Orbital ATK reports bolstered sales, profit

Orbital ATK said today sales in 2016 reached $4.5 billion, up 2 percent from 2015.

The company reported profit for the year of $292 million, roughly double the profit of 2015. Orbital merged with ATK's aerospace and defense businesses in early 2015.

Orbital ATK attributed its revenue boost to a large sales increase in its space systems group as well as a small boost in its defense systems business. The company said its profit grew because it didn't have to pay merger transaction costs.

During a morning call with analysts, Dave Thompson, Orbital ATK's chief executive, said the company is making progress on the product development initiatives it announced about a year earlier. These efforts, he said, are meant to "accelerate and to sustain our topline revenue growth over the next four to five years."

In its flight systems group, the company is working with the Air Force on a program to create "a new family of intermediate and large-class space launch vehicles," he said.

The potential five-year jointly funded effort with the Air Force is now in its second year, Thompson said.

"The company's investments in 2016 and '17 -- along with those of the Air Force -- cover the initial phase of design and development work," he added. "We expect a go-no-go decision in late 2017 or in early 2018 concerning the next phase of activity to actually build and test this new launch vehicle family."

Orbital ATK's defense systems business is working on a three-year research and development program to field a family of advanced medium-caliber ammunition.

"Last month, we demonstrated for customers the first product in this family, a 30 mm airburst round that works in conjunction with our market-leading medium-caliber gun systems," Thompson said. "In the past three or four months, we also conducted successful flight tests of our proprietary technology for miniature proximity fuzes and active guidance in similar medium-caliber ammo rounds.

"Over the next two years, we aim to introduce these advanced precision features into multiple ammo calibers from 25 to 40 mm and, over time, across thousands of existing and new ground, sea and air-based gun platforms," he continued. "We expect initial production deliveries of advanced ammo and related products to commence in late 2017 or early 2018."