Thank you for joining us for the V2X second quarter 2024 earnings conference call and webcast. Today's call is being recorded. My name is Megan, and I'll be the operator for today's call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. Following management's presentation, I will open up the call for a Q&A session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. And now I'll pass the call over to your host, Mike Smith, Vice President of Treasury, Investor Relations, and Corporate Development at V2X.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the V2X second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Joining us today are Jeremy Wensinger, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shawn Mural, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Slides for today's presentation are available on the investor relations section of our website, v2x.com. Please turn to slide two. During today's presentation, management will be making forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. Please review our safe harbor statements in our press release and presentation materials for a description of some of the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by these forward-looking statements. The company assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements. In addition, in today's remarks, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures because management believes such measures are useful to investors.
You can find a reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable measure, calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP on our slide presentation and in our earnings release filed with the SEC, both of which are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Jeremy.
Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Before I get started, I'd like to thank the 16,000 V2X employees for their warm welcome. I am honored to be part of the organization that is supporting some of the most important missions around the globe and plays such a critical role in our national security. Please turn to slide three. V2X reported record quarter two revenue of $1.1 billion, increasing 10% year-over-year. Growth was driven by the company's continued momentum in the Pacific and Middle East. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter was 6.7%, and adjusted diluted EPS was $0.83. The demand for our mission-oriented, full lifecycle solutions remained strong and was demonstrated through several recent awards valued at over $4 billion.
This includes a production award for our Gateway Mission Routers, an award from NASA valued at $265 million, the award of the Adversary Aircraft Program, named F-5, at $747 million, and finally, a $3 billion+ award to deliver Next-Generation Readiness. Given our year-to-date performance, backlog, and awards, we are raising our 2024 revenue guidance and reaffirming our adjusted EBITDA, EPS, and net cash from operations. Please turn to slide four, where I will further discuss recent notable awards. Our focus on providing mission-based technology solutions that enable assured communications is yielding results. This was exemplified in approximately $280 million of recent awards, which are listed on the left-hand side of the slide. First, V2X secured a $49 million award to provide enhanced communications across multiple domains with the Gateway Mission Router, or GMR.
The GMR is a cyber-hardened technology designed to facilitate real-time situational awareness. It seamlessly integrates information and assured communications, creating a truly converged operational environment. GMR has broad applicability across numerous aviation and ground platforms, and we believe offers opportunity for growth beyond this initial award. As such, we are continuing to enhance and invest in the solution to provide even greater advanced processing capabilities at lower size, weight, and power. Additionally, we believe GMR is positioned to be a key enabler for the Department of Defense, Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2 initiative. JADC2 is a DoD concept, and it connects disparate systems into the Internet of Military Things, creating a common operational picture, making information accessible anywhere, anytime for rapid decisions. Next, V2X is delivering assured communications to the U.S. Navy while further expanding its footprint in the Pacific.
Our new 5-year, $88 million Naval Computer and Telecommunications Pacific award, also known as NCTAMS, will provide vital C4I support to over 700 U.S. and allied forces across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Our 5-year, $141 million Fleet Systems Engineering Team program will continue to deliver end-to-end C4I systems engineering solutions that are integral to the communications and readiness of the U.S. Navy ships. FSET ensures that no U.S. Navy strike group deploys without V2X. Moving to the center of the slide, V2X continues to be a leader in providing global solutions to our customers' most critical and high-impact missions. This market strength was recently demonstrated through approximately $1 billion of awards, which includes our 9-year award to support the NASA Operations and Preparedness for Human Space Flight Mission at the Johnson Space Center.
Specifically, V2X will assist NASA in preparing for the upcoming Artemis II mission by ensuring the reliability of the integrated hardware and software systems at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Additionally, we are currently phasing in the new 8-year F-5 program, which is enabling the advanced training of U.S. naval pilots, or providing readiness to the F-5 aircraft that mimics current threat aircraft. Lastly, in moving to the right-hand side of the slide, V2X is harnessing its capabilities to deliver next-generation readiness solutions for customers. For example, the company recently secured an award valued at $3+ billion over five years to enable full spectrum readiness. This award is representative of the capability synergies that can be generated by V2X. This award leveraged the legacy and breadth of the combined company.
This includes readiness support, ability to operate large, complex programs, and the insertion of technologies such as smart warehousing, 5G, and logistics tools. Combining this robust set of capabilities with the insertion of artificial intelligence and a differentiated tool suite allowed V2X to submit a unique proposal. This is just one example of our combined capabilities that can be leveraged to win. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Shawn for a review of the financials. Shawn?
Thanks, Jeremy. It's a pleasure to be working with you, and thanks to everyone joining us today. Please turn to slide five. Strong top-line performance continued in Q2. Record revenue of $1.072 billion in the quarter represents growth of 10% year-over-year. Revenue growth in the quarter was again achieved through expansion of existing business in the Middle East and Pacific regions, as well as new programs. This reflects the continued strong demand of our offerings around the globe. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $72.3 million, delivering a margin of 6.7%. As a reminder, we are referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures because we believe such measures are useful to investors. As we have mentioned previously, we expect revenue and adjusted EBITDA to ramp sequentially throughout the remainder of the year.
Interest expense for the quarter was $28.8 million. Cash interest expense was $26.8 million. Adjusted Diluted EPS was $0.83. I'd like to point out that the adjusted tax rate in the second quarter was 28% due to the executive transition. Absent this, our adjusted tax rate would have been approximately 23%, yielding adjusted EPS of $0.88. Please turn to slide six, where I'll discuss our year-to-date results. Consistent with our expectations, year-to-date revenue is $2.083 billion, increasing 8% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA for the first half of the year was $141.4 million, or 6.8% margin, compared to $147.1 million in the prior year. The change reflects contract actions that were more heavily weighted in the first half of 2023 compared to 2024.
Interest expense through June was $56.4 million. Cash interest expense was $52.2 million, a decrease of $6.8 million compared to the first half of 2023. This improvement is reflective of the continued debt reduction and successful repricing efforts. Year-to-date Adjusted Diluted EPS was $1.72, based on $31.9 million weighted average shares. Year-to-date, net cash used by operating activities was $31.6 million, reflective of working capital requirements to support growth, as well as the implementation of new business applications. Adjusted net cash used by operating activities was $137.3 million, adding back approximately $12.1 million of M&A and integration costs, and removing the contribution of the master accounts receivable purchase, or MARPA facility, of $117.8 million. Please turn to slide seven.
During the quarter, we repriced and extended the $904 million Term Loan B. This represents the second successful repricing of the Term Loan B, which in aggregate have yielded an 85 basis point improvement in interest rate pricing since October of last year. These positive efforts have allowed us to reduce cash interest expense by $5 million in 2024, which is incorporated into our assumptions. We continue to make excellent progress, proactively enhancing the capital structure and lowering interest expense. Since the merger close, we have lowered weighted average annual interest rate grid pricing on our total debt by 170 basis points. Net debt improved by $27 million compared to prior year. The net debt to EBITDA leverage ratio was 3.6x at the end of the quarter, essentially flat compared to the first quarter...
The company's balance sheet and liquidity position remains strong, with $479 million in capacity, which includes approximately $436 million of availability on the revolver. Please turn to slide eight. Total backlog was $12.2 billion in the second quarter, representing approximately 3x revenue at the midpoint of guidance. This key metric is an important attribute of our business and provides excellent revenue visibility. We expect backlog to increase in the second half of the year due to awards and contract definitizations. As Jeremy discussed, there will be several awards that will add to our backlog. For example, the $747 million F-5 adversary award, which is currently in the transition phase and expected to be booked in the third quarter.
In addition, the $141 million recompete of FSET, which was awarded subsequent to Q2, is expected to be booked in Q3. With regard to the Saudi Aviation Training Support Services Award, we have completed transition, are successfully executing the program, and are progressing towards definitizing the contract. Finally, on the $3 billion+ readiness award, we expect to incrementally book activities as they are put on contract. In terms of revenue, we expect the program to ramp in the second half of 2025, with full annual incremental contribution of approximately $200 million. This, coupled with the F-5 win, enhances revenue visibility by potentially adding approximately $300 million of annual revenue over the next several years. Please turn to slide nine.
Given our strong year-to-date top-line performance, we are raising our revenue guidance to $4.175 billion-$4.275 billion. We are reaffirming adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EPS, and adjusted net cash from operating activities. In summary, we are pleased with the performance across the business in the first half of the year. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Jeremy.
Thanks, Shawn. Please turn to slide 10. I'd like to close with some observations and what I believe are opportunities for V2X to achieve its next stage of growth and drive additional value. First, at $4 billion in revenue, V2X has the size and scale to compete in its core markets. Additionally, our global footprint, spanning over 50 countries, is an extremely important differentiator in the markets served by V2X. The infrastructure, people, processes, and expertise to operate on a global level is a discriminator and one that is not easily replicated. Second, from a capability perspective, V2X is aligned to well-funded federal budgets, including the largest component of the DoD spending at over $300 billion annually. Furthermore, V2X is positioned in key theaters such as the Pacific and Middle East, where missions matter and are receiving strong funding support from the DoD.
For example, the DoD has requested $9.9 billion in government fiscal year 2025 as part of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which is up approximately 60% from the amount appropriated in government fiscal year 2023. Third, V2X has solid past performance in all aspects of its business, with operational intimacy that provides excellent insight into how missions are evolving. This allows V2X to be ready to support emerging requirements with the critical agility V2X is known for and that is required in the missions we support. In terms of opportunities, the market is rapidly evolving, and V2X is in a great position to accelerate technology insertion, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, into the missions we support. We are inserting this technology into our bids today as differentiators.
As a trusted partner, V2X can leverage operational know-how and technology to create a better customer experience and enhanced outcomes. You will hear me speak more about it in the future, how we are inserting these technologies into operations. The depth and breadth of the V2X portfolio is differentiated, and we have an excellent opportunity to do more with our capabilities. V2X has a robust set of solutions that bring further leverage to pursue new opportunities. A great example was the recent large readiness award, which utilized the full power of the organization. We are in the early stages of what we can achieve and see multiple opportunities to build on this win. Our new business pipeline will continue to reflect the opportunity presented by the combination of our capabilities.
As you heard me discuss earlier, V2X is at the front end of several large new business wins, and we will incorporate operational excellence that ensures that these programs are set up for long-term success. We will build on our past practices to enhance overall performance on new and existing programs. Finally, I believe one of V2X's greatest opportunities is as we move from the chapter of integration to the chapter of optimization and performance excellence. It will be my priority to leverage my experience across 30+ integrations to refine our business and processes in order to drive value and take advantage of our global footprint and scale. In conclusion, V2X has great momentum, and I believe there is substantial opportunity to build upon our strong performance. The core of our foundation remains our employees and our commitment to deliver differentiated solutions to ensure customer mission success....
Now I'd like to open the call to questions. Operator?
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Joe Gomes with Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions.
Morning, Joe.
Morning, Joe.
Jeremy, welcome aboard. Nice to finally meet you, even though telephonically. Just wondering-
Likewise.
Two months down, just get maybe kind of give us, you know, what your, your initial impressions are, you know, what you see, what you like, where you think some of your focus needs to go here. I get it, obviously, it's only been two months, but just trying to get your initial impressions.
Thank you for the question, and Joe, thanks for joining the call. I think the first impression I would give you is I'm genuinely impressed with the people. You know, I said it in the last part of the earnings there just a minute ago. These are some very impressive people doing very impressive work around the globe. It is a lot more complex than I probably thought when I walked in the door. I had the opportunity to meet with the management team in our Indianapolis facility and got to meet them in person, the people who lead the businesses. Genuinely impressed with them. They have demonstrated performance. They have demonstrated the ability to take that performance and generate new wins and revenue growth.
So, you know, I've been, I've been impressed, and I think there's a lot to build on. And I think as I, as I look at where we're focusing our efforts, the efforts are around execution, performance excellence, and driving, you know, what I would say is coming out of integration, having the opportunity to look at optimization with really a couple, couple lenses. I think anytime you come out of integration and you really have a chance to look at what is now the company, we see the opportunity to take the broader portfolio to the fight. And I think you see that with the most recent award for readiness. That was the combination of the company coming together that would not have been possible without the companies being acquired.
So I think you will see us take more of that and move forward, and it will start manifesting itself in the pipeline as we, you know, as we think about the total capabilities of the company and dragging them into these new opportunities. But, you know, candidly, I am genuinely impressed with the talent in the company, genuinely impressed with, you know, the overall ability to execute a very difficult portfolio of programs, and they do it flawlessly. And I've been just thrilled to be here and thrilled with the people that have welcomed me so far.
Great. Thanks for that. Appreciate it. And just, you know, one of the things that, you know, the past couple of quarters has been, you know, somewhat questionable, you know, partly due to, you know, the Continuing Resolution, was kind of the awards pace. And obviously, we've seen, you know, the awards that you guys are winning. But as you look at the overall picture, you know, is the pace of awards coming out as you guys expected, or is it, you know, maybe still a little bit kind of slower, just given, you know, the impact from last year's Continuing Resolution?
Hey, Joe, it's Shawn. Yeah, so in the quarter, you know, we had a book-to-bill that was right around 0.7, very consistent with what we saw in Q1. So when we think about year to date, you know, we're looking at about $1.5 billion in awards. So we absolutely saw a continuation of that, I'll say, muted environment. You know, with a number of the things that we announced here today, obviously, we expect that to pick up in the back half of the year.
Okay, and then one more from me, and I'll, I'll get back, back in queue. You didn't talk about, you know, pipeline here. I think the last quarter, you know, was a $25 billion kind of pipeline, some near term, some longer term, obviously. Can you give us any color on what the pipeline it stood at at the end of the quarter?
I don't think there was any material change to the pipeline. You know, I think if you think about the duration for which most of the programs are acquired, you start 18-24 months in advance. You work it through the pursuit phase. That pursuit ends up being culminated in an RFP, and, you know, Shawn just spoke, you know, post RFP can be subject to a lot of constraints, you know, and as you just said, CR being one of them. But, you know, there's no real material change to the pipeline. What I'm more excited about, Joe, candidly, is what the pipeline is gonna start looking like as we have the opportunity now coming out of integration. And candidly, you know, I'll be honest, there's a lot of fog in integration, right?
You're working very diligently to get all the systems up and running, getting everybody in a position to be able to execute the business without impacting our customer. This team did a remarkable job of not impacting customers, not impacting missions, not impacting employees. You know, that part of integration was exceptionally well done.
... Now the real opportunity is taking everything that we now see that's horizontally across the company and putting it together in a way that it will start to show itself in pursuits that previously weren't in the pipeline because of the disparate companies. But now, as one company, that you will start seeing that pipeline reflect the combination of the company's capabilities as we pursue that going forward. So, you know, I'll talk more about it in the fall timeframe, but right now, the pipeline remains pretty consistent with what you've seen in the past. I'm more excited about what it's gonna look like in the future.
Great. Thanks, I appreciate it. I'll, I'll jump back in queue. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Tobey Sommer with SunTrust. Please go ahead.
Thanks. I wanted to ask you a question about the forward outlook with the slightly better revenue growth, but holding the profit metrics in line. What are the puts and takes in that from your perspective, that are restraining the profit metrics from accompanying the higher expected revenue?
Yeah, I think, Tobey, you know, some of it's the contingency support that we do around the globe, right? So in the quarter, we saw good, strong, continued growth in the Middle East, I think 29%, and similarly in Asia Pacific. And, you know, those things, that type of work for us tends to bring with it a lower margin. So we're seeing the top line, we're seeing the top line revenue, of course, flow through. And it's a bit more, you know, lower, like I said, lower margin programs that deliver some of that.
If I could ask you to comment on the contract awards that you've already won in the, I guess, in the current quarter, and maybe the quantity and extent of contract decisions that you expect in this, you know, final fiscal quarter of your customers. Because just trying to get a sense for how much you already have in the bag and what a book-to-bill would look like if we were to ask for one today for the quarter, and maybe what your expectations is for what is, you know, seasonally, a pretty strong one.
Yeah, I think for the... I'd say it this way, for the total year, as opposed to the absolute quarter, because there's always timing affected with definitizations, that sort of stuff. Like we mentioned, you know, I think we're encouraged with some recent... I'd say that we're, you know, right around a 1.0 book-to-bill for the year, is what we're expecting. You know, obviously, back half weighted, you know, in terms of some of those things.
Okay. And then, for the revenue outlook being, you know, slightly faster growth, anything that we should consider that might taper off? Just trying to get some color there about as we look to model next year, how we should think about exiting this year at a better clip.
Yeah. So I'll go back to what we said, kind of as we came into the year. So programs like T-1A and KC-10, they wind down, actually this quarter, really. You know, so, so that, that activity will be, you know, largely behind us. And then you're seeing some mix with some of the transition activities that, that we just talked about. Those tend to be, you know, a little bit more gradual, I'll say. You know, F-5, I, I mentioned the ATSS award that we're, that we're executing now, but is still being definitized. So I think those are, those are some of the things that we expect to ramp here, but, but, you know, it'll be somewhat modest in the back half of this year.
Last one for me. Do you have any significant protests or recompetes for us to consider, either currently or over the next several quarters?
Protests, I mean, the big one was the one that we announced earlier today on the F-5, that we're in transition on. There's no other items that are in protest that we're waiting on adjudication on, you know, for the balance of the year. Relative to recompetes, you know, nothing in the back half of this year that is material in nature.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Sure. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good morning, Jeremy and Shawn, and Mike. Maybe Jeremy, I just wanted to first drill down into some of your comments on sort of the optimization. As you think about that transition now, and as you think about those opportunities, can you maybe provide a little more granularity? You know, I can appreciate you've only been there a few months, but a little more granularity beyond contract mix, maybe where you might see sort of opportunity for better margin performance or maybe different priorities in terms of investing and areas of growth with better margin opportunity as you look out, not just in the second half of this year, but then certainly into next year as well.
... Happy to, and, thanks for joining the call. I appreciate the question, Ken. I think, you know, when I think about optimization, it is, it comes down to giving our local teams the information that allows them to optimize performance, whether that is through the supply chain, whether it's through staffing and recruiting, whether it's through the, you know, just, just the ability to have information at their fingertips that allow them to optimize the performance on the program. And, and as you, as I tried to say, as you come through integration, you're really focused on the kind of nuts and bolts of getting everything put together. But when you come out of that, then it comes down to: How do I put visualization tools in front of them? How do I put process in front of them?
How do I put procedures in front of them that allow us to have commonality across the platform? And where this really gets to, you get leverage on this is program managers looking across the organization are operating their programs consistently within the V2X way. And as they do that, I, you know, that capability starts to travel easily horizontally across the company. And so optimization, to me, is about giving the local teams the things they need to execute their program successfully without having to worry about systems or, you know, a lot of things you bump into in integration. How, you know, do I have any hiccups in the supply chain as I implement an ERP system?
Anything that would impact their ability to execute kind of get washed behind you, and now you're starting to really focus on giving them everything they need to be successful at the program level that takes the program to the next level, whether it's on margins or whether it's on flexibility, whether it's on readiness. Whatever it is, it allows them much more focus on that mission success. With regards to new business, I think we'll spend some time this fall talking about what I just said, which is now that as you come into that optimization and you're seeing the fact that we are an engineering company, we are a company that has a strong global footprint, that those two things become differentiators.
How we're going to leverage those in terms of the mix of our pipeline is what we're going to spend time on this fall as we talk about the strategy of the company going forward, and then the resulting margin impact associated with that. Hope that helped.
Yeah, Jeremy, thank you. That's, that's very helpful. And it looks like the revised or the guidance today implies a nice sort of step-up in margins from first half to second half. I'm guessing that's a lot of that is mixed. But then as you think about the progression in the next year, is it too premature, or can we at least think 2025 is some improvement off margins this year, maybe not quite back to the 8% level, but can you give any early indications on sort of how you think the progression continues beyond second half of this year?
Yeah, I'd say this, you know, relative to the margins, you know, the first half played out almost exactly like we thought it would. I think we had said, coming into the year, about 45% in the first half, 55% in the back half, exactly what you're seeing play out. You know, there is some seasonality to it, in terms of productivity improvements, contract actions, things of that nature that we tend to see. We're seeing those in the back half of this year. It would be early, obviously, to talk about 2025. I don't know that I would think that it would be, you know, the beginning of 2025, probably, probably not on par with where we would end 2024, right? Again, due to that seasonality of some of those non-recurring type things that we get.
That's great. Thanks. And then as I just finally on the free cash, really nice, you know, I think the outlook for, again, for some improvement there. Maybe, Shawn, if you can just walk through some of the puts and takes as we think about the free cash in the second half of this year to get you down below the three times exiting the year.
Yeah. Yeah. Great. I'd say this, you know, so we have had a couple of impacts in the second quarter, specifically relative to, I'll say, receipt timing. So, you know, we did, I did talk about in the prepared remarks, a system implementation that we deployed that had a modest impact. We've also seen a little bit of changes in the payment cycles from certain customers that we expect to get, you know, kind of on track in the back half. The team's doing what you would expect everybody to do, which is, you know, working through those definitizations, the startups, which of course, also consumes some working capital. We'll be out of that here in the second half of the year and expect to meet our commitments.
Great. Thanks, Shawn, and welcome, Jeremy. I'll pass it back there.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Our next question comes from Trevor Walsh with Citizens JMP. Please go ahead.
Great. Good morning, team. Thanks for taking my questions. Jeremy, maybe starting with you. Shawn mentioned the different contingency support revenues coming in, and then that sounds like it's fairly broad-based, kind of from a geo perspective. Just be interesting to hear your take on, just broadly, the geopolitical environment and where you see, kind of, you know, areas where you can better serve customers just based on kind of where you may be, you know, reading your tea leaves, kind of see things going and how you maybe adjust or reposition, resources, assets to kind of, again, deal with some of the different complexities in the world, if you will.
... No, thank you. And I, I appreciate the question, and thanks for joining the call. I think what I was, you know, when I, when I gave the remarks, earlier, I think it's important for you to understand that that global footprint is a, is a true differentiator. And we are, and if you look at where the government spends its money on that $300+ billion , we are, we are absolutely aligned with that. And if you think about, you know, the, the INDOPACOM move and our existing footprint in INDOPACOM, as, you know, you-- You know, the two areas where you hear the most in the news are the two areas where we have key differentiation, Middle East and, and, and INDOPACOM. Those areas afford us a tremendous amount of flexibility to be reactive to customer needs on a real-time basis.
And so as the government continues to you know look at its footing and where it needs to spend time and its calories, we are well aligned with those funding profiles. The key for us is what I keep coming back to, which is bringing the entirety of the company to bear for our customer. And as we look at optimization, it is going to be 100% around bringing the entirety of the company to that customer and making them aware of what is available within the company, so that when they have missions of consequence, we are ready to serve them in a way that the presence allows us to be reactive and responsive to those needs.
Great. I appreciate your perspective on that one. Maybe switching gears a little to the GMR contract. Can you you mentioned in your prepared remarks about some optimization around the unit itself, around kind of size and whatnot. Can you maybe just, if you're able to, give us a little bit more detail there, and then maybe in the context of where you see, obviously it's starting with the Army, but just where you see that expanding out to the other components, especially given you mentioned JADC2 kind of in the context there. Just giving your outlook on that, on that particular contract for that one would be great.
Sure, happy to. I mean, I'm excited that we have a toehold in JADC2. I think that is, you know, you hear about it a lot. This is a proven capability, which I'm excited about. But think about it, it's past the, you know, does it work phase, you know? It's past the study phase, which is wonderful. We're now into what I would call, like, LRIP, right? You're in that phase where you're putting it in the vehicles, you're demonstrating it over and over again, that this is a, it's solving a problem that our customers have real time. Our next goal is to move this program to a program of record.
As it moves to a program of record, it then unleashes the fact that you have hundreds of thousands of these vehicles and aircraft that will benefit from this capability. Our goal during this time frame is to continue to work the form factor, which comes down to size, power, and weight within that unit, and we will continue to invest very consistently with what we've invested in the past, to continue to enhance that asset and that capability to be ready for it when it becomes that program of record and becomes that opportunity for them to truly implement a JADC2 solution.
Great. Got it. Appreciate it. Maybe just one last one for you, Shawn. Can you just give us, I appreciate the color that you gave, kind of, in the call back around or in, in the prepared remarks, rather, around some of the the contracts or associated with the backlog and kind of where those are coming in, kind of, in this current, you know, 3Q. But just overall, just maybe give us some color on, on how you think backlog should track for the balance of the year, in terms of whether it's on a sequential growth basis or year over year, or just, or just first half, second half compare. Kind of just give us a little bit of some guardrails, that'd be helpful. Thanks.
Sure. Happy to do so. You know, I think we expect the, I'll say, the book to build to end right around 1. The readiness award that we talked about is kind of a binary activity set, Trevor. Meaning, you know, when things get put on contract, on that contract will ramp in the back half of 2025. So very modest, you know, bookings anticipated this year for that activity set. The other things that you'll see added to backlog and grow are the other awards that we mentioned. We've got a couple. You know, we expect the teams do a wonderful job. Jeremy mentioned our footprint around the globe in both INDOPACOM and the Middle East. I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight again, in the quarter, we had over $500 million of on-contract growth.
There are some other activities that we'll expect in the back half of the year to continue to do that, takes advantage of the distributed network we have around the globe to meet our customers' needs, and so we'll continue to see those things, as well as some of the activities that we highlighted today. So I do expect bookings to increase specifically in Q3 and then obviously in Q4.
Got it. Terrific. Appreciate the help. Thanks for taking the questions.
Thank you.
Again, if you have a question, please press Star, then one. Our next question comes from Bert Subin with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for the questions. Maybe just to-
Hi, Bert.
Hey, good morning. Maybe just to kick off, I just wanna, I guess, better understand some of the comments on the sequential progression and margin relative to what's been happening in the Middle East. So you saw 29% growth in the quarter. I think that's after 22% in the first quarter, and that's been a large part, I think, of what's been driving margin lower, is just, you know, higher mix of cost plus work in the region. Do you expect that to slow materially in the second half, and then that becomes margin accretive? Or, do you expect that to continue to grow similarly, and it just gets aided by other contract actions?
Yeah, I think the latter is exactly the way to think about it, right? I mean, so, you know, the situations are, you know, are ever-evolving, you know, as we watch the news and that sort of stuff. So it would be premature to try to predict any of those things. We're focused on what we can control in terms of outcomes that we deliver. So yeah, I think about it as, you know, maybe a little bit more muted on some of that, you know, 29% growth sequentially. But the contract actions, productivity improvements, Jeremy talked about, you know, moving into optimization.
That's something that we're carrying forward to all of the programs and the cadence around the enterprise, and so expect to drive improvements from those things here in the back half of the year.
Got it. Okay. And just to follow up on the Next-Generation Readiness contract, can you give us a little more color there? Is this the warfighter readiness contract that was put out to bid, or is that an incremental opportunity? And then is this a multi-award contract, so we should be looking for you to win task orders under this as you get further into the process?
Yeah. So we're not at liberty to name the contract right now, Bert. It is a single award that we're off, you know, kinda working through with the customer, and when we can talk more about it, we will. We wanted to highlight it today because it is so notable, of course, and we're very excited to support the customer as we go forward.
I think, you know, the other reason we reference it is, it is a perfect example of a program that would not have been available to the companies individually, but now with the combination of the companies, became very addressable, and the win shows that. And so that was the purpose of highlighting it today.
Yep.
Yeah, great. That's a very large win, so congratulations. And then, just one more for you, Shawn. On the interest expense side of things, can you just help us understand that better? I think you said you did $52 million cash interest in the first half, and you're guiding to $60 million in the second half, which would be like a 9%-10% interest rate. But you're, sounds like based on where your term structure is, you're below that. Like, what's going on on the interest side, and where should that settle out?
Yeah, I think we're right around, you know, so the interest expense is right around $82 with the refinancing that we did, $82-$83. You know, so somewhere in there, Bert, specifically. So, you know, I think the team's done a wonderful job with continuing to restructure, you know, the debt and the financing, and you see a little bit in the assumptions that we've changed, about $5 million reduction in interest expense for the total year. I think it's down to $111, for the total year. I'll also remind you, there's some of the MARPA fees that are in there, which could be one of the deltas, well, is the delta to what you're to what you're seeing.
Got it. That helps. And just one more, Jeremy, for you. You talked about going from sort of integration to optimization phase. You know, appreciate you've sort of only been on board about two months at this point, but you know, maybe as you've gotten up to speed at V2X, you know, what do you see as maybe the number one area for improvement as you go into the next chapter?
I really do think that the opportunity for us is on the execution side. It is, it is really giving the program, programs at the local level, the visibility into metrics and performance, levers that they have to, to improve the overall execution at that level. You know, when you're-- Like I said, when you're going through integration, it is a lot more blocking and tackling, and when you move into optimization, it is more about visualizing data, allowing people to, to have seamless access to all the information required for execution. And, and it, and also it flows the other way, too. We start to have a better understanding of everything that we're doing and it, and looking at capabilities that might travel from one location to another location, because during integration, you're not thinking about that. You're thinking about, like I said, the blocking and tackling.
And now information flows both directions. The ability to give them everything they need at the local level to optimize execution. It allows us to see where we have differentiators that can be applied to the pipeline. And that's where the biggest opportunity for us, I think, as I move forward, is looking at that pipeline, shaping that pipeline for the company we are today, not the companies that came together that were disparate.
That's great. Thank you, and welcome.
Thanks for the questions, Bert.
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Jeremy Wensinger for any closing remarks.
Megan, thank you for coordinating this today. And then thank you, everybody, for coming onto the call today. I'm excited to be here. The welcome has been exceptionally warm, and I'm just excited to have the opportunity to be with this team and drive this company forward. And thank you for your questions today, and I look forward to working with you as we go forward. Thanks.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.