Rapid Fire Jan. 24, 2013: Aerospace Continues to Outperform IT

• In 2012 Lockheed Martin increased its yearly sales by 1.5% to $47.2B. Growth in aeronautics compensated lost ground in information system, confirming a pattern seen for the last two years and across contractors. Total backlog reached a record $82.3B (+$1.6B from a year earlier).

• General Dynamics reported its Q4 and full 2012 results. Revenue for the quarter dropped Y/Y by 11.7% to $8.08B, leading to a $2.1B loss. Revenue for the whole year reached $31.5B, down 3.6% from 2011, at a $332M loss. Combat and Information systems lost about 10% in Y/Y sales, while Aerospace grew by 15%, putting this segment ahead of a slightly decreasing Marine division. In 2011 aerospace was similarly pulling ahead of the company’s other lines of business. Total backlog (i.e. including unfunded IDIQ contracts and options) is at $78.1B, 57% of which is funded. That’s a drop of 8.5% of the total backlog, though its funded part barely budged.

• United Technologies grew its topline by 4% to $57.7B in 2012 thanks to its acquisitions of Goodrich and IAE. Their military aerospace activities have been holding rather well [PDF].

• The GAO notes that the Pentagon’s Militarily Critical Technologies List (MCTL), which is meant to inform export decisions, is still left unattended. Move along, there’s nothing to see here.

• DID finally heard back from the US Air Force’s Public Affairs on the Light Air Support (LAS) recompete. Major Maureen Schumann tells us: