“The measures implemented at Mission Systems to overcome what seems to be the new normal in the supply chain are taking effect, which gives us confidence about their outlook for the balance of the year.”

In context

“the quarter with a cash balance of over $2 billion and a net debt position of $8.5 billion, down nearly $800 million from year-end. As a reminder, we have $750 million of debt maturing in the second quarter and we are in a position to pay that down with the cash on hand following the receipts at the end of the first quarter. Our net interest expense in the quarter was $91 million compared to $98 million last year. Benefiting from the debt repayment in the fourth quarter of 2022. Finally, we had a 17% effective tax rate in the quarter, consistent with our full year guidance. Now turning to operating performance in Technologies. We're off to a solid start. Revenue in the quarter of $3.2 billion was up 2.5% over the prior year, modestly ahead of our expectations for the start of the year. The measures implemented at Mission Systems to overcome what seems to be the new normal in the supply chain are taking effect, which gives us confidence about their outlook for the balance of the year. And GDIT had their highest quarterly revenue and earnings in 4 years as they continue to deliver on their year-over-year growth trajectory. Operating earnings of $299 million were consistent with last year, yielding a margin of 9.2%. As we discussed in January, margins will continue to be driven by the mix of IT service activity and hardware volume. Backlog grew during the quarter with the group achieving a book-to-bill ratio of 1:1 on strong order activity in IT services that included some important wins not yet factored into the backlog. This includes the Army's flight test school training support services contract valued at $1.7 billion. And Air Force IDIQ with a total potential value of $4.5 billion between 2 awardees for security support services, and a pair of IDIQ contracts with t”