Thank you very much. Good afternoon, good morning to all of you joining us today. I hope you're well, and let's hope we are getting nearer to doing some of these events in person soon. As today is virtual, we've tried to make this engaging, informative, and varied with some video content for you also to bring to life some of the words and slides. Running through the agenda, Brad will pull out the key points from our trading update issued this morning. Charles will cover group technology themes and where we're looking to focus our increased investment in R&D. Tom will cover the portfolio with a particular focus on Electronic Systems and the discriminating capabilities we have that positions us well for the next cycle.
To manage timings, we'd expect the presentations to take just under an hour, and then we will allow the remaining time for Q&A in the usual operator-led manner. Should for any reasons that not work, please feel free to email myself or on the online facility, and we'll try and get your questions addressed. We aim to wrap up no later than 3:30 U.K. time. With that, over to you, Brad.
Thanks, Martin. I'm sure many of you will have gone through the update today, so I'll just pull out some of the key messages. First, I'd like to thank our teams worldwide for their commitment, dedication, and resilience during these very challenging times. Regarding financial performance, we continue to drive strong operational execution as this is the number one driver behind improving our margins and generating higher cash conversion on a consistent basis. We've been pleased with our operational performance so far in 2021, and this really underlines our confidence in our program execution capabilities. In terms of the market environment, demand outlook remains solid, and our portfolio is well-positioned to deliver continued growth. We're making progress with the ambitious sustainability agenda that we outlined in February, and we were pleased with the recent reassertion of our MSCI AA ESG rating.
The good start to the year means we are confirming guidance on a constant currency basis. As you know, we're focused on delivering top-line growth, expanding margins, and improving long-term cash generation. Later, Tom will give you some insights into how our Electronic Systems business in particular will be an essential part of these ambitions. A bit more color behind some of these points. Many of you will have heard me talk about the three Ps that we need to get right to drive value creation: performance, portfolio, and pension risk retirement. On performance, I'm pleased to report that through April, we're doing well operationally. The sectors are delivering in line with expectations, underlining our confidence in the guidance for growth, margin expansion, and our three-year cash guides.
The current pound-dollar exchange rate is higher than when we guided, but operationally, our business units are delivering in line with expectations on a constant currency basis. The two businesses who we needed to advance the most this year over last year were Applied Intelligence and P&S. Tom will provide more color on P&S, but to summarize, we are on track to deliver an improved performance with combat vehicle deliveries ramping up in line with customer requirements. Applied Intelligence is benefiting from the restructuring plan and is currently tracking ahead of expectations, so we're seeing promising momentum and margin expansion in these businesses. On performance and sustainability, I'm pleased by the increased tempo across the group and across the key dimensions of ESG.
We are progressing on a number of fronts from our 2030 Net Zero Program, strengthening our commitments on gender diversity with in-year and long-term targets, and growing our numerous investments in our communities. As for pensions, we have completed all of our scheduled U.K. deficit funding payments and our assumptions on asset returns and mortality are prudent. While bond yields have moved around significantly in the last year, the current upward movement and higher asset values have led to a material reduction in both the funding and accounting deficits since last year-end. Moving to portfolio, we recently made a nice tech bolt-on here in the U.K., enhancing our data and digital capabilities. We sold a small electronics business to Elbit as we continue to constructively evolve the portfolio for value creation. I wanted to finish on the demand outlook for the portfolio.
As we outlined last November and this February, our geographically diverse portfolio is exceptionally well-positioned through both backlog and program competencies, which will drive growth in the coming years. We're seeing a post-pandemic cycle where many of the countries where we operate in are increasing their defence spending. Tom will spend some time in a few minutes to discuss how our U.S. business is well-positioned. In the U.K., the Defence Command Paper was positive for the group with a number of new program opportunities, strong support for exports, and commitment to our long-term contracts on the key sovereign capabilities. Many nations in Europe and Asia Pacific are stepping up spending in response to the threat environment. Our footprint, relationships, and capabilities position us well to help our existing customers respond to these ever-increasing needs, and we continue to build new relationships as we access and develop new markets.
To date, we have seen good order flow across the entire portfolio, and we are ahead of our expectations to date at a group level, emphasizing the continued strong demand in the market. To summarize, the growth foundations are strong, the business is evolving positively, and the portfolio is well-positioned for top-line growth, margin expansion, and cash delivery. With that, I'll hand it over to Charles, and I look forward to speaking to you all at the half year. Charles?
Thank you, Brad, and good to be speaking with you all today off the back of a positive start to the year. For context, back in November, we wanted to start to lay out a refreshed equity story highlighting our key competitive advantages and why we feel so excited about the positive evolution of the business. In November, we gave enhanced disclosure about our backlog and program positions with a focus on longevity of our key programs, unmatched diversity of the portfolio both in terms of geographic and capability terms, and how it positions us for future growth.
In February, we set out what the business is today and where we want to take it in the coming years with a strong focus on cash generation, margin expansion, investment in high-end technology, and driving our sustainability agenda. All of that will position us to deliver enhanced performance for all our stakeholders. Today, we want to give greater detail around where we want to focus our technology investments to drive the future growth and give enhanced disclosure around Electronic Systems, a great sector for us and one we expect to be a continued growth engine in the future and really supports all those focus areas I just outlined. Moving on to the technology roadmap. You'll recall at the full year results, we highlighted our technology differentiators. We have fantastic incumbent positions. We're a world leader in electronic warfare.
We have the capability to lead the development of a next-generation combat air system and one of the broadest capabilities in the underwater battlespace. Finally, we're a trusted partner to key global customers in cyber warfare. We're positioning the group towards a future growth aligned to our customer priorities, increasing self-funded R&D to achieve this. We're maximizing opportunities to invest in our capabilities, building on existing world-leading technologies and programs. Priority areas include big data, multi-domain networks, autonomy, space, and sustainability-driven technology developments. Moving on to the threat environment. As many of you know, conflict is now much more than what's obvious on the battlefield. Gray zone attacks threaten democracies, economies, and represent an escalating threat. The U.K. and its allies have clearly expressed their need to adapt in order to defend against and deter those who persistently try to undermine us in the gray zone.
We're also facing increasing physical threats from autonomy, hypersonics, and space militarization. Clearly, we need to defend against these growing physical threats from autonomous assets, the development of hypersonic weapons, and other new military technologies. These are reflected in the defense priorities of the U.K., the U.S., and Australia. gray zone and physical threats both rely on a data advantage. They're critically dependent on the ability to integrate, control, and analyze data, and to do this securely and rapidly. It's fair to say that if the enemy has the data advantage, then you won't be able to use your physical assets effectively. Equally, if you lack the ability to take physical action, then on the battlefield, your data advantage is negated. It's the combination that really counts.
Our strength is in having the broadest portfolio of products, technologies, and services of any defense company, combined with our powerful and secure data capabilities. As per the U.K. MOD's Integrated Operating Concept 2025, we can help integrate the domains of space, cyber, maritime, air, and land in a truly multi-domain network. I would suggest that no one else has the capability to build the most advanced submarines, develop a next-generation combat air system, and design and build such a range of ships and armored vehicles, and then securely link them together in a multi-domain network. We have expertise gained from working with governments to help gather, process, connect, and analyze their data securely. A good example of which is the automatic number plate recognition from Applied Intelligence, joining together 36 systems into a U.K.-wide national database, the first of its kind in the world.
It processes more photos in one hour than Instagram does worldwide in one day. This is part of the U.K.'s critical national infrastructure. With our help, this dynamic system now gives instant access to linked vehicles, crimes, and locations. It gives police and security forces access to advanced analytics and live alerts. We have a strong track record in through-life support activities, which are underpinned by our data capabilities. A couple of examples are as follows. In the U.K., for the Royal Air Force, we're reducing the cost of Typhoon maintenance by almost 40% over the 10-year TyTAN contract. On the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, we're building an end-to-end logistics application that can help commanders deploy faster, considering everything from crew experience to materiel, spare parts to maintenance schedules. We bolstered our capabilities with last year's acquisition of Techmodal, a specialized data analytics company.
It brought us further capabilities in specialized military asset management and performance monitoring. A strong track record, such as the Army's Veritas system, a data-driven activity planning and forecasting application, has delivered cost savings of more than GBP 60 million to date. Using AI to integrate logistics with geospatial information helps commanders plan overseas deployments and ensure lines of communication can keep them supplied and mission-ready. We're working closely with the U.K.'s aircraft carriers to exploit data from their various systems. The combination of our domain knowledge and specific data capabilities gives us future opportunities in intelligent support contracts and multi-domain networking. It's worth saying that military and security data needs are different from the commercial world. Our track record in collating, processing, and analyzing vast quantities of data securely is what sets us apart.
Using our decades of experience in battlefield management systems, where we make sure the decision-makers see the information that they need to see rather than overloading them with unnecessary extra details. The difference here is the ability to collate, process, and analyze vast quantities of data securely, and that's where our expertise lies. Moving now on to multi-domain. Increasing multi-domain capabilities are the ambition of the U.K., the U.S., and other allies. In terms of recent public references, we have the U.K.'s Chief of the Defence Staff speech on the Integrated Operating Concept, the DoD stating that the U.S. must be prepared for multi-domain operations, and the Australian Defence Force's concept for multi-domain strike. We are helping to solve these challenges.
As customers look to combine autonomous and crewed assets, there's an increasing need for secure and resilient multi-domain networks to link sensors and maintain command and control at all times. The networks that we build will share information from sensor feeds such as radar, infrared, visual, and satellite imagery, while also providing command and control. Our experience gives us an advantage in integrating assets into a single multi-domain network. We have deployed battlefield networks such as Falcon, in use by the RAF and the U.K. Army. There is a vital need to grow these networks and cover greater areas, involving space assets, as well as the ability to continue operating in satellite-denied environments, essentially creating a military mesh network. We need to move on from joint networks where domains are just able to talk to each other, to a true multi-domain network, giving you one view of the battlespace.
Volumes of data will grow exponentially as we collate sensor information and other inputs, which drives a secondary requirement to provide trusted decision support with AI and machine learning. We have the expertise to do this, gathering diverse data from a range of sources, providing battlefield advantage using trusted AI to help commanders make well-informed decisions. Some of the key platforms that we're developing now, such as Tempest and the Global Combat Ship, are being designed to be part of this multi-domain future from the outset. They will be vital nodes in the data network, providing data gathering and analysis capabilities, as well as communication support. Moving on to space. Space is another domain of growing importance, which is being increasingly militarized, and we have relevant capabilities to draw on.
It's worth noting that if GPS satellites were disabled for just five days, the cost to the U.K. economy alone could be as much as GBP 5 billion. Applied Intelligence built software-defined radios for the European Space Agency, which could be deployed on a constellation of satellites, helping provide for secure and resilient space communication as well as positioning. This would form part of the multi-domain network powering our forces with information advantage. Applied Intelligence also runs a large part of the space procurement framework for the U.K. MOD, helping bring forward SMEs to the market. We have extensive capabilities in our Electronic Systems business as well, including radiation-hardened electronics, which Tom will say more about in a few minutes. Moving on to unmanned and autonomous systems. Combining manned assets and autonomous systems will give our customers both the data and the physical advantage.
We're doing this already with our existing manned platforms, combining sensor data and monitoring both internal systems and external surveillance. Once combined with autonomous systems, this seamless data connection will give both a data and a physical advantage. We're developing autonomous vehicles, several of which are in active trials with our customers already. For example, our Pacific 24 Autonomous Sea Boat is already in trials with the Royal Navy. We're working closely with the Australian Army on its concept for future robotics and the autonomous systems program. We've already successfully trialed autonomous vehicles with the Australian Army using a platform-agnostic autonomy module that we're also developing for use in aircraft, including the solar-powered PHASA-35, and also into Boeing's Loyal Wingman program in Australia. We have further autonomous programs in the U.S. and, of course, Tempest.
We're accelerating the development of further autonomous platforms, such as our Riptide family of autonomous unmanned undersea vehicles. Unmanned components of the Tempest combat air system, alongside our customers, we see this as essential to maintaining a credible defense. With other militaries deploying unmanned assets as we speak, we have no choice in this regard. In the future, we see autonomous vehicles needing to perform a range of missions, complementing humans and taking on some of the most dangerous combat roles. I should make it absolutely clear that it's our strongly held position, in line with our customers, that there should always be human oversight in the use of force, but equally, that we must create a credible deterrent for those who would seek to harm us. Moving on to sustainability-driven product innovation. We announced earlier this year our target of net zero across our operations by 2030.
Our customers are adopting similarly strong positions. We're looking to help them with product innovations. For over 20 years, our Inc. business has been working on hybrid drive systems, which are now in use around the world in transit buses and in maritime, and now includes hydrogen fuel cell options. There are also opportunities to take more of this hybrid technology into the defense world, where key advantages include silent maneuvering and the ability to supply bursts of high power for emerging defensive and offensive capabilities. We're supporting customer ambitions such as the RAF's Net Zero bases by 2040 and supplying synthetic training to replace flying hours. On that point, here in the U.K., replacing flying hours with ground-based synthetic training saved around 184,000 tons of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere in just 2020 alone.
Furthermore, we're working with Williams Advanced Engineering to exploit electric motorsport battery technology on the Tempest program, using motorsport technologies to provide durable, fast-charging capability. We're using similar electric technologies for some of our underwater assets to improve performance and efficiency. Not only is this more sustainable, but it may also give our customers a military advantage with potentially greater speed and flexibility. Looking at options for electric flight and in our U.S. business, where we're teaming with others to explore new developments for urban air mobility. We're accelerating the adoption of lighter-weight materials for use in air platforms to reduce fuel consumption and by creating next-generation sensors that give us more performance data. Some of these sensors are already in use on the PHASA-35, the solar-powered drone successfully flown in Australia.
We'll be able to stay airborne in the stratosphere for up to a year at a time, performing military reconnaissance or acting as part of a data network powered only by the sun. We're taking a rapid approach to developing technology with seed corn funding, including recovering waste energy in maritime platforms. Finally, through the use of advanced technology and innovation, we believe our sustainability objectives can go hand in hand with better performance. I have a short video here just to bring to life some of the key themes I've just outlined.
Conflict today is about much more than the battlefield. We need to defend against increasingly high-tech threats, both in the gray zone and physical conflict. The ability to integrate, control, and analyze data is critical.
We're bringing our data analytics capability to current and future military platforms and helping governments and organizations to secure, integrate, and exploit their information. With a broad portfolio across every domain, we're helping our customers to develop next-generation military assets and securely integrate them in a multi-domain network. The ships, submarines, and combat aircraft we're developing now will be vital nodes in this data network, helping gather and analyze vast amounts of data to deliver information advantage. We're investing in autonomous systems to take on a range of missions and help keep operators safe. Like many of our customers, we know the sustainability of our products is vitally important. We're actively looking at how we can reduce emissions from our products. We have set ourselves the target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across our operations by 2030 because we believe sustainability goes hand in hand with better performance.
Thank you, and I hope that gives you a feel for the high-end technology positions we have and we're looking to further enhance and why we're so excited about the opportunities and evolving market for our capabilities. I'll now hand over to Tom to take you through why our Inc. portfolio is well-placed for the post-pandemic cycle with a particular focus on Electronic Systems. Over to you, Tom.
Thank you, Charles. Good morning from the U.S., and thanks again to everyone for joining us today. As Charles and Brad shared, today, we will primarily focus on our Electronic Systems or ES business. Before we dive into ES, let me provide a brief high-level overview of our U.S.-based operations, which we refer to as BAE Systems, Inc. This will include a quick look at our Platforms & Services and Intelligence & Security sector. Everything starts with our mission. We protect those who protect us. This mission inspires us each and every day. Responsibility and privilege of supporting our brave men and women on the battlefield is felt deeply by our people, and this mission serves as the bedrock for our culture. It comes to life in our service to our customers. With this mission driving us, we come into 2021 building on a strong performance last year.
While we all know 2020 came with its share of difficult obstacles, I could not be prouder of how our team rose to the challenge. We kept the health and safety of our employees as our top priority. We adapted and found new ways to work so that we could continue meeting our commitments to our customers. Through it all, our team remained focused and delivered positive results across our portfolio while successfully executing two large acquisitions and reaching record backlog levels. Earlier, Charles spoke about the transformational aspects of technology. At Inc, our teams have earned longstanding leadership positions in a number of important areas that have helped us to build our franchise businesses and will continue to shape our future. Technology and innovation run through our culture, illustrated by the many patents we hold and by our investments in R&D.
These technologies and investments will continue to produce discriminating capabilities across the focus areas you see here, all of which align well with the priorities reflected in the U.S. National Defense Strategy. While our R&D investments are important, we sustain our leadership through collaboration with educational institutions and in partnership with defense laboratories and research institutions like DARPA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Office of Naval Research. We also accelerate the pace and reach of our innovation by collaborating across our global enterprise. Let me share one notable example of this. We are adapting proven technology originally created for commercial aircraft, and we're applying it to the Dreadnought submarine program in the U.K. For decades, we have held a leadership position in state-of-the-art flight control systems. Now we are applying our fly-by-wire avionics to, in effect, fly a Dreadnought submarine.
If you think of how a submarine moves through the water, you might recognize that their control characteristics are very similar to an aircraft. It's all about fluid dynamics. Now we're seeing how all those years of high-integrity control systems expertise in the air can be translated underwater. I see this as an exciting way we're using our technology and leading-edge capabilities to innovate, and we're taking this kind of collaborative approach across our diverse portfolio. BAE Systems Inc. is a diverse business comprising three sectors: Electronic Systems, Platforms & Services, and Intelligence & Security. These, in turn, comprise a total of 17 business areas providing products and services from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of space.
We have maintained a diverse portfolio and are not reliant on any one program or military service, and we have a breadth of customers which provides a stability and diversity that benefits both our company and our investors. Over time, and as we have discussed before, we have very intentionally been working to align our portfolio to the U.S. National Defense Strategy. Even in an environment where defense spending may be flattening, the U.S. is still the largest defense market in the world with enduring support for these priorities, no matter which political party is in the majority. We've visually shown on this slide how our business sectors align with our customers' requirements across all domains and services. Speaking of customers, you'll see on the left side of this chart that our U.S. government business accounted for a little more than 80% of our total sales in 2020.
Another 11% of revenue was international, primarily through foreign military sales via government-to-government agreement. The remaining third segment in yellow represents our commercial sales, which was down to 7% in 2020, primarily due to the pandemic's effect on commercial aviation. We expect a return to more normal levels in this important commercial segment as air traffic eventually returns to pre-pandemic volumes. Taking this a step further, we've broken out the 82% of U.S. government sales over on the right-hand side of the chart. There you see we have a good mix of revenues across our Department of Defense military customers, the intelligence community, and other defense and federal or civilian agencies with a strong backlog in place across the board. Let's take a closer look at the 11% international portfolio.
We currently export a variety of core franchise products ranging from combat vehicles and aircraft equipment to naval guns and communications hardware. We have strong relationships with our international customers that support existing and follow-on exports. This is another area of our diverse portfolio with significant opportunities to drive future growth. Across all of these international relationships, we remain focused on developing our technology capabilities, performing for our customers, and growing our top line. Let's take a quick look at Platforms & Services or P&S. Here you see the P&S sector highlighted in the graphic with a mix of businesses spanning both the land and maritime domains. With a significant order backlog and strong incumbency positions, we have a diverse customer base and an extensive operational network of facilities with capacity to deliver on our commitments and match our customers' demands for readiness and modernization priorities.
While last year was a tough one for P&S, largely due to pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions, we started this year running at pace, and the team is on track to deliver our 2021 plan. A substantial driver of this plan includes our strong portfolio of combat vehicles, both here in the U.S. and internationally. Our major combat vehicle programs are captured here from our US-based combat mission systems business and from our Hägglunds business in Sweden. Despite pandemic headwinds, last year we transitioned to full rate production on the M109A7 and Amphibious Combat Vehicle or ACV. We also began LRIP deliveries across the five Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, or AMPV variants. To give you an idea of our improvement in performance, we delivered more than 40 combat vehicles out of our U.S. business in March of this year, compared to just 14 in the same month last year.
Of course, it's also important to note that not all of our combat vehicle orders are U.S. programs. You've likely seen a number of significant recent awards for CV90 and BvS10 vehicle upgrades, as well as some for new production out of our Hägglunds business recently. In total, we have about 1,200 combat vehicles in our order backlog, and I'm pleased with our recent performance delivering these capable vehicles to our customers. Meanwhile, we are well-positioned to compete on other emerging next-generation program opportunities as well. As we look ahead for P&S, I want to reinforce that we remain focused on operational excellence. This is vital to our success, since we recognize we will win and grow in the future based on our performance today.
With this firmly in mind, we have been notching up production rates and employing innovative robotic welding and manufacturing techniques never before used for building combat vehicles. We're applying virtual design techniques through modeling and simulation tools, which are paying dividends through increased efficiency and reduced costs. We're delivering not only across the combat vehicle programs we just covered, but also across our naval gun and weapon systems programs, such as the Virginia Payload Module tubes for the U.S. Navy's Block 5 Virginia-class submarines. The healthy backlog we have in our P&S business, coupled with our consistent progress on meeting customers' requirements, expanding our core franchise positions, all give us confidence in our position for future growth. Now I'll spend just a few minutes on our Intelligence & Security business.
While our I&S business is the smallest part of our portfolio, the team works on some of the most sensitive and critical national security missions across the government. We continue to seek growth in this sector. Much of the time, I&S employees work alongside our customers at their sites across the United States. Over the past several years, the sector has been growing its position as a systems integrator to expand into larger and more complex opportunities. As we grow, we are very well positioned with our customers' priorities. The I&S business portfolio spans platform readiness and modernization, C5ISR system engineering and integration, digital systems integration for IT, secure cloud and cyber solutions, and space solutions for radars, radar ranges, and launch infrastructure. All of these market positions are aligned to the National Defense Strategy we reviewed earlier.
Underlying these strong positions are our leading capabilities and technology discriminators, which provide a competitive advantage as we maintain an enviable bid pipeline to re-compete on existing contracts and secure new awards. We've briefly covered the P&S and I&S sectors, let's take a deeper look at our Electronic Systems sector. In 2020, the Electronic Systems sector represented nearly half of our sales at BAE Systems Inc, across a blend of U.S. military, international defense, and commercial sales. You can see in the chart on the left, the business was remarkably resilient during the pandemic, despite the market downturn in commercial aviation. Looking forward, we have a positive outlook for growth this year per our guidance. When we think about the ES market space, we think about it in terms of the defense and commercial markets.
On the defense side, we just talked about how well the ES portfolio is aligned to the National Defense Strategy, and in particular, well-positioned to counter evolving threats from countries like China and Russia. As a world leader in electronic warfare capabilities, we continue to grow this area of the business to address emerging requirements, and this includes developing the ability for our military services to interoperate in a joint environment across all domains. In the U.S., this is increasingly referred to as Joint All-Domain Operations, or JADO. Charles mentioned this focus on joint operations earlier, and it's becoming a critical element of program requirements and force modernization. On the commercial side, we have adjusted the size of the business to address COVID-related challenges and headwinds, and we remain well-positioned here for the eventual recovery.
Meanwhile, we're continuing to invest in electrification and hybrid solutions for both transit bus and aviation markets. These rapidly developing markets are showing increasing demand as BAE Systems and the countries where we operate commit to addressing climate change. As mentioned earlier, our technology leadership underpins our objectives for growth, and we must sustain those leading-edge positions and expand them. The engine that fuels our trajectory is our FAST Labs organization, where we develop new technologies that align with future customer requirements. This innovation hub for our business brings together a number of stakeholders to invest in and advance these technologies, creating an innovation ecosystem that fosters and cultivates scientific research and discovery.
As you can see, the FAST Labs innovation model brings our internal R&D teams and technology scouting function together with partnerships we've built with defense laboratories, universities, other companies, and venture capital groups, all working to identify and develop differentiated technology across our focus areas. Of course, we must sustain our R&D investments to ensure we maintain our technological edge, and then remain agile and adapt to reinvent ourselves based on our technology discoveries and our ability to predict which technologies will matter most to our customers over time. We accelerate our progress on this front when we're working with DARPA to gain insights, fuel scientific breakthroughs, and then apply these new technologies on future customer programs. Let's take the last focus area here as an example of where we are advancing what state-of-the-art means in quantum sensing, which is one area of research that presents significant potential impact.
FAST Labs is developing new sensory science and technology for detecting radio frequency fields. These new capabilities could break the paradigm of traditional antennas by decoupling the antenna size from the frequency it's trying to sense. Currently, fairly large antennas are needed to sense low-frequency radio signals. Our quantum sensing technology represents a shift away from metallic antennas and introduces the concept of an excited gas becoming the sensing mechanism, meaning the antenna could stay small no matter what frequency it needs to sense. Imagine antennas that would otherwise be several feet long, suddenly fitting into 1 sq in in the palm of your hand. That is where this technology could take us, and it could fundamentally change how our military customers can harness the power of the electromagnetic spectrum to detect threats.
Let's pause here and watch a brief video to give you a glimpse of how the team at FAST Labs thinks about innovation that will shape the future of our industry.
Evolution shapes our reality, driven by space and time. Exploring, searching, always looking for what's next. Transforming change with a plan that keeps us three steps ahead. Discovering what you need before you even know what's missing. Uncovering emerging technologies. Pioneering what hasn't even been dreamed of yet. Moving with unprecedented speed and direction, reaching an unmatched velocity. We secure the future through fearless innovation. We are FAST Labs.
As you can see, we're working to attract extraordinary talent to our FAST Labs team, people who can see our world differently and build on our foundation of transformational technology. We mature the differentiated technologies we develop in FAST Labs for application on our programs across our ES business portfolio of products, services, and capabilities, spanning the six business areas shown here, and supported by FAST Labs as our technology and innovation hub. Overall, ES is where much of our high-end technology comes to market, both in the unclassified and classified domains. Again, the range of products and capabilities delivered by these businesses are well-aligned to our customers' needs. You can see this alignment to the National Defense Strategy where we've bolded those priorities.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the details here, but I wanted to give you a brief look at each business area and have an idea of which programs are covered by each ES business. Let's focus a bit more on these U.S. defense priorities. With the U.S. defense market representing nearly three-quarters of our 2020 revenues, let's take a closer look at the defense side of the ES portfolio. This slide further illustrates the Joint All-Domain Operations requirements we've mentioned, and how our products, services, and technologies are supporting our customers' current and future requirements. This JADO capability, sometimes also referred to as JADC2, which stands for Joint All-Domain Command and Control, is critically important to us because our customers are increasingly addressing threats across all of these domains during a single operation or while addressing a single challenge.
As you can see, we're well-aligned to this evolving priority, and one of the ways we will remain in the forefront here is by continuing to develop new differentiated technology. On the next several slides, I'll walk through some of our primary capabilities within the ES portfolio. One of our capability focus areas is autonomy, a capability important to several of our ES businesses, to include those identified in the boxes across the top of this slide. Our customers are focusing on autonomy and autonomous systems, particularly in the area of manned-unmanned teaming, or MUM-T. Across multiple domains, the ability to send unmanned systems ahead of or alongside a manned platform is a fundamental game changer.
The real differentiator here is the ability to fuse data through multiple sensors and across multiple platforms to have a full 360-degree view of the battlespace without putting our people in harm's way. For the U.S. Army, this priority is captured in its A-Team program, or Advanced Teaming Demonstration, designed to progress the capabilities that are expected to become critical components of the Army's Future Vertical Lift program. For the Air Force, it's the Skyborg program, which aims to create a low-cost autonomous UAV that will partner with manned aircraft to serve as the eyes and ears for pilots and increase battlespace awareness. Our decades of expertise in advanced real-time mission management provide a competitive advantage as we look to capture opportunities in this area on JADC2 or JADO, the requirements and programs where we can leverage our artificial intelligence and machine learning enabled tools.
Turning to electronic warfare, or EW, I'm going to be a little bold here and say that this is really the area where we're most well known. For us, this capability is key to both our countermeasure and electromagnetic attack and electronic combat systems businesses, where we have six decades of proven experience in this area. In fact, our EW systems are repeatedly selected to be on the most advanced platforms in the world, and as a result, we're on more than 120 different platform types, to include fifth-generation fighter aircraft such as the F-35. Our electronic warfare portfolio includes our EPAWSS system on F-15 aircraft, a platform which has regained prominence in the U.S. Air Force plans for the future.
Earlier this year, they issued the first low-rate initial production, or LRIP contract, to enable 10 years of production options and establish another franchise program in the Electronic Systems sector.
We're not just sitting still here. Our work with the F-15 EPAWSS program is a step on the journey to full-spectrum electronic warfare we are implementing across the sector. We have a three-pronged strategy that will help maintain our industry leadership in electronic warfare and deliver the next generation of electromagnetic defense, plus our core franchise positions on EW programs. This next video touches on some of those initiatives and what we're doing to ensure mission success.
For decades, we've stayed ahead of our adversaries because of the innovative minds who came before us, renowned for targeting the next challenges facing our servicemen and women and producing the most advanced electronic warfare systems. The world is changing. The future is interconnected from the sea to the stars. The next generation of industry drives product velocity faster than ever before. Technology allows for immediate upgrades of products, and modular designs keep systems working longer. We're working alongside our stakeholders as partners in shaping the future of electronic warfare, enabling us to always be ahead of the next evolution of threats. We have a plan for next-generation advantages that detect, identify, locate, and eliminate evolving threats of the future, where our diverse and inclusive pool of talent utilizes the most advanced design and manufacturing approaches.
With strategic locations and state-of-the-art facilities across the United States, BAE Systems is pioneering entirely new ways of designing products, making the difference on battlefields, and we are reimagining what it takes to innovate by integrating next-generation technology and processes into every phase of production. We are shaping the future of full-spectrum electronic warfare capabilities for both defense and attack applications through 2040 and beyond by implementing agile engineering, advanced manufacturing, and sustainment solutions. BAE Systems will create the market's fastest pathway from the lab to the field. Together with the U.S. Armed Forces and our allies, we are defending democracy around the globe.
Our customers are really excited about these future levels of capability across both offensive and defensive systems, leveraging our differentiated technology in this area. Next up is our communications, navigation, and identification capabilities, or CNI, which is also a growth area for us. As many of you know, last year, despite an ongoing pandemic, we completed two significant acquisitions of the airborne tactical radios and military GPS businesses, and both of these businesses helped to strengthen and redefine our CNI offerings. I'm really excited about the expansion of this part of the ES, and I'm very pleased with the progress we're making on the integration of these two businesses to augment our growth trajectory in this area and enhance long-standing capabilities where we already held distinct positions in mission-critical secure communications and IFF or Identification Friend or Foe systems.
Our Link 16 and other tactical data links, our airborne tactical radios, military GPS, and other products are providing discriminating technologies in this important CNI capability area. Speaking of our growth trajectory in this area, just yesterday, we announced a new GBP 325 million contract to provide M-Code or military code GPS modules to the Department of Defense, and this particular contract runs through 2030. This is a healthy addition to our already strong order backlog, where we are supporting multi-domain operations. Turning to space, it's no secret this is a big growth market, and for almost every piece of hardware that is launched into space, our radiation-hardened electronics are needed to run that software that's behind the hardware. In fact, we have components on more than 1,000 computers, over 300 satellites.
Earlier this year, it was a real thrill to see our RAD750 processors helping to power and control the Mars Perseverance Rover. While much of our work in space is classified, our focus remains to capture new business in this growing market and address emerging requirements for space security. In this next capability area, we have more than four decades of proven technology experience in precision-guided munitions. Our systems enable precision fires in contested environments, often at very long distances, and with the key capabilities listed here. For example, we continue to produce the sensor technology for the long-range anti-ship missile, or LRASM, which is a great example of a technology born in FAST Labs that was matured and is now integral to this important program.
Looking to the future, we're aligning our focus on the evolving and persistent threat environment with advancements on some of the more prominent programs to include the next generation of APKWS and THAAD. Turning to our unmanned systems in the undersea environment, we acquired Riptide in 2019 to bring some advanced capabilities into the company. We also stood up a production and prototype site to increase our capacity in this area. This has made it possible for us to continue developing the Riptide family of vehicles that span the micro and small form factors. With the addition of the UUV-12, we are expanding the portfolio into the medium-sized UUV segment, sometimes called M-UUV. We're currently awaiting the Navy's decision on its M-UUV program. I believe this is a market where we have potential for growth.
In addition to entering that medium-sized category, we're also leveraging our highly flexible small UUV platforms to compete for and perform current and emerging commercial and military missions. In our final capability area, we take a look at our electrification technology. I believe this area has significant growth potential while advancing our commitment to environmental sustainability. As a global leader in electric drive propulsion for transit buses, we've delivered more than 13,000 systems, and these systems, assuming normal duty cycles, can save over 28 million gallons of fuel and prevent more than 313,000 tons of carbon dioxide gases from entering the Earth's atmosphere each year. Here's a look at how our electric drive propulsion systems are helping our customers around the world get to zero carbon emissions.
Zero. Zero is a binary figure. It is commonly known as an absence of any quantity. At BAE Systems, zero is the goal. Zero is the mission. Zero represents the destination and the opportunity to deliver on our customers' pursuit of a new tomorrow. As the world strives to improve air quality for future generations and works to create a sustainable environment, BAE Systems is at the forefront, developing innovative electric technology that helps our customers reach their clean air goals and get to zero emissions. BAE Systems has over two decades' experience in designing, integrating, and supporting electric drive solutions. Our expertise provides the leadership needed to fulfill our customers' needs. Built on the same proven technology as our leading electric hybrid technology, BAE Systems' all-electric options provide the same reliable experiences operators around the world expect.
We know not every customer is at the same point on this journey. Some are closer to zero emissions than others. Our flexible lineup of solutions means you can take a customized journey towards getting to zero, whether in increments or one giant leap. The first step or the last. Our mission is to work with governments, municipalities, and companies around the world to achieve one goal: get to zero.
As we take aim at getting to zero and addressing climate change, we're working on our next-generation Gen3 Electric Drive System, as well as air mobility and hybrid engine technology. We're also well-positioned in the commercial air mobility market, as we look to pair our expertise in flight controls with our aircraft power management and energy systems. Here we have one last video that highlights what we are bringing to the future of green-powered flight. All right. We're very proud of this amazing technology and how it supports our customers' environmental sustainability goals as well as our own. I feel our Electronic Systems sector is well-positioned for growth through our alignment to the National Defense Strategy and the mix of our portfolio. We're maintaining a clear focus on cutting-edge technology, including emerging ESG-related technology.
The resiliency, flexibility, and diversity of our employees are an invaluable strength as we turn the corner to emerge from the pandemic. Across the ES portfolio of business, we have strong positions today, and we see an extensive range of growth opportunities for us to seize going forward in the defense and commercial electronics markets. As I think about where we've been and where we're going as a company, my team and I are focused on a few key pillars to drive our success, strong financial and program performance, technology leadership, aligning to our customers' needs, investing in our portfolio, and ensuring we maintain the best workforce and culture to deliver successful outcomes. All of this together will position us to continue our growth trajectory, expanding our margins in the process, and creating even more value for our shareholders. I'll end where I began.
Our mission inspires and guides us in everything we do every day. I'm optimistic and excited about our future, and now I'll turn it back over to Charles.
Thank you very much, Tom. In summary, we've had a good start to the year, and I hope today has highlighted many of the great capabilities we have and are developing for the future and why I am so excited about the opportunities ahead, given our many unique capabilities. Just to end on this slide we presented in February to summarize where we are. Our large order backlog, incumbent program positions, pipeline of opportunities, together with our focus on program execution, positions us to grow our sales profitably and increase cash conversion in the coming years. We are evolving this business to have an appropriate sustainability agenda embedded at its core, with a constant focus on consistent operational performance and value creation.
Generation of higher cash gives us increased strategic flexibility focused on technology aligned to our our customers' priorities, many of which you will have heard about today, and we are well-placed to deliver appropriate shareholder returns. Thank you all for listening. I look forward to speaking with you and hopefully seeing many of you in the not-too-distant future. With that, we shall turn it over to questions. Thank you.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Your first question today comes from the line of Robert Stallard from Vertical Research.
Thanks so much, and good afternoon.
Hi, Rob.
I've got a couple of questions for you. I think one for Charles, perhaps, and then one for Brad. One for you, Brad, but we'll see. Anyway, first of all, Charles, you mentioned on that last slide about capital allocation. I was wondering when you might be in a position to announce some more on this, perhaps when we might see perhaps a share buyback starting. Secondly, you mentioned a lot of the ESG-related technology you have in the portfolio. I was wondering if there are any opportunities to essentially monetize some of this activity, or have you looked into forming joint ventures or other structures to help you selling some of this technology into commercial markets? Thank you.
Yeah. Maybe I'll just tackle the last one first, and then you want to say a little bit on that, by that question. On ESG, I think the point of the presentation is it's not new to us. It's something we've been doing for a very long time, and I think that we are, with respect to sort of air mobility, certainly looking at various partnerships. There's a couple we've announced already, such as Jaunt. There are others that we're looking at as we speak. I think, in that area in particular, it will be through joint ventures and the work that we already have, often with some of our existing strong partners. I think there are real opportunities for us there.
As I said, it's not something that's new in our portfolio, obviously with the sort of societal demands, we do see that as a huge opportunity for us going forward, and we've got some real technology leadership positions within the space. You want to say a little bit about capital allocation, Brad?
Hi, Rob. As we said back a couple of months ago, first of all, we are very pleased the business is growing as it is, and we've got confidence in that continued trajectory, and that gives us a lot of flexibility with margins expanding and free cash flow building. We did say that share buybacks we want it to be an important part of our capital allocation going forward. I'm not going to be drawn on timing, I think what we said still remains the case.
Thank you, Brad, and thank you for the question, Robert.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of George Zhao from Bernstein.
Hi. Yeah, good afternoon, good morning. Maybe for Tom here. How should we think about investing for all the higher growth business that you talked about? Can you simultaneously grow the business through the investments but also expand margins? I think in the past, you talked about the segment commanding a lion portion of the company's self-funded R&D, and we've seen the kind of segment margins kind of hover between the 15% and 15.5% over the past few years. I guess, how do you think about growing the margins organically while you invest for these areas?
Sure, George. You can imagine that's a natural conflict in those two directions over time. This is something that we have done now for decades, and that is find ways to invest in these key critical technologies internally, but by leveraging outside connections and outside investment as well. We do several hundred million dollars a year worth of business with DARPA, for example. If you step back and looked at our total R&D investment, that which comes from within and that which comes from without, through our customers in the form of CRAD and other development sources. For every GBP of internal investment, we get about 14 from other sources. That leverage, that 14 to one leverage, kind of underlies and fuels our ability to focus on expanding margins while continuing the level of investment that we've traditionally done.
Every year it's about where are we going to steer these dollars? How are these investments going to be best applied? Through that network of partners that I mentioned during the brief, we work to pool our resources in a way that ensures that we're moving technology forward at a reasonable expense. That gives us the opportunity, particularly on our larger production programs, to focus and fuel margin expansion over time. I hope that's helpful.
Got it. On the alignment to the defense priorities that you walked through, is there any color you can provide on how much exposure the portfolio today has in terms of revenue and the opportunity there?
Yeah. George, that's a great question. I think what we try to do is understand, we supply into the services at multiple levels, right? Sometimes we're a platform provider, sometimes we're a systems provider, component provider, multiple tiers. We're working up through the tiers to understand that alignment. It's very difficult to put a number on how much of the portfolio is exactly aligned with those requirements. Everything we do as we discuss this with our customers, as we look at where they're putting their bets and where their money is ending up in their budgets, we feel really good about our alignment. It's all sort of manifesting customer pull, and we see that in our orders backlog. Again, I step back and looking at it big picture, I think our portfolio is very well aligned for the future.
Great. Thanks.
Thank you, George.
The next question comes from the line of Christophe Menard from Deutsche Bank.
Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I have first question on the U.S. combat vehicle view that you presented in this presentation. Is it challenged by the current U.S. budget discussions? Second question is, the great capabilities that you've presented in this presentation, are they all transferable to the U.K. or other countries? I get that ES is very well exposed, it's obviously a U.S. entity. Lastly, just a question on the people. Software engineers seems to be in demand for all the capabilities you're trying to develop. Are you planning to hire more of the software engineers or do you already have a favorable, I would say, mix in your workforce?
Thank you, Christophe. Great question.
Thank you, Christophe. Sorry, Tom, you go ahead on the combat vehicles in particular.
All right, very good. Christophe, as you know, we don't expect to see the details of the budget until it's formally released sometime, I guess, now later this month, maybe early next. There has been some speculation around how the various services would fare, that the Army budget might see some pressure, and that more funding might be available to the Air Force and Navy, and this remains to be seen. We have been hearing about that, and you've probably read about that in the press. I think, again, as we step back, given our alignment to the defense strategy priorities, we'd expect any of the upside and downside across these various service budgets to net out across the portfolio.
You saw on the one chart that we're pretty well spread around the services, and much of the work that we've done in those capability areas sort of aligns in across those services with no one being prominent. We'd expect that to net out. We look at combat vehicles in particular. The Amphibious Combat Vehicle, for example, is a Navy program and is already well supported, and we expect that to continue for sure. We also keep in mind that the FY 2022 budget about to be announced, that's not going to ripple through to the production lines for a couple of years. We've got something like 1,200 combat vehicles, as I mentioned, already contracted and funded ahead of us.
We do predict that there will be some budget adjustments on programs like AMPV, for example, where it is just to reflect the alignment of the funding to the agreed COVID adjusted production schedules, as happened last year. Of course, that is already reflected in all of our plans and guidance. I would just say in our conversations with our customers and what we are seeing publicly, the Army continues to reiterate its commitment to modernization and to the priority of these next generation combat vehicles like AMPV. Our performance has been good and improving across the board. We also mentioned the international upside opportunities as discussed. All in all, I feel really good about our portfolio and its resilience looking forward into the budget environment we face. I hope that is helpful.
Thank you, Tom. I think maybe on the transfer of technology, you see a lot of common ground between the multi-domain and my piece and, for example, Tom's piece. It's fair to say that across our portfolio, I think we're getting better every year at finding opportunities to collaborate across, and not surprisingly, amongst the Five Eyes nations, interoperability is absolutely key. I think, much of the direction of travel that, for example, Tom talked about in ES is something that we obviously look to bring across into the U.K. business and into the Australian business as far as we possibly can, recognizing national security constraints. I don't know, Tom, if you want to elaborate a bit more on some of the collaboration efforts that we're looking at there, like Skyborg.
Yeah. I think, as we pointed out, our global footprint makes us unique. While there are regulations in place that put some constraints on what we can share and what we can't, there are processes by which we can get approval to sort of work this technology export, and we're getting very good at that. In the areas where it's possible, we're seeing really good progress. We talked about the Dreadnought submarine example as one. The PHASA-35, and Charles might have mentioned this, but it's here in the U.S. The prototype has flown. We have some customer interest in that platform, and we expect to see some trials and demonstrations coming up soon. There's an example of a U.K. product coming this way. This is an area where I think there's more leverage to come.
It's just a matter of making sure we're following all the appropriate procedures with respect to ITAR, et cetera. I think good potential there.
Very good. The last question I think Christophe had was on software engineers and the growing importance across the whole portfolio in all of our markets. I think it's fair to say that we've been successful at attracting and retaining. It is a hot market, but we have longstanding internship programs and development programs for that group of employees. I think we've been pretty successful at attracting some really outstanding talent in that. I don't know, Tom, if you want to say a bit from the air portfolio software engineers.
Thank you, Charles. I'd echo that and also say, one thing about software engineering is it really is conducive to remote operations. As we head into a more hybrid environment that we expect as the pandemic lifts, there'll be significant flexibility for those who are able to operate in a more remote environment. I think that's going to drive those companies who have that kind of open mind into a better place. We're expecting to leverage that. As Charles points out, it is a hot market. Engineering schools, though, are cranking out software engineers in number, and we've been pretty competitive in bringing those resources in-house, and we expect to continue to be competitive.
Thank you very much. I was going to just take a question that's come in online, and I'll just read out the question. There's a lot of focus on organic investment. Can we talk about M&A, and where will you be directing focus? How should we think about metrics when you're investigating tech bolt-ons? It's fair to say there has been a focus in this presentation on organic investment, simply because we do see real opportunities for that. The areas that we've historically spoken about for increasing that self-funded R&D are also the areas, naturally, that we're looking at from a tech bolt-on perspective, naturally, around Electronic Systems and also around the air sector in the U.K., around things like Team Tempest.
I think those are the sort of areas. Certainly on ES, I think Tom has already given a very good account around that business and has mentioned some of the bolt-ons that we've already done. Needless to say, around that space, we're still interested, we're still looking. Those are active areas where if we can find the right opportunities, we'll certainly be pursuing them. From a financial evaluation of that, Brad, do you want to say a little bit on that?
Yeah. We look at a lot of different metrics on evaluating investment projects. Net present value is the critical one and making sure that we get sustainable returns on capital employed above our cost of capital and NPVs that are positive. That's the primary metric we look at. We also want to make sure there's a really strong strategic fit where we can really have a sustainable competitive advantage. Those are the basic criteria we look at for M&A decisions. I think our balance sheet is in very good shape, and I think we have flexibility to do what we need to do to broaden our portfolio if that opportunity comes up. We've done the bolt-ons recently, and we'll continue to fill in technology gaps with bolt-ons and continue to look at M&A opportunities.
Yeah, we'd love to find more opportunities like the two that we did last year. I don't know, Tom. Tom mentioned it already, do you want to say a little bit about how those are going, Tom?
Yeah. As I said, Charles, we couldn't be more pleased with how well these businesses have integrated. The cultures have meshed perfectly. They are already prolific contributing members of the BAE Systems family here. Continuing as the teams have been able to get together more here as COVID starts to lift, driving for opportunities, synergistic opportunities, some of that tied back to the CNI capability area I mentioned during the brief, a big piece of what will be the multi-domain operations focus going forward. We're really pleased with those, and we see that continuing.
Thank you, Tom. We can take another question online if there are more questions.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Nick Cunningham from Agency Partners.
Thank you, and good afternoon and good morning, gentlemen. Christophe asked the budget and ITAR question, so I'll have to move on to the nerdy techie ones. Charles mentioned the possible use of software-defined radios, I think, on low Earth orbit satellite constellations, and interestingly said secure comms and positioning. Am I right in thinking that we're talking here about a potential affordable satnav system, presumably a U.K. sovereign-controlled satnav system? That's question one. Question two, there's a lot of talk about the sort of Loyal Wingman-type systems. The question there that arises in my mind is how do you manage the workload of a single pilot when given the limits of applying AI, so the doctrinal limits, if you like, of applying AI to lethal systems? Do we need two-seat aircraft? Thank you.
I think on the latter one, it is careful and considered use of AI to make sure that the pilot in a modern combat environment is managing the mission as much as he's flying the aircraft and it's something that we've worked over decades to improve and make sure that the pilot gets the information no more and no less than he needs to properly execute the mission. It's something that we work very carefully with our customers on. On the first question, I probably won't be drawn too much on the specifics around it other than we've got a number of space capabilities already within the portfolio. I think that we're working now to make sure that we knit those together in a very cohesive way in the context of things like Tempest, which is very much a systems of systems program.
I think there will be more to say on that. You will have seen, of course, here in the U.K., the Integrated Review speaks fairly extensively about space capabilities. Obviously, we're keen to make sure that our strategy in that part of the market is well coordinated with the U.K. government ambitions. That's about all I can really say on that.
No, thank you very much.
Thank you, Nick.
Your final question at this time on the telephone line is from Charlotte Cross from Barclays.
Hey, Charlotte.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I've got three. First one's on cyber. Clearly you've been doing focus on interoperability and multi-domain, obviously that was reflected in the Integrated Review of the U.K. Now you're realizing cost benefits in AI. Could you comment on growth expectations for the business in the medium term? Then in the U.S., do you feel you've now got the right portfolio in place for I&S, or are there any capability gaps remaining? Second question on maritime, particularly in relation to the FMSP follow-on contract that you were given in the U.K. recently. Given the MoD is getting more output focused, I just wonder whether the delivery terms are more onerous versus the prior MSDF contract, particularly in the context of what was a very strong operational performance last year at the divisional level.
Finally, on the pension, you mentioned the IAS 19 and actuarial deficit was clearly lower. Just wondering if you could put some numbers around that or quantify the change there too, Brad. Thank you.
Very good. I'll probably work in reverse order through that. On pension, I'll hand that over to you, Brad, in the usual fashion.
Hi, Charlotte. We've of course seen some significant moves in bond yields, which does diminish the liabilities, and we've had good asset performance on the back of that. We've moved down probably 40%, in excess of that, in terms of where we started the year with. The deficit has lowered by in excess of 40%. Of course, it is subject to a little bit of volatility with bond yields, but that's where we're at today.
On FMSP, I think we're very pleased with the outcome there. In fact, the parts of the waterfront or landscape that we actually won within that, and I think we're confident that we can maintain our traditional margins there. Pleased with the outcome there. On Cyber, I'll let Tom say a bit about his view of our portfolio in I&S. I think on Applied Intelligence, my view is you'll have seen the Integrated Review that cyber is getting significantly increased attention from the U.K. government. We've yet to see exactly how the budgets for that roll through. My expectation for that business is certainly a high single-digit growth rate for that business, and I think given the support that it's getting in government priorities at this point, I think that is something that we can achieve.
On the I&S portfolio, Tom, do you want to just comment on your feelings around the strengths of the I&S portfolio?
Thank you, Charles, and hi, Charlotte. We talked about this a little bit in the brief, the team has done well to position themselves in what I consider very appropriate niche places across their market, working on very sensitive programs.
Their growth strategy has worked in the last few years. In fact, they've shown a book to bill greater than one now three years running, which is a reversal of the trend in years before that. They're focusing on the right parts of the pipeline. With respect to cyber, I think what we're seeing there and certainly with the events around the world here in recent months, not the least of which was the recent pipeline hack, more and more attention to vulnerabilities. I think that brings opportunity across the board. I think we're hearing about cyber less as a thing unto itself and more as something that it just sort of runs through almost everything we do. Anywhere where we're involved in networks or cloud interface, et cetera, we have to be able to bring a cyber perspective to that.
That kind of expertise is there. We wouldn't sell cyber as its own thing, but cyber is part of much of the services that we already perform. Between what we feel as some potential for increasing demand and that kind of approach to being cyber in everything we do, we see good continued opportunity for I&S. I hope that's helpful.
Yeah, that's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Charlotte. I think we've got another question come in from, I think, David, you may have a question. David Perry.
Please stay on the line. Thank you. Your line is open.
Hi, gents. Thanks for taking the call. Just two questions, please. One was, you had the little accounting reset, the margin last year, it was 9.8% on a new basis. I just wonder how much upside you think there is over the coming years from that base. Is 11% a pipe dream or is that something realistic? The second one was U.K. tax. There's quite a big increase potentially coming in in a couple of years, but I think with the caveat that there's significant deductions for companies that have high investments. I just wondered whether your advisors on tax have given you any thoughts on how that may play out for BAE, please. Thank you.
Thank you, David, for the questions. Maybe over to you, Brad, on those two.
Hi, David. We do see really good opportunities for margin expansion. We're really pushing across the sectors to identify those opportunities and realize them. I think in the short term, 2021, Electronic Systems and Platforms & Services will be two sectors that really will be driving margins pretty significantly. Of course, P&S had some COVID impacts in 2020, which are receding, fortunately for those businesses. There will be good margin expansion coming from P&S. Electronic Systems will have a full year of the acquisitions in 2021. That obviously drives margin higher for ES. The other things that we're looking at are all about efficiency of operations and really looking at where across the entire portfolio we can improve our resource efficiency, our utilization, and our administrative costs to push margins higher.
I talked about analytics and what role that's playing in it. We're really driving where we can. I think there is a path to progressive margin expansion. I won't call the ceiling on that. Certainly, we see a good movement in 2021 versus 2020, and there's room to grow from there. I think we're on a really good path, and I do see progress that we're realizing right now.
On U.K. tax?
Yeah, U.K. tax, of course, those don't really kick in until 2023. We'll have to see how that moves. I think there'll be a lot of changes there. As you said, there's going to be some credits that will be there for incentives for different activities. It's kind of hard to make a call right now on where that all winds up. I do think directionally, though, over the medium term, you are going to see increasing ETRs from the combination of what we're seeing in the U.K. and, of course, what's likely to happen in the U.S. I think for your models, you can probably just assume that those are directionally up.
Thank you.
Okay.
We do have another question, sir, if you have time.
Yeah, I think we have time for one more.
It comes from the line of Andrew Collin from Evercore.
Hi, everyone, and thanks for taking my question or questions. I'll squeeze a couple more in. The first one is around all this need for data and information security within the offering. My question is, does the business model change or how does the business model change from a BAE Systems' historically it's a program business. Is there anything that we should see gradually shifting in terms of business model? That's the first one. Second one is for Tom, really. The desire to kind of to be more multi-domain. When I look at Electronic Systems, around 90% of that business, I think, is in the air domain. I think everything's growing quite nicely in that respect, as you've laid out clearly today.
What should we expect in terms of opportunities of shifting that ratio more aligned with the group, I suppose, so in terms of land and maritime opportunities? The last one, again for Tom, a question on the U.S. land side. The Bradley replacement opportunity. Can you just clarify what drove the decision to rebid, or what changed in the requirements? When we look at your competition, I think BAE teamed a bit with Elbit, I believe. A pretty stiff competition from General Dynamics Land Systems and Rheinmetall with the new Lynx and that consortium. What is your real confidence there over the next couple of years?
Andrew, if I may, the second question, could you just repeat that? You dropped out. Maybe it was just on my line, but it dropped out a little bit on the second question, and then Tom can be thinking of his answer for your third question, and I'll circle back at the end on the first one. Just repeat the second question, please.
Yes. Okay. We talked a lot today about becoming more multi-domain and historically BAE's kind of dominated by air. When we look at the Electronic Systems business, that is certainly dominated by air. I think it's about 90%. Within that business, within Tom's business, do we see much higher growth potential in land and maritime as multi-domain capabilities sort of fold themselves into the business?
Okay. Thank you, Andrew. Tom, you've got those two questions, one on the Bradley replacement, OMFV, and the second was ES, I think potential outside of the air sector or other domains.
Yeah, I can take those, Charles. The first one in terms of multi-domain operations, I mean, just in the title, multi-domain kind of infers that it is about more than just air. While certainly the Air Force will play a critical role with their sort of coverage, the geographic coverage of the Air Force. Multi-domain in its essence is about the Air Force being able to interoperate with the Army, being able to interoperate with the Navy in order to bring the combined force to bear on the threat. Therein lies the challenge, by the way, across the services. It's a joint effort across all three of the domains in order to be able to work and interoperate better so that the ground takes advantage of insight from the air, ditto in maritime based on the scenario.
Each of the services has a program in their own right that are part of this overall Joint All-Domain Operations. The Army has what they call Project Convergence, which is their approach to and their contribution to this all-domain operations environment. There's a series of demos and trials that have been going on. We've been bringing products to that as well. I think you can take a JADO or Joint All-Domain Operations by whatever name it is going these days, all of the services will play a role. Yes, as you point out, we'll certainly leverage their largely air position, but we'll also have offerings in the ground domain and at sea. We think we're well-positioned there. I don't think there'll be a one service versus the other outcome.
By the way, space is a piece of that as well. I hope that's helpful. We expect to play in all of those domains. As for OMFV, as I said before, we've been preparing for this Bradley replacement for something like 20 years, and so we've got lots of thoughts and strategies around how to come at this. You asked why bid this second time around? I think in their first attempt, the Army had a very specific set of aggressive requirements and a schedule that was aggressive in its own right as well. As they've come back and brought it back out for bid, they're taking a more measured approach and allowing for a bit more of the requirements to be a bit broader and then necking down over time through a series of down selects. We like the timeline around that.
We think that the requirements as stated, are achievable, and we think all of our history and background in infantry fighting vehicles, all these decades of Bradley experience, will position us well to understand that environment, understand the customer needs, and bring a very competitive offering to the table. We understand there is a competition. We like competition, and we think we'll set ourselves up well. That'll play out over years now as it makes its way through down select. Over that period of time, we're focusing on our experience leveraging that into these customer requirements.
Yeah. On the use of data, I'm mindful of the fact that we're just running over time here, so I'll keep it very brief. Data and data analytics is at the heart of some parts of our business already. For example, the availability, the pricing models that we offer on fast jet availability. I think that the more pervasive use of data and data analytics within the business will take us into new markets. For example, the global support of things like Global Combat Ship, that Techmodal acquisition. It will open doors and new markets for us, taking some of those capabilities, and also will enable us to improve efficiency within the business.
For example, in our global procurement function, the use of data there and the data analytics that we have will enable us to be more efficient and will be one of the many factors in that margin improvement trajectory that we're all working towards. I think it'll help us in a number of ways, and I'll probably just leave it at that there. We've gone slightly over the half hour, so I'll thank you all for joining. As I said, look forward to hopefully seeing many of you now, hopefully next time we do one of these face-to-face. Thank you for joining us this afternoon and this morning. Thank you.
Thank you. That does conclude your call for today. Thank you all for participating, and you may now disconnect.