“F-35 continues to make progress as we progress on deliveries, we'll have more opportunities for cash liquidations. I think as you look throughout the year and the pace of our deliveries and program milestones, we're going to continue to see cash increase throughout the year, it's going to be back-end loaded, not unlike previous years, but I think we've demonstrated our ability to close the year strong and hit our cash flow guide.”

In context

“first quarter? And then second, as you think about the full year guide, how should we think about the cadence here in the second quarter and in the second half of the year to hit the full year guide on the free cash? Evan Scott: Yes. So I think in the first quarter, a few things going on there. One, as we disclosed, we've got an ERP or billing system transformation at 1 of our business areas that occurred to close the year last year. So we went through that process this quarter and expect to be back on track in the second quarter. It's notable, of course, that we drill very hard to surge and collections to close out the prior year knowing that this was in front of us. That's what positions us to make the additional contribution to our pension, which helped derisk our cash flow this year. F-35 continues to make progress as we progress on deliveries, we'll have more opportunities for cash liquidations. I think as you look throughout the year and the pace of our deliveries and program milestones, we're going to continue to see cash increase throughout the year, it's going to be back-end loaded, not unlike previous years, but I think we've demonstrated our ability to close the year strong and hit our cash flow guide. And then with the support that we've gotten from the tax policy, which helps enable and incentivize investment in American manufacturing, that gives us additional confidence to hit the top end of our range this year. Operator: Your next question comes from Gautam Khanna with TD Cowen. Gautam Khanna: Was wondering if you could comment on the pinch points in ramping MFC capacity. I know you guys have the JV you're building with GD on solid rocket motors and just wanted to see like how quickly can missile capacity actually be raised? And if you're throwing even more money at it, can it be pulled forward more substantially than maybe what people are thinking. James Taiclet: So the goal is to sort of have a ratable increase from our current levels of production, which is last year 650 Patriot”