Following lower profit margins, Raytheon has taken steps to put "normal best practices" in place in its missile systems business unit, the company's chief executive said today.
Speaking to analysts, Tom Kennedy said the company changed out the business unit's leadership and audited its programs, using its program management and best practices approach.
"It was more tune-ups across the board," he said, adding that the company sees a "lot of upside potential in the future" in the segment.
"We're just putting our normal best practices in place on program management," Kennedy said, noting the company completed a "deep dive on programs that had some of the issues."
He added that the missile systems business has "a lot of development activities going on."
"We're really trying to accelerate those development programs and drive them into production," Kennedy said.
He told analysts the unit is "in the midst of negotiating two five-year multiyear" contracts, for Standard Missile-6 and SM-3. Those two deals, Kennedy said, will significantly increase the unit's factory base.
Meanwhile, Raytheon said today sales in its most recent quarter reached $7.2 billion, up 8% from the same three-month period a year earlier.
The company said quarterly profit hit $817 million, up 2% from the prior year.
Raytheon's space and airborne systems business saw the largest sales increase, posting a 13% boost. The company attributed the gains to increased sales on classified programs, the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared program and an international tactical radar systems program.
The company's intelligence, information and services business posted the largest increase in profit, reporting a 26% boost. Raytheon attributed the increase to "higher net program efficiencies."