A new McAleese & Associates report says Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) defense, space and security business reported $6.6B in sales for the second quarter of 2019, showing an 8 percent increase from the same period last year.
Jim McAleese, founder and principal of McAleese & Associates and a 2019 Wash100 winner, wrote the BDS segment saw its profit jump 159 percent to $975M.
Boeing said Wednesday its defense business reached a backlog of $64B during the second quarter and posted an operating margin of 14.7 percent in Q2 2019, reflecting an 8.5 percentage point increase due to a gain on a property sale and lower cost growth on the KC-46 tanker aircraft program.
The business segment secured contracts covering the Air Force’s Joint Direct Attack Munition and Wideband Global Satellite Communication; U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 service life modification and the U.S. Army’s MH-47G Block II Chinook helicopters.
Boeing also cited notable milestones in the quarter, including the completion of the final parachute test for the Starliner commercial crew spacecraft and the first flight test of the T-X Trainer aircraft.
The company’s global services sector saw its Q2 sales grow 11 percent to $4.5B. The segment’s profit climbed 14 percent to $687M with an operating margin of 15.1 percent, according to the report.
McAleese noted that Boeing issued a “no-bid” threat on the U.S. Air Force’s potential $63B Ground Based Strategic Deterrent downselect, proposing options of a “national team,†the service’s supply of solid-rocket motors as “government-furnished equipment” to both GBSD offerors, or exclusion of SRMs from GBSD cost evaluation.
