This afternoon, we also filed a slide presentation with our earnings release and posted the presentation to the Investor section of our website under Events and Presentations. I'll begin by summarizing our quarterly performance, followed by Kevin, who will review our financial results in greater detail, and then discuss guidance for Fiscal Year 2026. government shutdown, we delivered excellent financial results and achieved several strategic milestones that we believe position AV for strong, sustained growth well into the future. The total ceiling value of new contract awards during Q2 reached $3.5 billion, a historic record achievement by AV.

We also made significant progress on multiple programs of record that we believe will solidify our leadership in all of the domains in which we participate: air, land, sea, space, and cyber. With strong top-line growth expected on the horizon, we are executing on our expansion plans to further scale our manufacturing capacity and meet accelerating demand across several of our products and programs. Our proven execution capabilities, combined with the robust pipeline of orders and operational readiness, reinforce our confidence in achieving our industry-leading long-term growth objectives. Second, we also achieved another record Q2 revenue of nearly $473 million.

Third, we launched several new innovative products aligned to our customers' highest priorities and continue to execute on expanding our manufacturing capacity to meet accelerated demand. And fourth, we're raising the lower end of our Fiscal Year 2026 revenue guidance and now expect revenues between $1.95 billion and $2 billion. AV Halo, our open architecture software platform, is designed to unify command and control, intelligence analysis, synthetic training, and autonomous targeting across all domains, creating advanced communication among critical assets during conflict. Moreover, we expect that AV Halo's ability to enable competing products to operate on a common command and control software system will play an increasingly crucial role in U.S.

What went well
  • Set an all-time booking record of nearly $1.4 billion on a historic $3.5 billion of total new contract ceiling value, achieved despite the U.S. government shutdown.
  • Achieved record Q2 revenue of $472.5 million, up 151% as reported and 9% pro forma, with legacy AV organic growth of 21%.
  • Won major awards including a $499 million U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Helmsman contract, an $874 million sole-source FMS IDIQ, a $240 million long-haul laser communications contract, and two BADGER phased-array systems under the SCAR program.
  • P550 was down-selected for the U.S. Army's ~$1 billion Long-Range Reconnaissance (LRR) program, JUMP 20/JUMP 20X was selected as one of four options on a U.S. Navy basic ordering agreement, and AV won the Army's HMIF program with AV as lead software/system integrator.
  • Launched several new products (Switchblade 600 Block 2, Switchblade 400, Switchblade 300 Block 20, VAPOR CLE, AV Halo Cortex and Mentor) and raised the low end of full-year revenue guidance to $1.95-$2.0 billion, with visibility to the midpoint improving to 93%.
  • BlueHalo integration was described as exceeding expectations, and precision strike/counter-UAS revenue grew nearly 38% year-over-year on a pro forma basis.
What went wrong
  • Adjusted gross margin fell to 27% from 41% a year earlier, hurt by higher service mix, early-stage product maturation, and shutdown-driven unfavorable mix.
  • Adjusted EBITDA margin was only 9.5% ($45 million), and adjusted EPS declined to $0.44 from $0.47.
  • The Oracle Fusion ERP go-live during the quarter caused operational inefficiencies and one-time costs.
  • The elongated U.S. government shutdown delayed FMS shipments and cost the company revenue in the Space, Cyber & Directed Energy segment, shifting projected revenue to the right (second-half revenue split roughly 45% Q3 / 55% Q4).
  • Full-year non-GAAP adjusted EPS guidance was lowered to $3.40-$3.55 due to a higher projected full-year tax rate, largely from the Q2 update to the BlueHalo purchase-price allocation.
  • Cyber mission systems revenue declined, largely from discontinued programs and the impact of the government shutdown.

Guidance Changes

MetricPeriodCurrent guidance
FY2026 revenue$1.95B-$2.0B (raised low end; ~15% growth at midpoint over pro forma FY2025)
FY2026 adjusted EBITDA$300M-$320M (maintained; 15%-16% of revenue)
FY2026 adjusted EPS$3.40-$3.55 (lowered on higher full-year tax rate from BlueHalo PPA update)
Visibility to revenue midpoint93%
Second-half revenue split~45% Q3 / 55% Q4; ~70% of second-half EBITDA in Q4
Adjusted gross margin (full year)low 30s%, improving to high 30s% by Q4

Performance Breakdown

MetricYoYNote
Total revenue +151% as reported (+9% pro forma; legacy AV organic +21%) Record Q2 revenue despite government shutdown-related delays in FMS shipments and SCDE revenue.
Autonomous Systems (AxS) revenue +15.7% vs FY2025 pro forma Precision strike and counter-UAS up ~38% (Switchblade 600, Titan); uncrewed systems up 8% (over 50% ex-Ukraine, driven by JUMP 20).
Space, Cyber & Directed Energy (SCDE) revenue similar to prior-year pro forma Space and directed energy up over 20% (LOCUST a key driver), offset by cyber mission systems decline from discontinued programs and the shutdown.
Adjusted gross margin down from 41% Higher service mix, early-stage product maturation, Oracle Fusion ERP go-live inefficiencies/one-time costs, and unfavorable mix plus lost SCDE revenue from the government shutdown.
Adjusted EBITDA up from $25.9M Incremental BlueHalo results, partly offset by one-time costs and shutdown impacts.
Adjusted EPS (diluted) down from $0.47 Higher service/product mix pressure, one-time ERP costs and shutdown effects.
Adjusted SG&A up from $33.2M (17.6%) Combination with BlueHalo; leverage improving as a percent of revenue.
R&D expense up from $28.7M (15.2%) Business-model shift; higher absolute R&D on larger combined company.
Cash and investments New balance sheet post-BlueHalo and Q1 financing.
Total contract award ceiling Multiple large awards across both segments.
Bookings Key program wins.
Funded backlog End of Q2.
Unfunded backlog End of Q2 (per the backlog summary).

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

TopicPrevious mentionCurrent periodTrend
Government shutdownElongated U.S. government shutdown delayed orders/FMS shipments and lost SCDE revenue, shifting projected revenue into later quarters.
BlueHalo integrationProgressing ahead of plan (Q1)Exceeding expectations; positioning AV as a premier next-generation defense-tech company.
Software / interoperabilityExpanded AV Halo (Cortex, Mentor) and announced OpenJAUS collaboration to extend interoperability across robots, drones, missiles and ground vehicles.
ERP / systemsWent live on Oracle Fusion ERP in the cloud; caused near-term inefficiencies and one-time costs but positions the company for multi-billion-dollar scale.

Q&A Summary

How did the government shutdown affect the quarter and the outlook?
Management said DoW contract activity continued progressing despite the shutdown, but it delayed FMS shipments and cost SCDE revenue, pushing projected revenue to the right with a second-half split of roughly 45% Q3 / 55% Q4.
Why was adjusted EPS guidance lowered even as revenue guidance rose?
The lower non-GAAP EPS range reflects a higher full-year projected tax rate, largely driven by the Q2 update to the purchase-price allocation for the BlueHalo acquisition.
What drove the record awards and bookings?
Total new contract ceiling value reached $3.5 billion and bookings nearly $1.4 billion, driven by wins including Helmsman ($499M), the $874M FMS IDIQ, long-haul laser communications, two BADGERs under SCAR, HMIF and the LRR down-select.

More on AeroVironment Inc

Reported 2025-12-09 · figures from the AeroVironment Inc Q2 2026 earnings call.

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