirements and funding areas. We also believe that our relationships with the traditional defense industry aerospace and defense system integrators, and the value we bring to them in partnership to pursue large new program opportunities, is a key differentiator for our Company. Also important is our reputation, past performance qualifications, customer relationships, domain and technology expertise, the ability to obtain and replace contract vehicles, the ability to deliver results within budget (time and cost), reputation, accountability, staffing flexibility, and project management expertise. Additionally, our ability to deliver cost effective systems, products, solutions and services that meet our customers’ and partners’ requirements is also a key differentiator.
In the U.S. defense, IT, and services markets, the U.S. Government has stressed competition and affordability or low cost in connection with its future procurement of products and services, i.e. affordable mass. This has led to fewer sole source awards, as well as more emphasis on cost competitiveness, with certain contract awards issued on a Low Price Technically Acceptable (“LPTA”) basis, rather than a best value basis, which has historically negatively impacted certain areas of our Defense and Rocket Support Systems (“DRSS”) business in our KGS segment and in our training services business. In addition, competitor bid protests have become more prevalent in the current competitive environment, resulting in further delay of contract procurement activity. As a result of these changing market dynamics, Kratos has made the strategic decision to deemphasize these types of potential LPTA services businesses, and to focus our financial and other resources on our products, systems, software and technology focused business areas, making internally funded investments in our related core competency and market focus business areas, developing and owning important intellectual property and being first to market with our offerings.
Research and Development
We believe that our future success depends upon our ability to continue to rapidly develop new products and services, and enhancements to and applications for our existing products and services, to be delivered at an affordable cost. Our research and development expenses were $40.3 million, $38.4 million and $38.6 million in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively. We intend to continue our focus on research and development as a key strategy for growth, which will focus on investments in those fields that we believe will offer the greatest opportunity for growth and profitability. Our current primary internal research and development (“IR&D”) focus areas include satellite communications and signal monitoring, unmanned systems, electronic products, turbine technologies, rocket, hypersonic and other systems.
Intellectual Property
We believe that our continued success depends in large part on our proprietary technology, the intellectual skills of our employees and the ability of our employees to continue to innovate. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality agreements, to establish and protect our proprietary rights.
As of December 29, 2024, we held a number of U.S. and foreign patents. Patents applicable to specific products extend for varying periods according to the date of patent application filing or patent grant and the legal term of patents in the various countries where patent protection is obtained. We do not consider our business to be materially dependent upon any individual patent, and we do not believe that our business would be materially affected by the expiration of any particular intellectual property right. We will continue to file and pursue patent applications when and where appropriate to attempt to protect our rights in our proprietary technologies. We also encourage our employees to continue to invent and develop new technologies so as to maintain our competitiveness in the marketplace.
We own or have rights to use certain trademarks, service marks and trade names that we use in conjunction with the operation of our business. Certain of our trademarks have also been registered in selected foreign countries.
Government Regulation
We are subject to various government regulations, including various U.S. Government regulations as a contractor and subcontractor to the agencies of the U.S. Government. Among the most significant U.S. Government regulations affecting our business are:
the Federal Acquisition Regulations and supplemental agency regulations, which comprehensively regulate the formation, administration, and performance under government contracts;
the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Statute (formerly the Truth in Negotiations Act), which requires certification and disclosure of all cost and pricing data in connection with contract negotiations;
the Cost Accounting Standards, which impose accounting requirements that govern our right to reimbursement under cost-based government contracts;
the Industrial Security Manual, which establishes the security guidelines for classified programs and facilities as well as individual security clearances;
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits U.S. companies from providing anything of value to a foreign official to help obtain, retain or direct business, or obtain any unfair advantages;
the False Claims Act and the False Statements Act, which, respectively, impose penalties for payments made on the basis of false facts provided to the government and impose penalties on the basis of false statements, even if they do not result in a payment; and
laws, regulations and executive orders restricting the use and dissemination of information classified for National Security purposes and the exportation of certain products and technical data.
We also need special security clearances to continue working on and advancing certain of our programs and contracts with the U.S. Government. Classified programs generally will require that we comply with various Executive Orders, federal laws and regulations and customer security requirements that may include restrictions on how we develop, store, protect and share information, and may require our employees to obtain government clearances.
In addition, we are subject to industry-specific regulations due to the nature of the products and services we provide. For example, certain aspects of our business are subject to further regulation by additional U.S. government authorities, including (i) the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates airspace for all air vehicles in the U.S. National Airspace System, (ii) the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission, which regulate the wireless communications upon which our UAS business depend in the United States and (iii) the Defense Trade Controls of the U.S. Department of State that administers the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which regulate the export of controlled technical data, defense articles and defense services.
The nature of the work we do for the federal government may also limit the parties who may invest in or acquire us. Export laws may keep us from providing potential foreign acquirers with a review of the technical data they would be acquiring. In addition, there are special requirements for foreign parties who wish to buy or acquire control or influence over companies that control technology or produce goods in the security interests of the U.S. There may need to be a review under the Exon-Florio provisions of the Defense Production Act. including review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA). Finally, the government may require a prospective foreign owner to establish intermediaries to actually run that part of the company that does classified work, and establishing a subsidiary and its separate operation may make such an acquisition less appealing to such potential acquirers.
In addition, the export from the U.S. of certain of our products may require the issuance of a license by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Export Administration Act, and its implementing regulations as kept in force by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Some of our products may require the issuance of a license by the U.S. Department of State under the Arms Export Control Act and its implementing regulations, which licenses are generally harder to obtain and take longer to obtain than do Export Administration Act licenses.
Our business may require compliance with state or local laws designed to limit the uses of personal user information gathered online or require online services to establish privacy policies.
Material Availability
We procure critical material, components, products and subsystems from domestic and global supply partners. These supply sources may be single sources for certain components and the material provided may have extended lead times. To support our continuing customer needs, we have taken steps to mitigate sourcing risks. This includes working closely with our suppliers to ensure future material and subsystem availability to support our manufacturing plans. In some cases, we have elected to stock reserve material to ensure future availability.
Certain raw materials and components used in the manufacture of our products and in our development programs are periodically subject to supply shortages, and our business is subject to the risk of price increases and periodic delays in delivery. Particularly, the market for electronic components is experiencing increased demand and a global shortage of semiconductors, creating substantial uncertainty regarding our suppliers’ continued production of key components for our products, and the supply for certain subcomponents and parts is impacting our C5ISR business, and the shortage of qualified vendors which supply certain ancillary parts for our aerial targets have resulted in cost increases. See “Risk Factors” for further discussion regarding risks related to raw materials.
Environmental
Our manufacturing operations are subject to many requirements under environmental laws and regulations. In the U.S., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and similar state agencies administer laws that restrict the emission of pollutants into the air, discharges of pollutants into bodies of water and disposal of pollutants in the ground. Violations of these laws can result in significant civil and criminal penalties and incarceration. The failure to obtain a permit for certain activities may be a violation of environmental law and subject the owner and operator to civil and criminal sanctions. Most environmental agencies also have the power to shut down an operation if it is operating in violation of environmental law. U.S. laws also allow citizens to bring private enforcement actions in some situations. Outside the U.S., the environmental laws and their enforcement vary and may be more burdensome.
Other environmental laws, primarily in the U.S., address the contamination of land and groundwater and require the clean-up of such contamination. These laws may apply not only to the owner or operator of an on-going business, but also to the owner of land contaminated by a prior owner or operator. In addition, if a parcel is contaminated by the release of a hazardous substance, such as through its historic use as a disposal site, any person or company that has contributed to that contamination, whether or not it has a legal interest in the land, may be subject to a requirement to clean up the parcel.
We have management programs and processes in place that are intended to achieve compliance with, and minimize the potential for violations of, applicable environmental laws and regulations.
Available Information
We file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We make available on our website under “Investor Relations/Financial Information/SEC Filings,” free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such materials with or furnish them to the SEC. Our website address iswww.kratosdefense.com. The SEC also maintains an Internet site that contains our reports, proxy and information statements, and other information at www.sec.gov.
We have included our website address and the SEC’s website in this report solely as an inactive textual reference. References to our website and the SEC’s website in this report are provided as a convenience and do not constitute, and should not be viewed as, incorporation by reference of the information contained on, or available through, such websites. Such information should not be considered a part of this report, unless otherwise expressly incorporated by reference in this report.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.