Bombardier’s stock went up on Monday after the company said it delivered the ninth aircraft in the U.S. Air Force’s Battlefield Airborne Communications Node fleet. This was a big step forward for the long-running program that is based on the company’s Global business jet platform.
A company statement says that the delivery was celebrated earlier this month at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.
The plane is part of the Air Force’s E-11A fleet, which uses the BACN payload to act as a high-altitude communications gateway that connects ground forces and planes that can’t normally talk to each other.
Bombardier said that the Global family’s range, speed, and reliability make it a good choice for special missions. He also said that the BACN fleet has been supporting important communications for almost 20 years.
MT Newswires says that Bombardier’s Class B shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange rose about 5% during the day when the delivery was made. In Toronto, the stock is traded under the ticker BBD.B, and in the US, it is traded over the counter as BDRBF.
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Jean Christophe Gallagher, Bombardier’s executive vice president of aircraft sales and Bombardier Defence, called the program a “strategic anchor.”
He said in a press release, “We are honoured to see our reliable, high-performing Global aircraft serve the United States Air Force in critical missions around the world through the BACN program.” He also said that the company looks forward to meeting the service’s operational needs.
The BACN program has grown in stages, and Bombardier has delivered several Global series airframes that have special communications equipment for the E-11A role.
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The most recent handover keeps the momentum going after the eighth aircraft joined the fleet last year. This strengthens Bombardier’s efforts to grow its defence revenue alongside its core business jet franchise.
The company sees Bombardier Defence, which is based in Wichita and has operations all over North America, as a partner for governments and militaries that want to use business jets for surveillance, command and control, and other special missions.
It shows that there is a steady demand for missionized Globals, even though the civil aircraft cycle is still strong but sensitive to changes in the capital market.
Program deliveries like BACN can help cash flow and utilization at completion and support facilities, which tend to have higher margins than selling green aircraft.
People pay a lot of attention to the company’s balance sheet moves, but operational updates like BACN can be just as important for sentiment because they show that the company is following through on its promises to big customers.
If the stock’s rise holds, it will show that people think defense-related deliveries can keep coming in even as the rest of the market talks about interest rates, corporate spending, and the speed of private aviation demand.
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The ninth aircraft milestone shows that Bombardier is still working on one of its most visible government programs.
