Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) Q1 2027 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

My name is Tina, and I will be your conference facilitator this afternoon. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Viasat's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Lisa Curran, Chief Enterprise and Strategy Officer. Ms. Curran, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, Tina. We will present certain non-GAAP financial measures on today's call. Information required by the SEC relating to these non-GAAP financial measures is available on our Q1 fiscal year 27 shareholder letter on the Investor Relations section of our website. During the presentation, we will describe certain of the more significant factors that impacted year-over-year performance. We will also make certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially from any forward-looking statements that we will make today. Information regarding these factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in our SEC filings and annual report on Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. With that, I'll turn it over to Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO.

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us today. I'm Mark Dankberg, CEO and Chairman of Viasat. With me, along with Lisa, we have Gary Chase, our Chief Financial Officer. As always, we encourage reading the shareholder letter and referencing the slides we posted on our website earlier this afternoon for more details. I'll start with 2 areas upfront. Then Gary will review our first quarter results and outlook for fiscal year '27. Then we'll take questions. I'll cover our top level first quarter financial results, our near-term objectives and operational strategic initiatives, including ViaSat-3. The first quarter of fiscal year 2027 showed disciplined execution, continued operational progress and milestones building our confidence in the long-term outlook. Gary will discuss the financial results in more detail, but some of the highlights include record new awards and backlog in the Defense and Advanced Technology, or DAT, segment. Most notably, we won the next phase of the Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global, or PTS-G, program. It's important for 2 key reasons. First, it indicates the importance of a multi-orbit national security strategy, including a new approach to proliferated geosynchronous satellite. Second, it also indicates the competitive advantages of integration across space and technology and dual-use satellite services such as Viasat has. Second, we also continue to drive good cash performance with positive free cash flow of $72 million, up 19%, driven by operating cash flow of $291 million. Third, our government SATCOM services grew 10% year-over-year this quarter. More of our solutions combine multi-orbit orchestration, close integration with specific mission systems, data analytics and dual-use infrastructure to augment and enhance the SATCOM systems. The mission systems aspect leverages our extensive experience with our diversified customer base and helps drive both technology and recurring service revenue. Leveraging dual use both significantly benefits our customers and is expected to benefit our focus on improving return on invested capital. Not only successful deployments for ViaSat-3's Flights 2 and 3 are important for ongoing communication services businesses, but also for the unique technology and functional capabilities that those satellites bring. We believe validation of the underlying technologies will contribute to near-term growth in DAT, including in new multi-orbit space systems that leverage those technologies. On the near-term operational and strategic initiative front, we entered fiscal year '27 focused on 3 priorities: selecting and competing effectively in attractive growth markets; leveraging new technology to reduce our effective airtime costs by using greater geographic coverage flexibility to drive more resilient, efficient and effective satellite usage; and continuing to integrate AI and machine learning in multi-orbit network optimization. We're seeing both near-term and longer-term benefits from those 3 initiatives. One overarching theme is the growing convergence of communications, cybersecurity, networking, data analytics and proliferated resilient dual-use space infrastructure. From a national security perspective, there's an emphasis on integrated mission outcomes over just stand-alone products. We believe Viasat is uniquely positioned to compete in a number of important application areas. Another very important theme is a renewed focus on the mobile satellite services frequency bands. There's a lot of attention on direct-to-device because of the integration of 3GPP satellite non-terrestrial network capability into terrestrial mobile devices and networks. As a leading player in the existing mobile satellite services markets such as mobile voice, aeronautical and maritime safety and rapidly growing converged space and terrestrial Internet of Things applications, we also see opportunities to capture growth in those enterprise areas beyond just the consumer markets. We anticipate introduction of AI-driven autonomy into land, sea and air platforms will also be a growth catalyst. We continue to believe that our leading role serving the critical safety services, combined with our ability to reliably and quickly evolve our user base to next-generation space resources, our globally coordinated spectrum and market access licenses and our approaches to highly efficient spectrum utilization and the application of proven shared infrastructure, technology and business models will all help us compete effectively in a broad range of mobile satellite services applications, including D2D. Our teams delivered solid operational performance during the first quarter, maintaining financial discipline, while achieving our adjusted EBITDA objectives despite ongoing headwinds in portions of our portfolio. We maintained a strong focus on cost discipline, operational productivity and cash flow generation, while continuing to invest selectively in strategic growth initiatives. We do understand that some segments of the market are clearly going to be significantly more competitive than in the past. We believe we can continue to be a healthy competitor, leveraging new ViaSat-3 technologies, along with multiband multi-orbit integration. Rapid evolutions in payload, system and mission technology are creating very substantial additional new technology and services market opportunities, especially for companies that integrate across commercial and national security applications and can invent and scale those new technologies. We're beginning to see evidence of the opportunities for Viasat in those areas, and we see growth in DAT awards, in particular, as leading indicators building confidence in that approach. Turning to next generation of connectivity. We did successfully complete all deployments in the bus in-orbit test phase on ViaSat-3 Flight 2. Subsequent to quarter-end, we successfully completed reflector and boom deployment on ViaSat-3 Flight 3 and entered the in-orbit test phase ahead of expected service entry over the Asia Pacific region in late August or early September of this year. The continued integration of multi-orbit capabilities and the development of next-generation terminals and network architectures are all designed to improve bandwidth productivity, that is more usable bandwidth per unit capital and operational spend, and increased network flexibility and resilience, while further decreasing the proportion of those costs that are associated with launch. These capabilities allow us to place capacity where and when it's needed, improve capacity utilization, improve customer experience and support attractive returns on invested capital, while remaining highly competitive in our target market. In maritime, NexusWave continues to demonstrate customer interest and acceptance of effective multi-orbit solutions. In aviation, we remain focused on using our latest satellites to enhance customer experience and service reliability and advancing our next-generation connectivity road map. We continue to work closely with airline partners as the market more closely integrates and optimizes the entire onboard experience across connectivity and passenger entertainment and engagement. From a longer-term perspective, we see increasing convergence of dual-use commercial and national security uses of space. Some key indicators of that include increased targeting of civil and commercial infrastructure of all types, telecom, navigation, timing, energy and computing, even in the earliest stages of geopolitical conflict. That requires increased resilience and adaptability for all forms of satellite communication. Rapidly increasing physical occupation of space, especially LEO, is driving new resilience need for critical national security missions. And the rapid pace of new technology introduction evolve in all forms in geopolitical conflict, putting a premium not just on new technology, but the ability to integrate new technologies into operations and mission success. We believe Viasat is exceptionally well positioned to capture these opportunities through our unique combination of space and ground network technologies, resilient space and terrestrial radio and multimedia networking, link and network security and cyber defense, and mission and operational expertise. While DAT will often be the first place growth in those areas will be manifested, we see good potential for ongoing conversions to both government and commercial recurring satellite services. These DAT contracts can include operational demonstration phases. And this quarter also highlights that we have good growth in recurring government satellite services revenue. In summary, we're seeing evolution in our portfolio of government and commercial technologies, and recurring services businesses. Overall, we recognize the effects of greater competition in our legacy commercial services. We're seeing growth in emerging segments of dual-use, multi-orbit, multiband, driven by underlying new technologies where we can be among the few leaders. We believe the balance suggests overall good growth opportunities with DAT awards and government communication services as leading indicators and those trends becoming increasingly clear even in the balance of this fiscal year. We're continuing to manage our business to generate cash, continue to delever and strengthen the balance sheet, while reducing capital intensity and investing prudently in underlying new technologies. So with that, I'll turn it over to Gary for more information on the first quarter financial results and our outlook for fiscal '27.

Thank you, Mark, and thanks to all of you who are joining us. Most important of all, thank you to the Viasat team for the hard work that went into producing these results. We remain focused on the 3 pillars of our financial journey: building our franchises, generating cash and reducing our leverage. Using that lens, let's discuss our first quarter results and our outlook for the year. All my statements that follow in this section will refer to the first quarter of fiscal '27 compared to the prior year period, the first quarter of fiscal '26. Before I start, let me call out 2 items that impact comparisons to the prior year. First, we completed the sale of our equity interest in Navarino in the fourth quarter of '26. Navarino contributed $3 million of adjusted EBITDA to Communication Services in the prior year period. Second, IP licensing revenue related to the settlement a few years ago continued to decline as the associated licensee product lines have continued to evolve. The year-over-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA impact of this decline was $19 million in the quarter and is reflected in advanced technologies and other within our Defense and Advanced Technologies segment. On a combined basis, these items impacted year-over-year EBITDA comparisons by $22 million. Company-wide awards for the quarter were about $1.3 billion, up 10%, led by Defense and Advanced Technologies with space and mission systems, tactical networking and aviation, the drivers of growth. Backlog was $4.2 billion, up almost 19% with growth in Communication Services of 13% and in DAT of 32%. Revenue was $1.2 billion, down approximately 1%, reflecting a 4% decline in DAT and flat Communication Services. Revenue would have been flat, excluding the impacts previously noted. Net loss was $52 million, an improvement of $5 million, principally due to lower interest expense as we continue to pay down debt. And adjusted EBITDA was $381 million, down 7%. [ But for ] the noted impact of Navarino and lower IP licensing in AT&O, EBITDA would be just about flat. Excluding cash taxes from the gain on the sale of our interest in Navarino of about $30 million, which were paid in the first quarter of '27, we generated positive free cash flow of $72 million, up 19% and driven by operating cash flow of $291 million, which was up 13% and capital expenditures of $219 million, which were up 11%. The first quarter is typically our toughest cash quarter, given annual bonus payments. So I'm especially pleased to see strong cash generation. Our net debt relative to trailing EBITDA was approximately 3.2x, a meaningful 0.4x improvement versus the prior year period. Now let's turn to some segment highlights. In Communication Services, awards of $774 million increased 3%, driven by aviation and maritime. Revenue was $825 million, approximately flat. Growth in aviation and government SATCOM was offset by declines in residential fixed broadband and maritime. Aviation revenue grew 11%, ending with approximately 4,530 commercial aircraft in service, a 10% increase year-over-year, combined with higher average revenue per aircraft. While we had a healthy quarter for installations, we had a number of aircraft deactivate service for previously announced transitions to a competing provider. Within aviation, we expect revenue growth for the remainder of the year driven by ARPA expansion as more of our customer base migrates to Full, Fast, Free offerings, while units remain relatively stable to the units we ended the first quarter with. We have units flowing in and out of our aircraft backlog each quarter. This quarter's net new aircraft awards were positive, and our backlog declined due to installations during the quarter. Our IFC backlog at quarter-end was about 850 commercial aircraft. Government SATCOM revenue growth accelerated to 10%, reflecting good growth with increased usage from U.S. and international governments. We continue to work through challenges in maritime. Revenue declined 7% as vessels in service were down. We ended the quarter with more than 1,700 NexusWave vessels in service and continue to work on improving our installation rate, while our current order book exceeds 1,400 vessels. Fixed services and other revenue was down 27% as U.S. fixed broadband subscribers continue to decline. We ended the quarter with 115,000 subscribers and $111 average revenue per user. Communication Services adjusted EBITDA was $311 million, down 3%, primarily driven by the decline in fixed services and other and maritime, which included the sale of our interest in Navarino for a $3 million headwind in the quarter. Turning to Defense and Advanced Technologies' performance during the quarter. Our DAT segment awards of $524 million increased 22%, driven by growth in space and mission systems and tactical networking. DAT awards are a leading indicator of future revenues. We continue to see a very strong growth environment for DAT, driven by both government and commercial opportunities for new technologies that will enhance our service businesses. DAT revenue was $331 million, down 4%, reflecting a decline in advanced technology and other and space and mission systems, partially offset by strong growth in tactical networking. Revenue would have been up about 2% excluding the impact from lower IP licensing revenue previously noted. InfoSec and cyber defense product revenues declined 8%, reflecting lower shipments of our High Assurance encryption products. Timing of product delivery varies quarter-to-quarter, based on multiple factors, including customer schedule. Despite the Q1 reduction, we expect strong growth in InfoSec and cyber for fiscal '27. Space and mission systems revenue declined 24%, reflecting a supplier delay in one program and a transition from development to production on another program. However, similar to InfoSec and cyber, we expect strong growth in space mission systems for the fiscal year despite the Q1 decline. Tactical networking revenues were up 36% year-over-year, driven by strength in both our tactical communications products and TrellisWare. TrellisWare revenue growth was driven primarily by product sales to international customers as opposed to waveform royalties. TrellisWare tactical radio revenues are driven by a comprehensive portfolio of products, modules and licenses that each embody unique technology. Advanced technologies and other revenue was down $17 million, reflecting the declining benefit from IP licensing revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $70 million, down 20% or $17 million compared to the prior year quarter, primarily reflecting the decline in IP licensing revenue within AT&O. Excluding that IP licensing revenue, adjusted EBITDA was up slightly. Now, let's turn to our outlook. Our financial outlook for fiscal '27 is unchanged. We expect revenue to grow mid-single digits with Communication Services growth of low-single digit and DAT growth in the mid-teens. We continue to expect our adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year to be flat to up slightly year-over-year. Consolidated fiscal '27 CapEx is expected to be between $950 million and $1 billion. Our consolidated CapEx is expected to break down as follows: maintenance of about $400 million; capitalized interest of greater than $150 million; ViaSat-3 spend of about $50 million, most of which was incurred in Q1; success-based of up to $150 million; and about $225 million to $250 million for growth CapEx with an emphasis on future satellites other than ViaSat-3, as well as investments in DAT segment and government SATCOM. Inmarsat CapEx is expected to be $250 million to $300 million and is contained within the consolidated numbers I just guided to. We continue to expect free cash flow of about $180 million for fiscal year '27. Let's turn to our segments, beginning with Communication Services. Within aviation, we expect revenue growth compared to fiscal '26 as ARPA expands on unit count similar to the Q1 ending number. However, we expect the overall rate of aviation revenue growth to moderate relative to recent years. We expect maritime vessels and service to decline modestly compared to fiscal '26 but expect significant growth in the NexusWave installed base that offers customers more value and drives higher ARPA. We expect stabilization of our fixed broadband business to occur sometime after ViaSat-3's Flight 2 enters service, but expect continued declines until that time. We expect another year of growth within government SATCOM. We've been waiting a long time for the capacity and capabilities of ViaSat-3 Flights 2 and 3. We're excited to be on the cusp of service entry for both satellites. Thanks to all the teams who have made ViaSat-3 a reality. Now our focus is ensuring that the capabilities of ViaSat-3 are mobilized to address the growing appetite our Communication Services customers have for connectivity and to position us for growth in the years ahead. Turning to DAT. We expect a very good year ahead. Our teams are doing an awesome job of anticipating and meeting the growing needs of our customers, which is driving exciting momentum in awards that will drive revenue and earnings for years to come. We expect another year of strong revenue growth from encryption and accelerated growth from space mission systems and tactical networking. The team has continued to deliver big wins in the most important high-growth markets. I'll also note that during the quarter, we did move an additional $100 million in cash from Inmarsat to Viasat. We've now moved a total of $450 million so far, including the $100 million just referenced. And we'll continue to evaluate opportunities to reshape our capital structure. In conclusion, we had a good quarter as we continue to make progress on our financial journey. We're excited for a lot of hard work ahead of us. And we remain focused on improving returns on capital through franchise and earnings growth, generating positive free cash flow, repaying debt and reducing net leverage. We thank you for your continued support. Team Viasat is working to deliver our commitments for the year and beyond. With that, let me hand the call back to Mark.

Thanks, Gary. So the combination of growth in the space market and our business and technical progress is creating more opportunity for us than ever. The ViaSat-3 deployments, along with a number of other important space and ground technology accomplishments and competitive wins, is building momentum in new markets and applications. Demand for resilient communications, secure networks, mission-critical connectivity and space-enabled capabilities is clearly growing in both commercial and defense markets globally. Viasat has never been defined by a single technology cycle, satellite launch or market trend. Our history has been built on continued innovation, reinvention, resilience and the ability to adapt to changing customer needs. Our path forward won't be without challenges. We believe the foundation we've built and the opportunities ahead will continue to sustain our success. We enter the remainder of fiscal year 2027 with confidence in our strategy, momentum across key growth initiatives and a clear focus on creating long-term shareholder value. Operator, you can now open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Timothy Horan with Oppenheimer.

Good quarter. There is some concern out there that S-band spectrum holders outside the United States might lose some of the rights to that spectrum. Can you talk about your ownership rights and how much negotiating leverage you would have with governments of the United States? And then, secondly, on your L-band spectrum, can you maybe just -- have you studied a little bit more further how much you would need of that spectrum to operate your current business versus maybe selling or leasing or partnering with someone to do direct-to-device or other services?

Okay. Well, first thing, I think I'd say just in terms of S-band, S-band tends to be less globally coordinated with [ ITU ] rights and more around national market access when used for mobile satellite services. And it's the same for our spectrum as with others. The main thing we would say is that the best way to hold on to your spectrum is to put it in use for public benefit for the nations which have granted those market access rights. So our S-band is currently in use for the purpose that it was licensed for in Europe. And I think we're working with Europe on those particular missions and new missions. And I think that we will work with -- I think we'll work with the European Union and the individual nations to continue to evolve what we do and what they're looking for. I think we've got -- I think we have good support within Europe. But I'm not going to make any particular predictions about our success relative to others at this point. I think we have a -- as the only incumbent that's actually using the spectrum for the purpose for which it's licensed, I think that gives us a good [ legs up ], but we'll just have to see on that one. On the L-band, I think one of the main points that we want to make is that our L-band is licensed, again, for specific mission purposes. We fulfill those purposes. They're generally really important, involving maritime and aeronautical safety as 2 of the main ones. One of the things that is a little bit unique about L-band is that in order to accomplish those missions, countries want to cooperate with each other, which is the purpose for which Inmarsat was originally formed. We still uphold those missions. And one of the main points is that the amount of bandwidth or bandwidth delivered as opposed to spectrum, separating bandwidth is basically what you get, the bits that you get through the spectrum. The demand for bandwidth is increasing in performing those missions, both in terms of maritime safety market and especially in the aeronautical safety market. So right now, what we are aiming at is not only fulfilling the current missions, but the way that those missions are evolving. And -- but what we think is, there's a good match between the spectrum that we have and the long-term purpose of those missions, as well as new applications that are evolving such as D2D. Now we also use our spectrum for other valuable missions, which are not necessarily associated with those particular safety missions. We think the same thing will happen as we increase the network capabilities using our next generations of constellations.

Your next question comes from the line of Brent Penter with Raymond James.

First one for me, glad to see F2 and F3 both at the finish line here. Obviously, a ton of capacity coming online. How do you envision the use of capacity split in terms of serving existing customers versus the ability to bring new customers online? And can you just help us understand from the outside looking in, what are going to be the biggest drivers of revenue and EBITDA growth as those come online?

Okay. Well, first of all, the markets that we're in, primarily for monetizing our satellites now, mostly mobility markets, and that includes aeronautical, both private aviation and public -- commercial aviation, maritime, primarily vertical and maritime on large enterprise ships, and then government. So what we're aiming for -- those are the biggest uses. We also have fixed consumer use, which has obviously been declining over time, mostly because the other markets are a lot more attractive. The -- and then, the other major mobility market is government mobility. So we expect growth in basically all those markets. Probably the one -- right now, the one that's growing -- the ones that are growing fastest are aviation and government. They're both growing from a combination of more bandwidth use per platform and more platforms. So those are really going to be kind of the keys to success. The aviation market is still relatively lightly penetrated, maybe in the range of 30-ish percent, I think, on a global basis. Some of the market segments that are lower penetrated are going to be more challenging. But I think that the addition of more satellites, more capacity is going to help address those, those being more of the international markets and also more of the low-cost carrier markets. So in general, what you're seeing [indiscernible] kind of our transmission markets is lower unit cost of bandwidth, but overtaken by much larger growth in consumption on a per unit basis. So that's the, what we call, ARPA, average revenue per aircraft, in the aviation market. We're seeing the same effects in the maritime market where consumption is growing because of new applications. We'll also see the same in aeronautical and are certainly seeing the same in aviation. So the simple message is similar vertical markets, more platforms, more usage per platform. I think we'll also be able to bring -- because we're getting large infusions of bandwidth, we will bring some of that bandwidth into the fixed markets as well, both consumer -- and we're seeing some opportunities for growth in fixed enterprise as well.

Okay. And then, you continue to talk about the benefits of vertical integration last quarter and this quarter, it seems, increasingly. It'd be good to get an update on the DAT strategic review and where you all are in terms of your thinking there. And as the satellites go into service, does that color how you think about whether a split makes sense or anything around timing?

Okay. Yes. When it comes to the DAT segment, I mean, right now, what we're seeing is really good growth in the -- in those parts of the business that are in the DAT part. So that's Defense and Advanced Technology. That's going to be the fastest-growing part of our business. That will be reflected in new awards. I think this was a strong quarter for new awards. Our pipeline is really attractive. And I think that we'll provide updates as we get -- as we execute contracts. Some of those contracts, you'll see possibly in defense -- in defense announcements before we can make those announcements, and keep an eye on that. And in terms of the review, it's ongoing. The main thing that we're looking at is what those particular contracts are and what the criteria are for winning them. So think of it as we -- clearly, our DAT business is going to grow. I'll give you one example, which is, in PTS-G, part of the award there was around technology that is building low-cost, affordable proliferated satellites, but another part of it is actually operating those satellites. So it's interesting to note that among the bidders, the ones that were successful were the ones that can both -- could both provide technology and the operational capabilities. The government is looking, especially in the proliferated environment, for new mechanisms for operating satellites as well. So that -- some of that -- while the original awards will be reflected in the DAT segment, in the longer term, we expect to see communications -- government communication services revenue as well. And if you look at our pipeline of new awards, that notion of integrated, both technology development and technology production, combined with operational capability, is a recurring theme. So the very first thing on our [ pledge ] is just to capture the awards, build the value of the DAT segment. And what we're doing is we're having an ongoing evaluation of how do we best position that, right, for the benefit of shareholders? What is the best way for shareholders to benefit? And right now, while the DAT segment is co-resident with our operating -- our services businesses, we don't have to worry about how we divide up the margins associated with that among different equity holders. So we're looking -- what we're looking at is, what is the best way to do that? It's possible that we continue to keep them together under one roof. We do that for some period of time. But the issue is that doing a separation is a little bit of a one-way door. We want to make sure that at the time we do that, if we do that, we do it in a way that most benefits shareholders.

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Ratzer with New Street Research.

I had a couple, please. Just one, just really appreciate an update on plans for Equatys, if possible, please. And then, secondly, just interested to explore if we can quantify how much new capacity is coming on with these new satellites. I mean, obviously, that's pretty exciting. There's a material growth coming on. But can you help us to kind of just think about that from a kind of quantitative perspective, what percentage increase in capacity, how many kind of gigabits or terabits per second come on with these new satellites over the next few years?

Okay. Yes. So in terms of Equatys, our intent with the next major announcement would be the funding of the initial satellite constellation. That's really the catalyst for the next round of disclosures. And that will -- that really will be the answer to the second part of your question, which is how much new capacity will come online. Let's see, the -- I'm not going to talk about the timing of that announcement, but that is -- what we're focused on is the details of a satellite constellation procurement for Equatys and then what that means for each of the users of the Equatys constellation, with us and Space42 being the 2 largest and initial users of it. In terms of the amount of increase in capacity, that's going to be orders of magnitude. The amount of capacity on a per satellite basis is going to be hundreds or thousands of relative -- remember, capacity -- the relative capacity is a function not only of the satellites, but also of the types of terminals that are using them. When used in the types of applications that we do -- that we have now, it will be in the 1,000 to 10,000-ish amount of total capacity on a global basis for the new constellation. So, that will cover higher speeds, higher volume, higher density of usage associated with these evolved MSS applications, some of which we think will be pretty substantial growth in that, especially for things like unmanned vehicles, both land and air vehicles, that's going to have -- that's going to consume a lot of growth. And then, also -- but we expect that we'll be able to apply a lot of that capacity towards other markets, too, especially the D2D market and government markets. But that -- I think the increase in capacity is going to be in orders of magnitude. We'll be able to find that more clearly when we describe the initial constellation in more detail.

And how much [ of it ] also just comes on from the kind of the F2 and the F3, just the kind of the GEO satellites in the immediate future?

So the -- from a -- I'll say, so the F2 and F3 satellites are Ka-band. Those are broadband satellites. Those require directional antennas. The Equatys constellation will be mobile satellite services band, which is the L&S band. So we don't -- there will be -- think of it as a continuum of missions. So we'll have aeronautical uses for broadband, which will scale with different platforms. We'll also have aeronautical uses for L&S band. But what I was referring to before and with Equatys, that will be the L&S band frequencies, and F2 and F3 will cater that.

Your next question comes from the line of Sebastiano Petti with JPMorgan.

I guess, just following up on Brent's question about the strategic review. I mean, Mark, what -- has the landscape shifted that would dictate that we're closing in on 2 years of the strategic review? And it seems as though -- I mean, is the target -- is it a moving target? I understand the complexities associated with the strategic review. But can you perhaps kind of opine on whether or not there are additional complexities that have evolved over time, including the potential to monetize a portion of the spectrum via sale or via lease that has perhaps created this elongated strategic review time line? Because I think given commentary about the synergies and the merits of keeping the businesses together, it seems as though the feedback -- it seems as though that -- it seems decreasing in likelihood that we will get a separation. And that just seems to be the public -- the messaging. And so, I just want to see if we are closing one door in terms of the strategic review in terms of a separation and is spectrum more front and center within that strategic review? Just trying to understand the different moving pieces and how we should kind of think about that and whether or not -- again, whether or not Equatys also kind of plays into that as well because I think last quarter, we talked about maybe going down a dual path. Is that still something that you would consider at this point?

Okay. Yes. The purpose of the strategic -- the purpose of the strategic review has been and remains to be delivering value to shareholders, right? That's the purpose of it. The issue is that we're in a very dynamic business environment, geopolitical environment. That's what -- the question is, do we come up with a strategy that is pertinent or relevant to what the competitive situation is and the value of our resources and assets. And so, the first thing that we had to deal with were some internal issues associated with potential separation. And that includes -- the 2 big ones that we had highlighted at the time was, one, bringing Flights 2 and 3 into service, making sure that satellites deployed directly and now we can bring them into service. We're at the tail end of those. I think we're going to retire those risks. There were also some risks associated with the separate debt silos from the Inmarsat and Viasat, from the Inmarsat acquisition. I think those things are becoming more clear as well. But the biggest factor and one of the ones that we've also highlighted is the competitive posture of the combined company relative to the separate companies. And clearly, the multiples associated with the defense business are really attractive with the stand-alone business. That is one of the things that we've been -- that's prompted that review. But the other thing is the thing behind that is that you want a defense business that's going to grow rapidly. And so, we -- the very first thing we're trying to preserve is make sure that our defense business grows rapidly, which we believe it is. And we also -- what we believe as well, and some of that will become more evident over the next couple of quarters as we win or lose specific contracts or -- and learn what the reasoning is behind that customer decisions. But right now, our prospects -- so we're really optimistic about our prospects, and those prospects do involve dual-use applications. And that is -- if you look on a competitive basis in the space segment, dual use does seem to be a really important theme both in the U.S. and globally. And that's because of reasons that we've talked about before, which is the cost of putting assets in space and the potential for monetizing those assets in the commercial market when they're not used for defense applications. And then, the other one -- the other thing that's becoming really, really clear, you can certainly see that from what's going on in the Middle East as well, is that more and more commercial infrastructure is targeted. So there will be -- certainly will be benefits from having the same or related types of resilience techniques for commercial use. Things like navigation positioning, timing, communications, access to situational awareness, all those things are becoming more important for commercial assets as well. So while we're -- I'd say, while we're on a good run in the DAT business, we're probably going to make sure that we understand that because we don't want to prematurely separate the businesses. That's probably the single biggest factor on the DAT side. On the spectrum side, what we're also seeing is a rapidly evolving environment where the competitive dynamics, especially in the D2D space, are really -- they're in turmoil because of the issue about whether, let's say, nonterrestrial networks are intended to augment terrestrial networks or compete with terrestrial networks. That has a really big impact on the competitive environment. And the choices of some nonterrestrial network operators will create opportunities for others. So we're definitely seeing the effects of that. So again, what we -- our real near-term focus is to increase the value of our spectrum by being able to address some of these larger markets to validate not just what the transactional value of the spectrum is, but what the value of it would be when brought into use, whether it's by us or others, to make sure that we can put our spectrum to the highest purposes. And that -- I think that Equatys is going to help us frame that. So that's what we're going to continue to do. I think we're not going to make a premature decision on either spectrum or DAT separation, while the competitive environment is so dynamic.

Your next question comes from the line of Justin Lang with Morgan Stanley.

Mark, you called out AI-driven autonomy across domains as presenting a growth catalyst for you. I'm hoping maybe you could sort of expand on that a little bit. Is that sort of a nod to drones? Or is that getting at something else? Any color there around sort of opportunity sizing and time frame would be great as well.

Yes. So just in terms of the aeronautical safety requirement, drones are certainly a really big potential growth area. And for drones, one of the things to look at is, there was a notice of proposed rulemaking from the Department of Transportation about how the U.S. would handle autonomous air vehicles. And it requires some backup -- assuming that the primary -- well, the simple thing to think of is think about what's happened with autonomous ground vehicles. They get confused sometimes. They have the option of pulling over to the side of the road. You don't have that option with an air vehicle, right? So it's really, really important that air vehicles have continuous and uninterrupted transmission for command and control telemetry. So, that is one of the things that's addressed in that. That will be a special purpose application. It's very directly related to some of our existing -- to some of our existing missions in air traffic safety. Even with commercial air traffic, there's lots of interest in, for instance, autonomous copilots, single pilot vehicles, where there's -- you can see that there's some overlap between -- or a continuum between completely unmanned ones and the manned aerial vehicles. So we -- that's a really good target area for us. For unmanned land vehicles, there's another aspect of it, which is that besides the just command and control part of it, it opens up a lot more applications for passenger use of those vehicles, a lot of which likely would be through 5G terrestrial networks, but would certainly be augmented by nonterrestrial networks. So those are 2 examples. The other really big example is the use of autonomous drones, land, sea and air, in government applications. So that's clearly a rapidly growing area as well. So those are some of the ones that we're keeping current in terms of working with potential customers, making sure our technology is appropriate for those.

Got it. That's great color. And then, maybe just one on the PTS-G win. It looks like the contract has a $4 billion ceiling value. And Gary, maybe you could help us understand what you've booked so far and how the task orders work here. Just trying to get a sense of how the program might ramp and over what time frame and if there are any major deltas between sort of revenue recognition and cash receipts to be aware of here. I would be grateful for any color there.

Okay. So we booked what we've been awarded thus far. There's 2 components to it. There's a base order and there are some options. What's in the backlog is the order that we received, does not include the options. I'm sorry, I'm not sure I entirely followed the remainder of that question. Maybe you could repeat it for me. Was it about revenue recognition?

Well, just over what time frame that ceiling might be exercised and how to think about potential task orders being cut from here?

More of an operational question. We're going to -- we will recognize revenue and we'll have earnings in that program based on how we're spending against the long-term program value. We'll book it as percent complete accounting, the way we do with the remainder of our contracts that are like this.

Yes. Different companies treat these delivery order contracts differently. What we do is, we only put it in backlog or count it as an order when we have a firm delivery order against the delivery order contract. Some contractors will -- some people will we'll just announce the value of that, consider that backlog. What we do is, we have a separate -- we'll separately describe the total value of delivery order contracts that we can work against, but that's not the same as backlog for us. In this particular case, I think the next increases in delivery orders against the contract would be either for more copies of the same satellite, which is -- that's one possibility. The other one would be for subsequent generations of the satellite, which we also expect that the government will go probably to some extent in both of those directions.

Your next question comes from the line of Edison Yu with Deutsche Bank.

So firstly, I have a bit of a maybe shallow question, so apologies. If I look at the last quarter shareholder letter, I think Equatys was mentioned 10 times. And if you look at the shareholder letter today, I don't think it was mentioned once. So are we just reading too much into that? Is there some type of maybe relative change in just your stance or in the timing of Equatys as it pertains to a quarter ago?

Short answer is, no. I think what we're holding up for is to have the next announcement, which really would be about the Equatys' purchase of its initial satellite constellation. So once we can announce that, that's when we will do it. And we just decided just to wait for that.

Okay. And then, just a follow-up. I know spectrum has been asked about several times, but maybe if we kind of refer to the -- I don't know if you looked at the Amazon-Globalstar proxy, but it seems there are at least 4 bidders out there for MSS spectrum. And I'm curious kind of -- I mean, in your discussions and kind of what's been going on behind the scenes, does that sound like what the market looks like to you, call it like 4 bidders out there that are really interested? Any way you can comment on that?

Well, I think that -- I mean, that was a transaction where we get more insight into it. Yes, there were 4 bidders. I think that the number of bidders is going to depend both on -- like on other spectrum -- if you think of a potential spectrum transaction, it's going to be both the unit value, or you think of it as price per megahertz-pop per market area. But that's one way that you'll see what the amount of interest is. The other one is going to be on the volume of that -- the size of that transaction, the amount of spectrum that's available. So, that was one data point. I think more recently, there's probably going to be some disclosure around an Iridium data point. And we're paying -- yes, we're paying attention to all that. And then, as -- just on the other side, again, we think that the transactional value should be -- should grow with the development value, right? So what we're trying to make sure we understand is, what is the development value of the spectrum and what's the transaction value, and then we can decide strategically what makes the most sense for us.

And your next question comes from the line of Ryan Koontz with Needham & Company.

Maybe just first one on maritime. It seems like it's maybe not keeping up with some of your expectations with some of the installs and such. Can you maybe expand on how you see that market developing here in the short to medium term and things you're doing to counteract that?

Yes. I mean, there are several values -- several variables at play in the maritime market. One is the rate at which we can do installations. Some of that -- where we have customers that have made commitments for portions of their fleet, getting those portions installed are kind of gates to getting additional orders. But also, the market is somewhat -- let's think of it as the distribution channel to market is a little bit fragmented as well. And so, I think we're doing really well where -- with our direct relationships. Some of the indirect relationships are going to require more work because of some of the incentives that have existed in the past for some of the resellers and aggregators of satellite capacity. I think as demand is going up that more and more -- I think that those aggregators will turn to arrangements with the few satellite operators that really have the ability to serve the most congested and densest markets. So I think we've got a couple of things that we're working through. I think the biggest thing is so far -- and we're closing in on a couple of thousand vessels connected. I think customer satisfaction is good. The ability to deliver as essentially the same as a LEO-only solution is pretty clear. So that's the thing that we're most focused on is the value proposition to the end users. I think that part is going well. The rest -- I think we do have some logistics stuff. I don't mean to minimize that. I think we're making progress on that. And then, I think we're also working on the distribution. Those will be the factors that will drive longer-term penetration.

Really helpful, Mark. And maybe if you could just expand on your role in like the space systems business. Obviously, it's a very hot segment, and you guys have talked about growth this year. What do you see as some of the drivers there of your space systems business?

Yes. So in DAT, we have a part called mission systems. And what we're seeing are opportunities all across the board. I mean, there are -- think of it as short-term issues with existing government space assets that are expiring and they're looking for commercial versions. That's some combination of defense, civil, special mission stuff. We're seeing opportunities there. We're also seeing the government wanting to consolidate the ways that they manage and control systems, refreshes on the ground system, refreshes on the terminals. The other really big thing that's become an issue is, think of it as what we made like tactical radios for fighter jets or ground vehicles. And often, you'll find integration is a really big issue, getting a system distributed within the platform that it's serving. So, that's creating opportunities for us as well. And then, there are some new -- just really new areas around space-to-space links. We're doing well in that. Optical, space-to-space, space-to-ground, those are opportunities. It's just a real -- I mean, that is -- space in general is really booming area for us. And I think that's what you're going to see when it comes to award opportunities for us in the next year.

And with no further questions in queue, I will now hand the call back over to Mark for closing remarks.

Okay. So thanks, everybody, for joining our call. I know that it is a really dynamic environment out there. We're excited about that. I think kind of the numbers that are most attractive to us and most exciting for us are both kind of the new order rate, especially in the DAT segment, which includes technology on both the government and commercial side. We think technology is going to be the leading indicator for awards growth. And we've got a really good pipeline. I think that will develop over just the next few quarters. We'll be able to talk about that. And the other point that I want to reinforce is that the technology is really the leading edge of what drives our services and recurring revenue business. So I think that, that's going to help us overcome some of the increased competition in some of our older parts of our business. But basically, all the things where we're seeing growth are well within kind of the target area that we've been working for probably decades. So thanks for joining us and look forward to speaking again next quarter.

Thank you again for joining us today. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.