Eric DeMarco
Analyst · Alembic Global
Thank you, Marie.Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I hope this call finds you and your family safe and healthy as we work to address the many issues brought on by the global COVID-19 crisis. As a corporation, I can assure you that Kratos is focused on taking the necessary steps to keep our employees safe, while remaining committed to delivering our systems, products and solutions to our customers to address their critical national security missions and requirements.Kratos has and will continue to implement protective measures consistent with CDC, state and local guidance including encouraging our employees where possible to work from home, distancing our office and manufacturing personnel, including with split shifts and modification for the workspace providing and supporting the use of protective equipment by our employees and enhanced cleaning of our facilities.We have also been reaching out communicating and working closely with our supply chain and vendor base including where possible procuring additional inventory for our key programs and other actions. I will comment more on COVID-19 later in my prepared remarks.As we begin the second quarter, we believe that Kratos is demonstrated ability to rapidly develop, demonstrate and field affordable systems is an increasing demand by our customers as reflected by our Q1 bookings, our increased backlog and the new large programs of record, which we are now involved with. All of which provides us increased visibility and confidence in our future forecast and expected future growth trajectory.We firmly believe that the demonstrated affordability of Kratos' systems and products will become even more of a competitive advantage going forward, based on input from customers, Congress and program offices.Kratos is continuing the successful execution of our plan of becoming an essential critical supplier and element of the United States Defense Industrial Base and the DoD future and we believe that the Pentagon views us as an important new competitor in our primary business areas.Since our last call, there have been a number of key developments, which we believe further position Kratos for industry leading future growth including, Kratos' C5ISR business was selected by Northrop Grumman to support the United States Air Force, Ground Based Strategic Deterrent or GBSD program where Kratos will provide highly complex missile and payload transporter systems.GBSD, is an estimated $63 billion, 20-year U.S. Air Force program to replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile weapon system and it could become one of Kratos' largest future programs and organic growth drivers. Kratos' C5ISR business is a recognized industry leading system and subsystem provider for unmanned aerial, missile, radar, missile defense, high power direct and energy, CBRNE, combat and other systems and the business performed approximately as we forecast it would in the first quarter.C5ISR is expected to be one of our Company's strongest future organic growth generators, with the GBSD program, expected to be a key contributor to this growth and in the coming weeks, we are hopeful of receiving or announcing other large new strategic program system awards, we have been pursuing.Also as an update in early Q1 we told you about a $50 million contract award Kratos' C5ISR business received which was protested by a competitor. This situation remains unresolved at this time, and accordingly we will continue to exclude any future potential financial contribution in our forecast from this program until the situation is resolved. It was recently reported that the United States' Air Force has completed a round of tests of a new first of its kind, low cost turbo jet engine. This engine is a Kratos engine developed by our recent acquisition of TDI.We believe TDI is extremely complementary to our 2019 acquisition of Florida Turbine Technologies with both companies focused on affordable leading, technology engines for the expected to be very large future market for next-generation crews, and hypersonic missiles, unmanned aerial drones and tactical systems including Kratos.These Air Force experiments were part of the Gray Wolf Program which has focused heavily on the demonstration of technologies that could enable the development of low cost affordable cruise missiles, which will be fielded in extremely large quantities. The next generation new Kratos engine that powered an expandable test article from a large prime during the test flights and we believe this new Kratos engine will also power other future extendable Air Launch Systems, munitions and unmanned aircraft.The Air Force Research Laboratory or AFRL, which is responsible for the Gray Wolf effort which is expected to be part of the Vanguard Golden Horde, swarming drone, ammunitions program recently released a picture of an F-16 Viper carrying the test flight vehicle that is available to you in the public.A key focus of Kratos' overall corporate strategy is to address the Pentagon's objective to beat the cost curve, the military expect to encounter in future conflicts by designing low cost expandable unmanned aircraft, missiles and munitions that can overwhelm enemy defenses without breaking the budget.Mass quantities of drones and ammunitions is a key element of the Golden Horde Program which Kratos is pursuing with several of our affordable engines, drone and tactical system programs and initiatives. We currently have several new next-generation engines running which we are positioning to be designed in on a number of platforms and systems, including our Black Dragon Program, which has made important progress toward first system flight over the past few months and if successful, we believe it could be a game changer for our company.We expect Kratos' Turbine Technologies, similar to our Unmanned Systems business to be disruptive to the industry and be a significant future growth driver and value generator with thousands of missiles and UAVs requiring low cost engines in this class, forecasted for the future.KTT performed approximately, as we expected in Q1 with EBITDA margins currently lower than the KGS average as we are in development on several engine programs and initiatives would typically carry lower margins and production programs. In Space and Satellite, it was recently reported that the United States military's push to link every object on the battlefield is moving forward as most recently reflected by the release of a Request For Proposal or RFP to build 20 tactical communications satellites by 2022.Additionally, the year old Space Development Agency or SDA recently hosted an industry day to brief industry about its plans for transport satellite layer essentially orbiting communication nodes to transfer data related to intelligence, battle management navigation, timing and more.This new transport layer architecture will move very time-sensitive data from drones and satellites in low earth orbit and other sensors and we'll also be critically important for the hypersonic system tracking in defense. The transport layer opportunity this architecture and this recent RFP are just the most recent examples of several large new opportunities Kratos' Space and Satellite business sees as future growth opportunities.Another large new space opportunity for Kratos' Satellite business is the OPIR Program or Overhead Persistent Infrared which Kratos is now under contract on. And we are forecasting OPIR to become an important financial contributor beginning later this year, and increasing in 2021and beyond.Kratos' satellite business had a strong overall Q1 including higher gross margins, increased R&D and overall higher EBITDA margins as we continue our transition to a software-based or defined model and we continue to forecast future organic growth and expanding margins for this business.Our expectation that Kratos' Space and Satellite business will continue its strong execution and performance is a key reason we are confident in achieving both our EBITDA and cash flow guidance for the rest of this year, as both the nature of and expected mix of our opportunity pipeline continues to both expand and improve.In Kratos's Drone business, there have been several new and positive developments since our last report to you. It was recently reported that the United States' Air Force wants to replace the service's fleet of Reaper attack drones with new drones that are capable of surviving at hostile airspace. Although highly successful in its current commission the MQ-9 Reaper is relatively easy to shoot down, making it vulnerable in an A2/AD or battlefield protected by modern air defenses.As we have discussed with you previously the Pentagon is shifting from potential smaller low end fight for example in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere towards larger higher M contest including with countries such as Russia or China, which is providing significant opportunities throughout Kratos including in our tactical jet drones.Acknowledging the Reaper's vulnerability to performance it's mission in a contested environment, the Air Force is now planning to cut its by - of Reaper drones with the final drones purchase this year. The Air Force intends to lay out its vision for a Reaper replacement a drone that can operate in contested airspace in the 2022 budget and we believe that affordability and the ability to perform its mission and survive will be important attributes for this new program.It was also recently reported that the Head of the Air Combat Command stated that the ACC is currently thinking through what is the fighter aircraft of the future? And that the fighter mission will give way to a tradable aircraft and loyal wing manned, unmanned droned aircraft, in addition to the manned fighters. And it was also recently reported that the Air Force is looking at potentially replacing, retiring Block 25 and Block 30 F-16s in the next few years and replacing them with affordable unmanned drone aircraft.And specifically related to the future for extremely large quantities of affordable drones and munitions. It was reported that the Air Force is planning experiment and briefing senior leaders on progress toward its arsenal plan initiative.Looking at multiple aircraft options to fly with a large weapons cache, potentially including swarms of low cost cruise missiles and drones to back up the strike assets. We believe that each of these recent data points that I just went through the need for replacement, the fighter of the future, the F-16 replacement and the arsenal plane reflect the continued increased in building momentum and demand for rapidly developed affordable attritable jet drones of which Kratos has several tactical drone type flying today.Since our last report to you multiple system integration efforts have continued with Kratos' Valkyrie and other tactical drones of Kratos' including for weapons, communications, electronic warfare, ISR and other systems, as we move toward missionization, increased operational capabilities and ultimate fielding of these existing and flying Kratos drone aircraft.We remain on track with the 12 lot, of 12 new XQ-58A, we are in the process of producing in Oklahoma City with the first expected to be completed beginning in Q1 of next year. We continue to take into consideration with our partners and the United States, Air Force all the knowledge, we have gained since our first tactical drone manned, unmanned teaming flights in 2015 as we move forward with the Valkyrie and other Kratos' tactical drone programs and initiatives.Kratos is truly appreciated a fantastic relationship with the Air Force Research Lab and the United States, Air Force and the development and flight testing of the XQ-58A Valkyrie, to the low cost attritable strike demonstrated program won competitively by Kratos. By approaching the LCAT and related programs in a partnership fashion with the Air Force, the ultimate and primary worldwide customer for high performance tactical strike jet UAS. We have been able to design in from a blank sheet of paper the key attributes and capabilities needed by the USAF to enable their range of operational requirements.These requirements range from the runway independent capability, the physical size of the vehicle, the vehicle's internal weapons bay capabilities, the system multi-mission payload capability and the un-refueled range and endurance and many other critical attributes. And by partnering at the inception of the vehicle design stage with the Air Force, a true design to cost approach was achievable with the United States built product including sub-systems and components, leveraging our proven low-cost, high-performance, jet composite firmly family of unmanned aircraft, of which we currently produce over 100 annually demonstrating our true low cost capability every day.This family of drones we are flying today, new drones we are working on which we will be flying very soon and, our rapid design approach is truly an example of the century series model for aircraft design and build cycles that Dr. Roper has consistently promoted as being key to the future of aircraft design, development and production in the USA.And Kratos' current and future tactical vehicle family all being almost entirely sourced and produced in the United States is a key contributor to the re-invigoration of the U.S. and the Department of Defense Industrial Base and which is very important to our country, our company, employees and stakeholders.Related to our increased confidence and support for what we are doing here in the U.S. it was recently reported that there is significant additional funding up to a $125 million currently planned for the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act for the LTAC XQ-58A Valkyrie drone initiatives which would be in addition to the over $100 million already included for LTAC that - drones in the 2020 NDA Act.And also importantly it was recently reported by the Air Force, the Air Force stated that they are ready to begin procuring new attributable drone aircraft at higher volumes this year under its Skyborg test and experimentation program. I hope you can see, we continue to make progress and move forward. The customer had also continues to move forward and we believe that we remain on track for a significant Valkyrie contract or contracts this year and based on the most recent information we have received even more significant future Valkyrie related contracts.We believe that we were close to a contract award just before the COVID-19 virus caused serious disruptions, but progress has recently been made and we believe that the Air Force, will be making several announcements very soon based on recent correspondence.We are more confident than ever that the drone related Vanguard, Skyborg, Advanced Battle Management System or ABMS and Valkyrie related programs and initiatives, each of which we believe are major DoD priorities will be transformative future growth opportunity for our company, each of which we believe Kratos is uniquely positioned for.We also remain confident that the Gremlins program will transition from DARPA to one of the services with our plan for Air Wolf and Thanatos to follow thereafter. Flight schedules for Valkyrie, Gremlins, Air Wolf and our initiative with their requirement, which we refer to as Rattle Snake have moved to the right with ABMS and other program flights now planned to occur beginning in Q3 due to delays from DoD, COVID-19 related travel, distancing and other restrictions.Kratos' target drone business is performing as expected with full-rate production for two programs an increased production for an additional program now forecast for either later this year or early next year based on the most recent customer communications and taking into consideration COVID-19 DoD work at home requirement related impacts.Also importantly we recently received expected contract awards for approximately 20 target drone systems which along with our Q1 unmanned business book to bill ratio of 1.5 to 1 provides us increased visibility and confidence in our forecast, and we remain on track to achieve our long-term target drone growth and profitability objectives.Kratos' microwave electronics business, one of our Company's highest profit margin and cash flow contributors achieved solid performance in Q1 including a book to bill ratio of 1.9 to 1 for the quarter in a last 12-month book-to-bill ratio now of 1.5 to 1.This reflects a strong global demand for electronic warfare, attack, missile radar, [indiscernible] and other system. Our microwave businesses Q1 performance current record backlog and book to bill ratio provide us increased visibility and confidence in our financial forecast, EBITDA and cash flow objectives.Kratos' rocket system business also reported solid Q1. And based on recent communications with customers, certain ballistic missile defense target and other mission launches have moved to the right as a result of COVID-19 related DoD travel, distancing and other restriction impacts with certain mission now tentatively planned for later on this year, early next year.Since our last report to you the number of opportunities Kratos' Rocket Support business is pursuing has increased significantly, including certain hypersonic system programs, with hypersonics currently being one of the strongest funded areas on the Pentagon budget.Kratos' Turbine Technologies and C5ISR businesses are also positioning for certain hypersonic opportunities. Kratos' Training business came in below our expectations in Q1, as a certain Kratos sole source contract option was unexpectedly not renewed in February by an international customer that has significant COVID-19 travel related and other restrictions. However late in March, we did successfully receive an extension on the U.S. Navy, RSNF training program, which was also in a protest situation which Deanna will walk through in her prepared remarks.As of today Kratos has experienced no production facility or manufacturing plant closures as a result of the COVID-19 virus. And we have approximately 200 job openings across our company also supporting our financial forecast. To-date we have not experienced any material supplier or vendor disruptions, and we routinely communicate with our supplier and vendor partners, our customers and the government. As we move forward our employees' health and safety are our number one priority.And as I mentioned previously, we are following the safety measures distancing and cleaning recommendations suggested by applicable federal, state and local government authorities to the absolute best of our ability.The application of these government restrictions and recommendations has resulted in a large number of Kratos' employees telecommuting and working from home where possible, split or staggered shifts at certain Kratos production facilities and limitations or restrictions in our employee's ability to travel to certain customer sites and locations to perform their work including as related to target drone, tactical drone and other planned exercises.Though taking these safety steps is required in the right thing to do, obviously they're adversely impacting production, execution, flight testing and overall operational efficiency to some extent. We have also recently begun to see some delays of certain supplier deliveries and the reduction in demand from certain of our commercial aero and power customers, primarily with Kratos Turbine Technologies and our Microwave Electronics business and our Space and Satellite communications business recently saw one of our customers, OneWeb file for bankruptcy.We have attempted to take all of these factors current and forecast in our updated forecast, we are providing to you today. Deanna?