LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - BAE Systems upgraded its full-year guidance on Thursday as it reported a jump in first-half profit as governments ramped up defence investments.
In the six months to 30 June, underlying earnings before interest and tax rose 11% to £1.7bn, while sales were up 9% at £15.7bn, with all sectors contributing to growth.

Order intake rose to £16.4bn from £13.2bn in the same period a year earlier and BAE said it closed the period with a record order backlog of £84bn, up from £83.6bn at the end of December 2025.

BAE lifted its outlook for the year to the end of December 2026. It now expects sales to grow between 8% and 10%, up from previous guidance for 7% to 9% growth.

Underlying EBIT is expected to rise by 10% to 12%, versus previous guidance of 9% to 11%, and underlying earnings per share are seen up by 11% to 13%, compared to previous guidance for growth of between 9% and 11%.

The free cash flow target was lifted to more than £2bn from more than £1.3bn and the company's target for cumulative free cash flow between 2024 and 2026 was increased to more than £6.7bn, from more than £6bn.

Chief executive Charles Woodburn said: "Across the business, our outstanding teams have delivered another strong period of operational and financial performance, which gives us the confidence to upgrade our full year guidance.

"Alongside our focus on meeting our customers' needs today, we continue to invest in our business to accelerate innovation, drive efficiencies and boost capacity, so we can get mission-critical capabilities into the hands of those who need them, faster. Examples include our new collaborative combat aircraft, designed to enable our customers to deploy a combined future force of crewed and uncrewed fighter jets, and investment in our facilities in Texas and New Hampshire to support the US Government's ambition to quadruple production of critical munitions.

"The global threat picture remains highly volatile and governments are responding with sustained increases in their defence budgets. The combination of our proven execution, diverse geographic footprint and continued investment in our technology and facilities, alongside our healthy order backlog and growing opportunities across our markets, positions us to keep delivering long-term growth."

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