Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) saw its third-quarter revenue for 2021 increase 1 percent to $2.3 billion and reported $3.65 in diluted earnings per share.
The Newport News, Virginia-based shipbuilding company said Thursday it recorded $600 million in Q3 2021 new contract awards and a total backlog of about $50.1 billion as of Sept. 30.
“We are pleased with the third quarter results that represent another quarter of consistent shipbuilding program execution while we continue to navigate the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mike Petters, president and CEO of HII and a previous Wash100 Award winner.
“During the quarter we closed the acquisition of Alion Science and Technology, and as we work to integrate it into our Technical Solutions division, we remain very excited about the significant growth avenues across the combined business that we believe will drive significant long-term value creation,” added Peters.
Petters told CNBC in an interview posted Friday that the Alion acquisition brings new capabilities that could enable HII to support national security requirements amid power competition with countries like China.
“If you think about what national security looks like over the next may 10 or 20 years, there’s going to be more unmanned platforms, there’s going to be more artificial intelligence involved, things are going to be more highly networked. We’re going to have to be able to get folks trained faster and it’s going to be more relevant training. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance are all going to be very important. Our sense is that’s where the puck is going. … So we’re trying to go there,” Petters said. “We closed on Alion just this quarter and those are the things that Alion brings to our business and allows us to go and help create a viable path to that secure future.”
Third-quarter revenue in the Technical Solutions business rose by $74 million to $394 million driven by the parent company’s purchase of Alion in August. Contract awards reported by the Technical Solutions segment during the quarter include a potential $346 million contract with U.S. Africa Command and a potential $273 million contract with the U.S. Navy for aircraft carrier and surface ship maintenance support.
HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding business recorded $628 million in Q3 revenues, while sales of the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding segment reached $1.4 billion during the quarter.
