7/29/2022

speaker
Operator

Greetings. Welcome to the L3 Harris Technologies second quarter calendar year 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Today's call will be focused on questions and answers following brief opening remarks. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Rajiv Lawani, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

speaker
Rajiv Lawani

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2022 earnings call. We published our investor letter after the market closed yesterday, a streamlined format that we're pleased to continue given the positive feedback. So today's call will be focused primarily on answering your questions. Joining me for the call are Chris Cubasek, our CEO, and Michelle Turner, our CFO. A few words on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. Forward-looking statements involve risks, assumptions, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For more information, please see our investor letter and SEC filings. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in the investor relations section of our website, which is L3Harris.com, where a replay of this call will also be available. With that, Chris, I'll turn it over to you for some brief comments.

speaker
Rob

Okay, thank you, Rajiv, and good morning, everyone. I'm encouraged by our progress as we continue to execute our trusted disruptor strategy. We're investing in targeted capabilities in and outside of the company. And we've had over $1 billion in notable prime awards this month alone. And we're pursuing international expansion as our customers need mission-critical solutions in a rapidly changing threat environment. We're also encouraged by how budgets are shaping up globally. The threats are evident, and there's growing urgency to support defense spending in the US, NATO, and elsewhere. This is a stark contrast to a couple years ago, where budgets were expected to be flat at best. Our book to bill of 1.14 in the quarter supports this shift in the budget environment. At the same time, there are factors outside of our control, such as supply chain, inflation, and labor market tightening, that are offsetting and masking our progress, as well as the opportunities ahead. Our results, however, highlight that we're working to mitigate these challenges. Our second quarter results are consistent with prior commentary of a back half-weighted year for revenues, margins, and cash. Nonetheless, we kept EPS relatively stable year over year, and our free cash flow snapped back from break-even last quarter to more than $700 million. In addition, while we're reiterating our guide, we're now pointing to the low end of the range across the board. Based on the timing of some key awards, including protest activity and a prolonged supply chain recovery, we decided to take a more measured approach, especially given the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties that are somewhat unpredictable. So despite the noise, we continue to execute on our strategy. With that, Rob, let's open the line for questions.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit yourself to one single part question. If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, and a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of David Strauss with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

speaker
David Strauss

Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

speaker
Rob

Yeah, good morning.

speaker
David Strauss

Chris, can you give us a lay of the land on F-35 and Tech Refresh 3 and whether you still see about a $150 million headwind there this year before beginning to recover in 23? And then bigger picture, you know, the investor letter did a great job of Highlighting the budget upside that came through in 22 and the plus ups that look likely in 23. When do you think that really begins to materialize for the industry in terms of seeing it come through in terms of the numbers? And how do you think your strategy positions you to capture that upside relative to your peers? Thanks.

speaker
Rob

All right, thanks, David. I think there were about three questions in there. Let me see if I can get them. Let me start with F35. Usually, I give a long answer and list all the components that we're involved with, but it really comes down to the ICP, the integrated core processor. So today, I think I'm going to give you a shorter answer because we actually completed The safety of flight certification and the first flight systems were delivered to Lockheed Martin last month. So great news relative to TR3 and meeting that delivery. A little late, but nonetheless, it's progressing. So our LOC 15 hardware starts getting delivered later this year. And the whole focus here is to support Lockheed to enable their 2023 aircraft delivery. So feeling much better about the progress the team has made. I know they worked a lot of long nights and weekends to get here. So I appreciate that effort and your financial numbers remain accurate based on what we've told you before. Relative to the strategy, I think it's working. We've talked about this trusted disruptor strategy with more innovation, more prime, and more international. So when I look at the innovation, this quarter we made a small investment in a free space optic company called Mineric. We've had a handful of investments with Shield through our venture capital. And we continue to spend a fair amount in IR&D to position us for new wins. The goal to prime more has been great. You know, last year and earlier this year, significant wins in ISR and MUSV, HBTSS, and of course, we've been winning a majority of the share on the radio modernization programs. I mentioned so far this year, SDA tracking, tranche one was a big win. And here in the month of July, we were also awarded CEC, which is a cooperative engagement capability. really a pillar of the JADC2 initiative for the Navy, which I'm quite excited about. And another program we're priming called EAGLE, which is the Expeditionary Advanced Ground Link, again, tied to free space optics. So pretty excited there. And then internationally, you know, at a high level, we've had mid-single-digit growth the past couple years. Our book-to-bill has always been over 1.0. And I think the ability to have these focus countries and put the resources where we think the opportunities are makes a lot of sense. And just last month, you know, we added Poland and Italy to our focus country program, given the opportunities over in Europe. As far as when we're going to see it, I think it's just a matter of getting the 23 budget. You know, we've been tracking the markups. We're very excited. to see that our programs are supported, the opportunities we're chasing are supported. So whether the base budget or the markup, we're very well positioned, including some of the news coming out of the Senate earlier this week. So, you know, we basically need a budget. I think everybody thinks there'll be a CR. So I'm guessing 23, you know, when the awards are made, we'll start to see industry and L3 Harris benefit. Thanks.

speaker
Operator

The next question is from the line of Sheila Kaiglu with Jefferies. Please receive your question.

speaker
Sheila Kaiglu

Good morning, guys. Thank you for the time, and I'm going to try to follow the rules. Just to follow up on David's question, for SAS, the top line is accelerating to mid-single-digit growth from low single-digit decline in the first half. Can you talk about the drivers of that improvement? How much is coming from the space business accelerating versus better avionics and EW volumes, and how do you think about the growth going forward? given some of the progress on F-35?

speaker
Rob

Yeah, I'll take the first shot and then maybe ask Michelle to give a little more color on the sectors. But, you know, space is clearly our fastest growing sector in the company. This win that we had earlier this month for SDA tracking tranche one, is just a huge opportunity. If you recall, we won Tron Zero for four satellites. This is 14 satellites. Pretty excited about this particular win. And again, it's an example where we're priming. We have the payload capabilities And that's ultimately where the value resides. So as a reminder, $700 million award, 14 satellites. And it really ties into our responsive satellite strategy. A couple of years ago, it was non-existent. Now we have satellites in low Earth orbit. medium Earth orbit, and geosynchronous orbit. So it's really going well. I think at the date of the merger, we had no business with the Missile Defense Agency. Now we're smack in the middle of that growing business line. So I'm really pleased with where we are. I think the other day Michelle and I were looking. We have about a $20 billion pipeline in space alone. And when you look at our capabilities in missile defense, weather, Like I mentioned, all orbits and even ground capabilities. It's quite exciting. But Michelle, you want to talk about the rest of the sector?

speaker
Michelle

Yeah, no, you did a nice summary space in terms of high to mid single digits in terms of growth. From a Mission AVM Onyx perspective, this is the ramp that we talked about on F-35. So as we head into production, you'll see that come in the second half. And then also, Chris didn't mention it, but Intel and Cyber, right? Our classified business is continuing to grow as well. And we'll expect to see that ramp in the second half as well.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ron Epstein with Bank of America. Please receive your question.

speaker
Ron Epstein

Hi, good morning. This is Elizabeth on for Ron. How are you?

speaker
Rob

Hi, Elizabeth.

speaker
Ron Epstein

Hi. Can you give us some color and what you're seeing on the chip side of the supply chain and whether you're seeing an easing there or any sort of color you might be able to provide would be great.

speaker
Rob

Yeah, let me start just at a high level. I think at least at L3 Harris, I think the whole industry has now realized there's a new norm in supply chain and we're adapting to that as quickly as we we can. In the past, the whole focus was just in time inventory, inventory reductions, single sources, and you'd always go with the low-cost bidder without serious consideration on the certainty of supply and delivery. So we have multiple work streams going in parallel. And I think we're doing a pretty good job in the short term trying to mitigate and avoid the disruptions, but we're also looking how we revamp our supply chain resiliency for the long term. So I've mentioned in the past, we've invested in tools to get end to end visibility beyond tier one. You know, we're investing in critical materials, smart inventory, safety stock, which I understand builds our inventory balance. You'll see that on our balance sheet, but I think it's the right business decision. And we're trying to move to more localized and distributed production to shorten the whole supply chain network to get our parts even quicker. And then we're, you know, looking at multiple sources for every part. So a complete turnaround, almost a 180 from where we were three years ago. But this is the new norm in our opinion. This is what we're doing. Michelle, you want to talk a little bit about the headwinds and the recovery?

speaker
Michelle

Yeah, so just to frame it a little bit in terms of the numbers, to Chris's point, what's the same, right? So coming into the year, we anticipated that we would see a first half impact, particularly within electronic components. We are seeing that play out in terms of our first half results. Additionally, we also talked about seeing sequential quarter over quarter improvement. We are seeing that from Q4 into Q1. Additionally, from Q1 into Q2, albeit it is more modest than what we originally anticipated in our original guide back in January. So when you look at our guidance update pointing to the low end of the range, part of that is, to Chris's point, this elongation of the supply chain impacts that we're seeing out of 22 and into 2023. I'd also highlight the risk mitigations that Chris talked about in particular in terms of how those are working. We've been talking for six months about moving away from sole source suppliers along with redesigning parts. We're continuing to work those activities. Many of those start to come online in the second half and so that is part of where we're getting some of our confidence in terms of the recovery.

speaker
Chris

in second half with the results of those actions starting to take effect our next question comes from the line of richard saffron with c4 global please proceed with your question chris michelle rishi good morning how are you good morning um so um i i thought you might uh comment on the socom's armed overwatch program where you're competing with textron and also Could you talk a bit more about the improvement you mentioned in commercial aviation? I'm interested in what the back half growth outlook might be for that business, and if you think the momentum continues into 2023. Thanks.

speaker
Rob

All right, Rich. Let me take Armed Overwatch, and Michelle will talk to you about aviation. So, yeah, this is a program that goes back, you know, into late 19, early 2020, and it's We decided to take a clean sheet approach to this program to align with the requirements. The team has spent a fair amount of money in R&D and capital. We've had lots of demos that have gone well and we think position us in a good place to potentially win this program. You know, it's for 75 aircraft. It's clearly a couple billion dollar opportunity here domestically and even more internationally. There's a lot of need for this type of capability in countries that are fighting terrorism. We've had discussions. with countries in Africa, the Mideast, I think is where the initial potential is. You know, whether it's border protection or maritime operations, light strike, ISR, it's a pretty flexible, pretty affordable program. So we kind of have to wait and see. Hopefully something comes out in the next week or two. And I think it's a key one to watch, in my opinion. I know it's important to our company and it really would. validate our strategy and the thesis for the merger. Because we invested in the innovation. We started with the clean sheet. It's another opportunity to be a prime integrator. It has international potential. And it also has pulled through of our products, Westcam turrets, radios, weapon carriages, and EW capabilities. So we'll see what happens. I'm pretty excited about it. And maybe with that, we'll go to Michelle.

speaker
Michelle

Yeah, and I would just add to the armed overwatch in terms of second half ramp. When you look at our overall ISR business, this is part of our expectations in terms of growth, particularly around these aircraft missionizations. We didn't have those in the first half. So we're chasing three to five programs here. This is one of them. And so to Chris's point, we're excited about seeing this come online and hearing about a potential win. Back to the question on the commercial aviation. So we are continuing to see recovery. This will be our fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. The first half of the year, our overall commercial businesses, which also includes our public safety, was up double digits. And we anticipate that that's going to continue through the end of 2022.

speaker
Operator

Our next question is from the line of Peter Armit with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

speaker
Peter Armit

Yeah, good morning, Chris, Michelle, Rajiv. Hey, Chris, circling back a little bit to David's question on the budget. So 40% of L3's international revenues are in Europe, and I guess your total international book to bill has been averaging around one or above one the past 12 months. I guess specifically, what do you see kind of playing out for L3 in Europe? I mean, should we expect bookings to accelerate in 23, any kind of color there, just given all the budget actions and the Ukraine activity?

speaker
Rob

Yeah, no, I appreciate the question, Peter. Clearly, Clearly, we have opportunities in Europe. We've talked about some ISR capabilities that we've already won in the past, but we continue to add aircraft and we have a path to get to eight aircraft for this particular country. Clearly, with Ukraine, I think we have a core competency and a lot of experience working with the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the US AI money that's always been in the budget. So clearly, the radios, the night vision goggles, even some ISR capabilities position us well there. And as I mentioned, we're going to open offices in Europe. The NATO countries, Poland is a big opportunity. We've submitted a few bids, again, with comms, resilient comms, SATCOM, You know, at a high level, that's where I see us making the most progress in the near term. And, you know, it's even impacting our 2022 financials favorably, and I expect it to continue into 23.

speaker
Operator

The next question comes from the line of Doug Harnett with Bernstein. Pleased to see with your question.

speaker
Doug Harnett

Good morning. Thank you.

speaker
Rob

Hey, good morning, Doug.

speaker
Doug Harnett

I wanted to try and understand what's going on in tactical communications a little bit better. You've had a rising backlog, but at the same time, you've been constrained with supply chain issues. And what I wanted to get at is to understand, first, once the supply chain constraints ease up, What kind of trajectory do you expect to see as radios are delivered? A big surge or more of a long-term better growth outlook? And then along with that, we've seen you keep your margins. Margins have held pretty well, even though we've got a lot of inflation exposure and you've got these supply chain issues. I mean, how do you see the risks around margin there as you go forward if we see persistent inflation?

speaker
Rob

Okay, thanks. Let me take a few, make a few points, and then Michelle will give you the numbers. I mean, you're absolutely right. There's high demand for our radios, and I think that's one thing that the conflict in So, you know, we have opportunities in Australia, 300 million for what's called Delphic Phase 2 with the Australian Defense Force. You know, that's over 6,000 radios. We should hear on that maybe in the next month or two. We've talked about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the radios there. The first 4,000 or so cleared congressional notification. And in August, we're going to have our first article acceptance up in – Rochester and they've ordered a couple thousand more. So that's going through the congressional notification process, you know, in the UK, the Morpheus program again $100 million award approximately. So all those things are You know, building the backlog, as you say, I will highlight that I think it was last year. You know, we knew there was a supply chain shortage and would have to serve. So we invested in the capacity. So we now have more capacity. Michelle, we have the numbers, but we can clearly do to better and grow without any constraints. You know, last year we had about 20 suppliers on our red list, and now we're down to five that we're watching carefully. Obviously, we need all the parts, but but that's been been pretty, pretty helpful. The last thing I'll mention before giving to Michelle talked in the past how we re-engineer and redesign our our products or our components based on availability and just this week i was looking at our data we've actually redesigned over a thousand component parts in our products whether it's radios night vision goggles west cam balls to to to be able to make these commitments and continue to uh deliver our products so i'm pretty proud of our our engineering team and how they've been able to adapt so That's kind of at a high level. Michelle, you want to talk about the capacity and the ramp capability?

speaker
Michelle

Yeah, so good morning, Doug. So just to your point, in the first half, we did, consistent with our expectations, we did see our tactical communications down low double digits, really driven by the electronic component constraints. As we go into second half, We expect that that's going to grow in the high double digits. So to your point, we expect that that starts to ease from a capacity perspective. We've made the investments that Chris talked about. And continuing to see the electronic components improve is going to be critical for the second half and as we go into 2023. We do have an elevated backlog. To your point, it's about 1.5 billion. So we have a healthy backlog that we'll be looking at as we go into 2023. And additionally, I'd note to the international question, the international book to bill within technical communications is 1.15 within the quarter. And so this really speaks to the overall conflict environment, Ukraine opportunities that we're seeing. And we expect that that will be a benefit for us as we go into 2023. But a lot of these orders are also being considered over a couple of years. And so you should think about it in terms of 2023 2024 and into 2025.

speaker
Operator

Our next question is coming from the line of Robert Stallard with Vertical Research. Please just use your question. Thanks so much. Good morning.

speaker
Rob

Good morning, Rob.

speaker
Rob

Chris, I was wondering if you could comment on this NSO situation and what happened there, and in conjunction with that, whether you have any additional M&A deals potentially in the pipeline. Thank you.

speaker
Rob

Yeah, I would say clearly relative to our M&A pipeline, we're looking at opportunities all the time, looking for game-changing solutions that are going to help us with our customers. So yeah, we're looking at a handful. We continue to look at M&A on a regular basis. We're also watching the regulatory environment and seeing what could potentially be approved and you know, any potential overlap or antitrust issues. So I'd say we have a healthy process. We look at things all the time, and I don't see us in a position to announce anything in the next quarter or two, but, you know, we'll continue to look. You know, relative to NSO, you know, we're fully aligned with the U.S. national security leadership on this matter, and, you I think all the reporting out there made it clear that no deal is going to happen, at least with us. So maybe someone else is talking to them, but it's not me. So hope that helps.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pete Skibiski with Solymbic Global. Please proceed with your question.

speaker
Pete Skibiski

Hey, good morning, everyone. Good morning. Hey, Chris, something you're probably super frustrated about, but this next-gen jammer, low-band technology, ongoing protests. Can you give us any sense of, you know, for key dates or milestones in terms of kind of getting that resolved? I know it's dragged on probably way longer than anyone expected.

speaker
Rob

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, Pete, I don't really get frustrated about much, but this has taken a longer time than anybody wanted. So there's going to be a re-procurement you know, between us and, and, uh, Northrop, we all signed a, uh, an agreement as to a path forward. So, you know, I expect to get an RFP, uh, you know, in the next, uh, month or two, we'll update our proposal. And, uh, I would think in mid 2023, hopefully earlier, 2023, the Navy will make a selection and we'll move on. It's, it's really about the capabilities, you know, that the Navy needs and the threats that we keep talking about. And, um, You know, we respect the, you know, the process to allow people to protest. And, you know, I think there's been four or five different judges and reviews and such, but it's progressing. So it was over 100 million of revenue we had in our plan for this year. So that's kind of given us a little headwind. We'll move it into 23. The team's ready to go. We like our technology. We like our solution. And, you know, we'll wait for the Navy to select us again, hopefully.

speaker
Operator

Our next question is coming from the line of Noah Popanoff with Goldman Sachs. Please just use your question.

speaker
Noah

Hi, good morning, everyone.

speaker
Rob

Good morning. Good morning, Noah.

speaker
Noah

I wondered if you could just talk a little bit more about the back half as you see it now relative to the prior guide. You know, the acceleration in organic revenue growth to mid-single, you know, how much of that's 3Q versus 4Q? you know, how much visibility you have versus things that could slide, and then if there's anything on the cash flow side in terms of, you know, payment timing that you're looking at as well. Thanks.

speaker
Michelle

Yeah, so I'll jump in, and then, Chris, you can feel free to compliment. So in the second half, to your point, in terms of the drivers, it's really three components. One is around supply chain recovery, and so as I noted earlier, we had an assumption that we'd have a pretty healthy hockey stick going into the back half of the year. As we're seeing the supply chain environment elongate into 2023, We've mitigated that a bit in terms of the change in the guide to the lower end of the range, although we still do have a hockey stick going into the second half. I will note though, that as we're sitting here in Q3, we have similar challenges to what we had in Q1 and Q2. And so the risk profile is very consistent to what we delivered on in the first half. The second is really around new program wins. Chris mentioned SEA along with Spear. These are two new awards that we've already won. And so the back half we will be accelerating as those programs come online. And then the third piece is around our ISR missionization programs. We talked about Armed Overwatch. There are a number of other ISR missionization programs that we are pursuing. We expect those awards to happen within Q3 with a ramp happening in Q4. And Noah, to your point between Q3 and Q4, I would say it's fairly consistent. You're not going to see another hockey stick from Q3 to Q4. So hitting expectations in Q3 is what we're focused on now with that expected to continue into the fourth quarter.

speaker
Rob

Yeah, I'll just chime in, Noah, at a higher level. You know, the approach we've taken and we talked to the leadership team is, you know, let's just control the controllables. You know, there's a lot of frustration, I think, out there in the system. And, you know, we're kind of taking the approach that, you know, the last two years have clearly been unprecedented, whether it's pandemic, Ukraine, inflation, supply chain, all the stuff we know. So when we get the guidance for the second half that Michelle laid out, you know, we want to let you know it's kind of hard. It's harder than it has been the last several decades to predict the future and the visibility. given the uncertainty and the volatility that changes literally on a daily basis. There's some days where we get a call from a supplier that they're going to be a week late, and the next day someone shows up a week early. I mean, it's really very, very dynamic. We're trying to stay calm and relaxed and control what we can control and mitigate those things that we can't and then communicate to the best of our ability what the upside and the downside is. The interesting thing is, You know, we're just talking about a bow wave in all cases. We're not losing things. Sometimes they take longer to get awarded and sometimes they slip. But, you know, we're looking forward to the new norm and some of these uncertainties dissipating.

speaker
Michelle

Noah, just to go back to your question in terms of cash, the expectation for the second half is really split between Q3 and Q4, more like a 30-70 split.

speaker
Operator

Next question is from the line of Morgan Stanley. Christine Lang with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead with your question.

speaker
Christine Lang

Hey, good morning, Chris, Michelle.

speaker
Michelle

Good morning. Good morning.

speaker
Christine Lang

You were down selected for phase one of the stand and attack weapon. So a strike weapon like this sounds like relatively new territory for LHX, and you're up against competitors, strong missile heritage. Can you talk about your strategy here? Is the missile market something you're focusing on more generally, or is there something about this program that plays to your traditional strategy?

speaker
Rob

Yeah, no, that's a great, great question. We started investing in weapons, I think, going back four or five years, you know, when I – I mentioned we set up the Agile Development Group. This is right in their sweet spot. We have multiple classified opportunities. This is an air-to-ground tactical missile. I think when you look at the budget, you look at the threats, we look at our capabilities. I think we're in really good shape here. We've taken a clean sheet approach, and I think that's what's going to be the differentiator. I mentioned that on... you know, armed overwatch, I mentioned it here, right? We're not taking an existing capability that's been successful for decades and tweaking it. We're taking a clean sheet approach. We're investing in our seekers, which I think is unique and has great capabilities. And, you know, I'm proud of the team to see us get down selected on this one. There's classified things that we're also getting down selected. Like anything, it starts out a little slow. I think there's three of us. I know there's three of us. And sometime in August, we'll get the Gate 2 award. And I think in 2023, early 23, they'll probably down select to two, you know, and then the fly offs and the fund began. So this is clearly the core competency for us. It's a market that I like. And, you know, I think it's similar to what I've talked about. It's going to disrupt the market. And I think a lot of people were surprised when they hear L3 Harris won a stand and attack weapon. And there'll be more of this in the years ahead.

speaker
Operator

Our next question comes from the line of George Shapiro, Shapiro Research. Please proceed with your question.

speaker
George Shapiro

Yes, good morning. Good morning, George. I was wondering on the cash flow, your inventories are up like $260 million in the first half. I assume some of that's due to supply chain issues. Where do you expect that to go or where does it need to go for you to meet your cash flow guidance? Because obviously, like usual, it's much more second half weighted than first half.

speaker
Michelle

Yeah, thanks for the question, George. So when you look at our first half versus second half, you're absolutely right. Most of our cash generation is in the second half with a healthy amount of that coming from working capital reduction assumptions. And so to your point about the inventories. Clearly, we're building in anticipation of that second half ramp. And so when you look at our product-based revenues, which is about 25% of our overall portfolio, that is a key driver in terms of our sales uptick within the second half. The other piece I would note is within our ISR missionization business, To the extent that we are buying aircraft in anticipation of those programs coming online in the second half, that also sits within the inventory. And so Chris noted several programs that we're pursuing. We anticipate a couple of those happening of the four or five we're pursuing in the second half. And so that will alleviate the inventory pressures as well to allow us to meet the cash expectations.

speaker
Operator

Our next question is from the line of Robert Spingart with Mellius Research. Please receive your question.

speaker
Robert Spingart

Hey, good morning. Chris, I wanted to extrapolate on some of these prior questions about hockey sticks and recovery. With all these non-controllable headwinds that you talked about in 22, so the elongated supply chain impact and slow outlays and tight labor, et cetera, and then the strong bookings, rising budgets, could 23 or 24 impact be a spring-loaded year? In other words, you don't necessarily capture it in the back half of this year, but then we have sort of a monster year in 23 or 24. And could that in and of itself present capacity issues? And then for Michelle, just how much risk is there to this year's guide if we have a CR in Q4, especially now that you're pointing to the low end of the guidance?

speaker
Rob

Okay. No, great questions. And, um, You know, to answer the first one, I mean, you kind of got to it. The CR is going to be something that could obviously impact 23. I think you called it a monster year. Is that what you said? So I'd love a monster year, whatever that is, but. No, the capacity I don't see as being an issue. We invested in the prior years. We have a world-class factory, if you will, out in Salt Lake City for the broadband communication systems business. They've had a great couple months here with... with the win of CEC, the Cooperative Engagement Capability I mentioned earlier, which is JADC2, the EGLE program. Of course, they'll hopefully get NextGen Jammer. So we've made those investments. Up in Canada, we invested in a new facility for Westcam, where we're seeing the surge in the turrets. And we mentioned the extra capital that we spent in Rochester. So for the product quick-turn businesses, I think we have the capability. Labor is probably more of a potential constraint than the actual facilities themselves. If we get the supply chain turned around, I think we'll be okay. We've been doing pretty good on the labor front. We've hired over 4,000 people so far this year. We have the same challenges with attrition that the rest of the industry does, but we're hiring interns. We're hiring new college grads. I think it's a company that people find interesting and exciting and we're getting literally hundreds of thousands of resumes to come work for us. So I feel pretty good about that. Relative to 23, we're actually going through our strategic planning process now. We talk about low to mid single digit growth, but some of this stuff is pretty lumpy and we should be in position if we can get these wins. to continue our top-line and bottom-line growth. Michelle?

speaker
Michelle

Yes, in regards to the question on CR, our guide assumes that there is some level of a CR in Q4 of this year.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. Our final question will be from the line of Michael Cimaroli-Matruist. Pleased to see with your question.

speaker
Michael Cimaroli - Matruist

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Can you guys just quantify what the margin headwinds are that are coming from inflation and labor? I don't know if you could parse out what's sort of the bigger impact. And I think the investor letter mentioned that you've got a relatively quick turn or short duration backlog, maybe you can walk us through how long it takes to flow through price increases on raw materials or higher billing rates and how we should maybe think about the margin evolution as you can pass through some of those prices.

speaker
Michelle

Yeah, thanks for the question, Michael. So consistent with what we shared back in our last call, we anticipate about 100 million of gross inflationary impacts within the year. We had about 20 million of that play out within Q2. And to your point about our overall program mix, about 50% of our portfolio is fixed price. It's about a year in terms of duration. And so we're starting to see some of the inflationary pressures prior to having EPA clauses in our contracts started to play out here in the second half of the year. We'll see that into 2023. Where we're focusing on what we can control right now is ensuring the new contracts that we are placing clauses that allow for this inflationary environment. But we anticipate that through the middle of next year to probably Q3, Q4, we'll see some remnants of the impacts of the current economy and the inflationary environment. Okay, so before ending the call, I want to take a moment to recognize our 47,000 strong L3Harris teammates around the globe. And thank you for remaining focused on creating value for all of our stakeholders, particularly in support of meeting our customers' critical missions. What you do matters in terms of making the world a safer place. Thanks, everyone, for your time today and have a great weekend. We look forward to connecting again in the next few months.

speaker
Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.

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