Washington: Helped by higher demand for its nuclear programs and missile-warning radars, leading American arms manufacturer, Northrop Grumman Corp raised its full-year sales and earnings outlook as the U.S. weapon maker’s quarterly results topped estimates.

The company raised its 2021 sales outlook to between $35.3 billion and $35.7 billion from $35.1 billion to $35.5 billion. Despite calls from progressive Democrats to cut Pentagon spending, U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed a flat defence budget for 2022, removing a potential hurdle to profits at defence companies, including Northrop.

“Our team booked competitive new awards and generated higher sales, earnings and cash,” Chief Executive Officer Kathy Warden said in a statement.

According to the quarterly results, sales in Northrop’s space systems business jumped 29% to $2.52 billion and operating income surged 37% to $276 million, aided by the production ramp up of its GBSD intercontinental ballistic missiles and higher demand for Next Gen OPIR missile-warning radars.

Similarly, sales in Northrop’s aeronautics systems unit, which makes the centre fuselage for the F-35 jets, rose 5% to $2.99 billion, while operating income increased 17% to $308 million in the first quarter ended March 31. Higher demand in the F-35 program and E-2 early warning aircraft boosted sales in the unit, the company said.

Excluding the sale of its IT services business, Northrop earned $6.57 per share in the quarter, up from $5.15 per share a year earlier, topping analysts’ average estimate of $5.48 per share.

Northrop Gumman’s total sales rose 6% to $9.16 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $8.53 billion. The company order backlog at the end of the quarter was $79.3 billion.