Right, I think we've got a reasonable number now, so just a little bit of administration first. This presentation is being recorded, so you will get a chance to listen to it again, and I hope that you are all familiar with how to use the Q&A button to put questions into the management. They'll give their presentation, and then we'll try to address them all later on. We're very pleased to welcome back Andy Thomis and Simon Walther for the presentation, and I am now going to pass over to Andy to start it off. Andy, thank you very much indeed. Good afternoon to everyone. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. As Andy has said, I'm Andy Thomis. I'm the Chief Executive at Cohort PLC, and I'm here with Simon Walther, Cohort's Finance Director, to take you through the results for the six-month period that ended on the 31st of October last year. By way of introduction, Cohort is a group of seven businesses providing technology-based defense products and services to the UK and its allies around the world. Our business model aims to maximize the autonomy and independence of our businesses, consistent with good financial and regulatory governance. That means that decisions are taken quickly and close to the customer. It maximizes agility and innovation while supporting our businesses with the strong balance sheet and market reach of the wider group. Today, I'll start by talking through the highlights, which you can see on the screen, from the first six months of this financial year. Simon will then provide more detail, including a divisional breakdown, and then I'll share some thoughts on the demand picture and on our future prospects, and there'll be an opportunity, of course, for questions at the end. In essence, it's been a robust first half. Revenue is up. We've got an order book and prospects that provide the basis to drive a strong performance in the full year and beyond. Our full-year expectations remain unchanged. As you can see here, revenue has increased to a record GBP 128.8 million for the first half. Profit is in line with expectations. Following a record performance in the prior period, we expected a small decline in adjusted operating profit in the first half, which now sits at just under GBP 10 million. It was another good period for new orders. And of course, those are the best leading indicator for future growth. And with an order intake of GBP 122.3 million in the first half, that's kept our order book close to April's record level and over GBP 600 million. And as of early December, at the time of the results announcement, that covered 96% of the external revenue forecast for the year and will be generating revenue for us well into the mid-2030s. Adjusted earnings per share for the six months ended 31st of October decreased to 16.16 pence, and the effective tax rate was 15.5%. The operating cash outflow of GBP 27.9 million was, as expected, reflecting a build in working capital ahead of second-half deliveries, as well as payments in relation to dividends and capital expenditure. And that resulted in a net debt position as at the 31st of October of GBP 32.5 million. The capital expenditure included a further spend of GBP 7 million on ELAC's new facility, which was completed on time and has now been moved into. And we expect our net funds to be in line with previous expectations at the year-end. We've declared an interim dividend of GBP 0.058, once again representing an increase of 10% on last year's. And that reflects the board's confidence in the group's prospects. So that's the summary. Simon will now talk you through our financial review of the first half in a bit more detail. Thank you, Andy, and good morning to you, good afternoon to you all. As Andy's already said, and I reiterate, another growth in revenue for the group with contributions from our latest acquisition, EM Solutions, offset an expected drop in revenue at MCL. The drop at MCL, along with a mix in sensors and effectors, accounts for the marginally lower trading performance of the group, again in line with our expectations. As we indicated at the year-end, we expected the revenue of U.K. MOD to fall back from its high level as a share of the group's overall revenue to fall below 50%. The growth in our overseas domestic and export markets will see the U.K. MOD activity probably remain below 50% going forward for the foreseeable future. Our expectations for the second half are much stronger, with 96% of our revenue now in order or delivered and producing a full-year net margin of around 12%. Starting with sensors and effectors. Thank you, Andy. The changing mix in this division, despite higher revenue, was the cause of the group's overall lower first-half trading performance when compared with last year. We saw good order intake at Chess and a return to profitability. We expect this improvement to continue. Under new management, we are looking for Chess to drive more sustainable growth, especially on the back of demand to counter-drone systems and to achieve mid-teen net margins by 2027-2028. At ELAC, the first half saw the relocation of production to the newly completed purpose-built facility in Kiel. Increased contribution from the Italy contract, which is still being prudently traded ahead of second-half deliveries, has suppressed ELAC's trading margin in the first half. We're on course to deliver the first boat set on this program in the first half of 2026 calendar year, when we will review the project's contingency levels. SEA, following the sale of its transport business at the end of June, delivered less revenue. Overall net margin for SEA reduced against prior year as lower margin work formed a greater proportion of mix in the first half, especially for a delivery to an overseas customer. This project will complete in early 2027. The order cover for this division is 98%. We expect a much stronger second half, delivering a net margin of around 10% for the full year. The order book and more than two times annual revenue gives confidence for future growth. Turning to our communications and intelligence division, it also reported increased revenue at GBP 62.5 million, up 13%. The maiden first-half contribution from EM Solutions, in line with our expectations, offset the fall in MCL's revenue from the exceptional level achieved last year. Underlying improvements of both EID and MASS further drove the higher revenue for this division. The adjusted operating profit of GBP 10.4 million for the six months of the 31st of October 2025 was 23% higher, delivering an adjusted operating profit margin of 16.8%. A major factor in the improved net margin was the contribution from EM Solutions. EID's loss for the first half was less than last year's equivalent. The order book at EID continues to strengthen, and we expect significant orders in the second half from the Portuguese Navy. EID will return to profitability for the year, and our net margin target of mid-teens is likely to be achieved in the next three years. MASS saw good performance from its high-margin electronic warfare operational support operations, and we expect MASS to perform strongly in the second half. The division's order book increased to GBP 203.6 million, and its revenue cover at that time was around 87%. This is typically lower than sensors and effectors with the short-term nature of some of its work. That's not to be concealed. EID infill is linked to domestic orders, which are in progress. Net margin for this division is now expected to be over 17% for the full year. Finally, turning to the funds bridge. This slide shows the factors behind the net funds movement in the period. The first half of this has been driven by two primary outcomes. Firstly, the expected CapEx on the ELAC new facility, which completed on time. Simon, can you move a little bit closer to the microphone? I think we're just losing you a little there. The ELAC new facility, which completed on time in September. We will see the final outflows in the second half. Secondly, a return to historic trading patterns as the first half saw significant working capital outflows moving from market increase in second-half deliveries. As usual, the nature of our receipts and payments totaled around GBP 600 million for the year, some of which counting many millions of parts in size makes it hard to predict in the short term. The group remains highly cash-generative. Our expectations for the second half are much stronger performance, with 96% of our revenue now in order or delivered, reducing a full-year net margin of around 12%. Our expectations of closing net funds of around GBP 10 million-15 million for the year-end remain unchanged. I think maybe your microphone's just catching on your tie, Simon, or there's certainly a bit of interference, so I'm not sure where it is. It might be a job to switch it off and switch it back on again. But anyway, thank you very much for that, Simon. And I mean, I hope that was audible, but if people do have any more questions of detail, Simon will be able to tackle those in the Q&A session. So looking towards the mid and longer term, we see a number of opportunities for the group, and I wanted to take you through some of the key factors that are driving those opportunities. If we could have the next slide, please, Andy. So we continue to see a strong demand picture in response to the deteriorating security environments and ongoing conflicts that we're seeing across the world. Clearly, none of us should welcome that, and the security risks that we now see affecting the U.K., amongst many other countries, are real and a matter of concern. In regions where these threats are at their most immediate, governments are under pressure to upgrade and modernize their defense capabilities at speed. And that, of course, is where mid-tier businesses like those within the Cohort group have got the agility and expertise to provide innovative solutions to those defense challenges. The main catalysts of demand for defense equipment continue to be the conflict in Ukraine, coupled with the rising tensions between China and its neighbors in Asia-Pacific. Research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows that the biggest defense spenders last year include China at $313.7 billion and Russia at $149 billion. And the persistent geopolitical forces caused by their behavior are causing a long-term demand for defense capability enhancements. A further catalyst to demand is the arrival of new technology, allowing artificial intelligence-enabled and autonomous systems to be integrated into defense forces. A good example of that is the U.K.'s recently announced Atlantic Bastion program. The words and actions of the current U.S. administration significantly diluting the U.S. commitment to NATO and a further accelerant as far as European defense spending is concerned. What we've seen as a result of these drivers is increased defense spending in Europe and in Asia-Pacific, as well, of course, as the recently announced large increase in defense spending proposed in the U.S. The NATO countries at the summit last year committed to raise their defense-related spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. Many European countries, particularly those in the north and east, are already increasing their defense spending significantly and looking to accelerate that target. In the U.K., the government remains committed to increasing defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, with a further 1.5% of GDP on security-related investment. We are now expecting; we don't have a date yet for it; but we're expecting the U.K.'s Defence Investment Plan to outline how the objectives that were set out in last year's Strategic Defence Review will be funded and prioritized. The need to increase defense spending to meet growing threats has been recognized well beyond the immediate vicinity of Russia and China. Modern conflicts demand systems that can adapt quickly and operate autonomously. The Cohort group is well placed to meet that need and has responded with investment in research and development and in future technologies. We continue to see the increased focus on protecting underwater infrastructure, providing opportunities for both ELAC and SEA. The need to protect our forces from both cyber and kinetic threats, including missiles and drones, is generating opportunities for MASS, Chess, and SEA. The growth in manned and unmanned submarine and surface ship programs worldwide are generating opportunities for SEA, ELAC, EM Solutions, and EID. The need for secure digital communications for multinational forces is driving demand for systems like EID's, TDCIS, and MASS's JEFNet. The need for electronic warfare, drones, counter-drone, and communications for the U.K. and its allies is driving demand for MCL's products as well. The practical result of these geopolitical developments is a sustained higher level of demand for our equipment and services. To share some examples of the kind of opportunities we're seeing, EID is focused on providing communication and network systems for new Portuguese Navy vessels, as well as multiple communication systems opportunities from NATO and Asia-Pacific customers, and we expect to see some significant order intake there this year. EM Solutions is also pursuing opportunities with the Portuguese Navy, alongside potential fleet installations for New Zealand and the remainder of the Australian fleet that it isn't providing already. Their installation on the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force trials is ongoing, and they're working with the British Royal Navy on SATCOM renewals as well. At MASS, as the focus on cybersecurity increases, MASS has seen an increase in training and electronic warfare exercises for the U.K., as well as coalition defense customers too. At MCL, well, they continue to work as a trusted partner to the U.K. MOD, and we're seeing some potentially significant orders there for electronic warfare and, in the short term, for uncrewed systems as well. In our sensors and effectors division, Chess is seeing a steady and an increasing demand for their ground-based drone defense systems. ELAC Sonar continues to support the Italian Navy program, is also looking at new programs in NATO countries and in Asia as well. And finally, at SEA, we're seeing significant growth in opportunities and indeed orders for our KraitSense and KraitArray, towed array sonar systems. Now, these are all prospects rather than orders, and value and timing are both uncertain, and the probability of win varies. But what I've hoped to try and do here is to paint a picture of the strong demand and opportunity picture that we see for the group. So moving on, as the group has developed, our international presence has also widened. And that global expansion reflects our commitments to being closer to our customers and to developing defense technology solutions that will be able to support their future needs with local support as well. In earlier presentations, if you've seen us present before, you'll have heard updates on ELAC's new facility in Kiel in Germany. I'm very pleased to confirm that following our GBP 21 million investment and a lot of hard work from the team at ELAC, that facility is now fully operational. We look forward to sharing more details of that during the official launch, which will take place early or later this year. The Italian Navy submarine program continues to be a very important focus for ELAC's team, and opening an office in La Spezia in Italy has been a key step in strengthening our support for the Italian Navy, enabling closer collaboration, faster response times, and sustained local value for this important customer. I was present, as you can see in the picture there at the launch event, and the enthusiasm from the Italian Navy for ELAC's contribution to their submarine capability was absolutely unmistakable. Then finally, on this slide, SEA has also expanded its geographical footprint with the opening of a state-of-the-art manufacturing site in Ottawa in Canada. Our vision is that this new facility will be the main manufacturing site for SEA's torpedo launcher systems, initially for our customer in Canada, but eventually for customers worldwide. As well as delivering profitable revenue, these strategic investments support our business development activities in important international programs and thereby our long-term growth. Now, another interesting example of our global expansion is the memorandum of understanding that I signed with the major Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean at the Defense and Security Exhibition in Thailand last November. And that agreement signals our ambition, together with Hanwha, jointly to deliver defense technologies to address the needs and requirements of the Royal Thai Navy's second phase frigate acquisition program. And that memorandum of understanding will provide opportunities for businesses across the group to come together and provide a package of defense technology solutions that could include sonar systems, torpedo launcher systems, and communications management as well. And the agreement is a key milestone in our growing relationship with Hanwha Ocean and an important step in strengthening Cohort's international partnerships. By combining the expertise and technology from across the Cohort group with Hanwha Ocean, we can deliver together naval platforms that enhance operational effectiveness and, through our unique modular and open architecture design, future-proof vessels to support long-term capability and security. We're excited to be exploring new opportunities alongside Hanwha Ocean, as well as delivering the Cohort Group's market-leading maritime capabilities to the Royal Thai Navy. Now, in January this year, we acquired, sorry, in January last year, I should say, we acquired Australian satellite communications specialist EM Solutions, expanding our naval defense offering and reinforcing the group's presence in Australia. Led by their joint managing directors, Yorgos Makris and John Logan, EM Solutions are developers of innovative naval satellite terminals that help to deliver high-speed telecommunications across the world. EM Solutions is now fully integrated as the group's seventh business. Their unique capabilities have enabled us to access the expanding satellite communications market. They've also strengthened our performance in the first half, making the largest contribution, in fact, to group profit of all of our businesses, as well as generating AUD 28.6 million of order intake. Now, EM Solutions sees much more opportunity ahead in the coming months. Their team made an important contribution, as you can see in the picture there, to Cohort's presence at the large DSEI defense exhibition in London in September last year. And that was an important event for their long-term prospects in Europe, Australia, and Japan. And it also provided an excellent opportunity to discuss partnering with EID in the provision of satellite communications terminals to Portugal. Overall, it's been a very encouraging start for EM Solutions as part of the group. And they'll continue to work with our other businesses to gather intelligence on opportunities to promote their Cobra family of satellite communications terminals. So I've explained something about the key factors that are driving demand for our defense technology products and services. And this slide shows quantitatively how that demand is translating into orders for the group. As I said at the beginning, the group's order intake was GBP 122.3 million, delivering a closing order book of over GBP 600 million, just below, in fact, the year-end record of GBP 616 million. And our on-contract revenue stretches out to the mid-2030s, with particularly good order intake from MASS and EM Solutions within communications and intelligence, and Chess and SEA in sensors and effectors. And our full-year expectations for order intake remain unchanged. And we continue to see a positive outlook for organic growth in the medium term, underpinned by that healthy demand in our core defense markets. Now, that brings me to the end of our presentation, and I wanted to finish with a summary of the main points that we've presented to you. So it's been another strong interim results period for the Cohort group. In part, that reflects the growing demand picture. Importantly, though, it's also a result of the agility and innovation that our business model is designed to optimize and our experienced and entrepreneurial leaders. We have an active acquisition strategy and look for businesses that will complement our product portfolio and provide opportunities to enter new markets or to strengthen relationships with our existing customers. The contribution of EM Solutions in this latest results round is a good demonstration of how this strategy works out in practice. Our financial strength and public listing underpin customer confidence and enable future investment in acquisitions and product development. Finally, we've sustained our strong order book, and looking forward, we have an exciting pipeline of further opportunities ahead. As a result of that performance and our prospects, the board has felt confident to increase the dividend once again by 10%. Before closing, and in these presentations, I always want to take the opportunity to mention the great contribution to our success that's made by our management teams and employees. In the first half, we welcomed some new members to our leadership team. Andy Smith took over as Managing Director at Chess, following a successful career to date at Leonardo and at Marshall. Michael Flowers and Clint Thomas joined us as non-executive Directors at EM Solutions. We look forward to working with them to build on the success of the group. Within our subsidiaries, our reputation as a leading mid-tier defense technology group continues to attract new talent. It's the expertise, dynamism, practicality, and integrity of our people that will help secure future business success. We believe that the strategy for organic and acquisitive growth that we've adopted will offer our investors high-quality, long-term returns. We'll aim to do that while creating employment opportunities, driving innovation, and enhancing the security of the U.K. and its allies. Thank you very much indeed for your attention. If you have questions, we'll now be delighted to try and answer. Thank you, gentlemen. Very, very clear. I hope you're back with us, Simon, vocally. Just can you hear me okay? Yeah, that's much better. Lovely. Thank you. Right, lots of questions, so we shall dive straight in. Undersea communications infrastructure, a lot of publicity for it lately. And you mentioned it specifically as opportunities for ELAC and SEA. Can you elaborate a little bit further of how those subsidiaries might address the threat to the U.K.? Yeah. So SEA is heavily involved in Atlantic Bastion, which is a U.K. program for monitoring underwater activity in the North Atlantic, which is examining a number of different concepts. We believe that the KraitSense is going to be extremely valuable in that because it's low power, lightweight, very sensitive, very good at detecting underwater threats, and is ideally suited to working with uncrewed vessels. We're teamed with the European artificial intelligence specialist, Helsing, working on a concept that could bring that to life. ELAC is developing, or has in fact developed, some specific products aimed at combating the threat to underwater infrastructure. A product called Enlitor is designed to provide long-term surveillance of underwater infrastructure. Of course, by that, I mean things like underwater gas pipelines, oil pipelines, internet cables, and power cables, and detect any oncoming threat and watch this space for news about what we might be able to do to physically combat those threats as well. We've got some really interesting work going on in that area, Andy. Great. Good to hear. EM Solutions looks to have been a great acquisition, and you mentioned the strong order book. Is it too soon to claim that some of that order book would not have been won without them being part of the Cohort group, or are those benefits further down the road? That's a very difficult question to answer. I mean, I suppose I should say yes, we were responsible for it all. But actually, they're a great business, and they've got some very strong relationships. And whereas I'm sure that we are assisting in those territories where we've got a strong presence, particularly Portugal and the United Kingdom, it's their excellent products and technology which have won those orders. Okay, a couple of questions on Chess. Can you sort of first remind some of the newer parties on this call? What were the challenges that Chess has faced in the last year or so? And then secondly, can you update on progress even since the interims and explain what are the drivers for the return to profitability or return to higher margins? Yeah, sure. So Chess has got some really great products and some really great engineers, and it's that that has won it really an awful lot of work. In particular, we're providing the optical tracking elements of Rheinmetall's ground-based air defense systems, which are of considerable importance to European security. They're being acquired in very substantial numbers, and as you can imagine, being used actively at the moment, given the situation in Central and Eastern Europe. The issue has not been at all with the quality or pricing of those products, which has been very, very good. But they've been undergoing a transition, really, from an engineering-centered business to one which also needs actively to manage volume production, driven really by the strong demand patterns that we're seeing at the moment. And that's proved to be a challenge. And Simon and I did our best to support Chess through that transition period. But ultimately, we came to the view last year that we needed a change at the top of management. So we brought in a new managing director in October, a very experienced guy. I mentioned Andy Smith initially from Marshall, but also with a long, long experience at Leonardo, with very, very strong capability in the area of managing effectively high-quality production and defense at volume. And we're already seeing some improvements. Definitely, production has become more predictable, and that's had a good impact on the relationship with our key customers. Since then, Chess is now experiencing a certain degree of tightness in its supply chain as well, which we'll have to deal with. But I don't expect that to have a material impact on the results this year at Chess. And we've got the right people on board to manage that sort of thing. So yeah, but yeah, getting control of that supply chain and really putting in good practice into supply chain management because that's critical for Chess. And managing the stocking and assembly and quality management of production are going to be critical. And I'm convinced that we've got the right team in place to do that now. Great. Now, Simon, maybe one for you. There's a couple of questions relating to potential delay on programs or projects. And you've got a very healthy 96% revenue cover at the moment. Is that a conservative level that might take account for some of those slipping into the next financial year? Well, the 96% was as of last December when we announced these results, so mid-December. So we've had a month literally since then, and things have obviously progressed. And the infill, the 4%, is not my concern really for the year-end. It's more all about delivery. It really is about delivery across the group. So no, I've got no concerns there. Clearly, what we're winning now, much of it will be filling up next year and the years beyond. So no, the 4% is not a concern. It's really now about the businesses turning that order book into revenue in the coming months. Okay. And a related factor, looking at the Italian submarine contract, you mentioned that the contract has got about GBP 10 million of provisions on your balance sheet. Can you talk through the milestones or the timeline for some of these provisions to be released and unwound? Well, hopefully, they will be. They're there obviously in case we do need them. Where we're at the moment is in what's called the factory acceptance testing, which is a suite of tests taking place. They've started already and will carry on into the early summer of this calendar year. Once we're through those four complete factory acceptance tests for boat set one, we certainly will then look at some of the contingency. But the key steps, there's two further key steps, which is the harbor acceptance trial. And the most important of all is the sea acceptance trial when the submarine goes to sea with all of its crew on and all of its kit working. Clearly, the earlier tests try and ensure that what we call the SAT issues, the sea acceptance test issues, are minimized. Once we're through boat set one, really, it should be simply then a matter of production for boat sets two, three, and four. So we certainly see some of this contingency either being utilized or released over the coming couple of years as we make our way through these programs in stages. Very clear. And perhaps another one for you, well, definitely another one for you, Simon. The reader, the viewer, believes that you're currently in discussions to renew and expand the revolving credit facility. If you can comment publicly, how is that going at the moment? Well, yes, we've started. I had some discussions before Christmas. I've actually come off a call this morning with another potential provider. The facility in place is GBP 50 million with our existing three banks, and that's been in place really for about the last 10 years. All I can say is that the group, obviously, over those 10 years, the revenue has certainly almost tripled. The group is much larger. Obviously, we now have an Australian business, so the size of the facility is going to be somewhat to at least twice as big as what it is now, probably two or three times as large. We will be adding an Australian bank into the banking group alongside the three existing providers. I suspect there will be two or three others that may join, and I have to say the demand I've seen from banks, the appetite for defense stocks and the debt positions is a sea change from what we would have seen five years ago, an absolute sea change. Banks that did not do defense are now queuing up to see me, so I think I'm probably going to end up seeing around about 12 to 15 new banks over the next few weeks, discussions, all of whom are interested, so that tells you that the appetite is out there. Good to hear. Well, bad to hear and good to hear, but Cohort would be very good news. Yeah. Right. A couple of questions about M&A. Selective M&A has been very much a successful part of Cohort's growth. The question is, in the current very positive environment for trading at defense stocks, presumably the rating multiples that possible vendors are seeking have increased materially, and will this put you off in the short term? Well, let me take that one. I think, I mean, we look at the Rheinmetall and Saab and large European defense players and look at the ratings that they've got on public markets. Those do not necessarily translate down to the area that we're interested in, where we're talking about businesses with typically earnings before interest tax in the range of GBP 5 million-10 million annually. And really, the multiples that we're prepared to pay depends very strongly on the quality of the individual business. So if we see a business that's got a strong order book and a verifiable and strong pipeline of future opportunities, we're going to pay more for that than one that doesn't have one, simply because it's going to grow more in the coming years. And that calculus really hasn't changed. I suppose one thing that we have seen over the past year is we've seen some financial buyers coming in with heavily leveraged and, as a result, very generous bids. And when that happens, it happens. Good luck to them. But the businesses that we see, there are many good reasons to choose us as an acquirer. I mean, reputation is one. We look after businesses and we grow them. And we can be very flexible in the structures that we offer as far as acquisition is concerned. So no, I don't see there being insuperable barriers. The issue is more finding ones that will really work for us. We get a lot coming through, but really only a small proportion of those we really think are worth pursuing. Yeah, that explains the strategy very well. Following on, there's a question. In a perfect world, and I'm afraid we're definitely not in one of those, which subsidiaries or which geographies would you most like to increase group exposure to via a suitable deal? Well, what we look for in our potential new subsidiaries, if we want to add businesses to our portfolio, are a combination of access to growth, so parts of the market that are growing, uncrewed systems, autonomy, for example, others too, and also some kind of sustainable competitive advantage. So we're not just competing with peers on the basis of who's prepared to accept the lowest margin. And I think there are quite a few of those. In fact, we've just brought on board an experienced new strategy person who's taking a proactive look across the market, trying to identify a few of those little niches that we might explore and look at perhaps taking some proactive action. I mean, there are some areas, for example, drone manufacture, where you see certainly large demand and potentially large sustained demand in a conflict situation, but where barriers to entry are really very low and where it's not going to be easy to sustain a high margin, given that there are so many competitors that could do what you could do. In some other areas, we see new technical developments making possible new opportunities that simply weren't there before. I mean, artificial intelligence is one of those areas. And by teaming with some artificial intelligence players, I think we've opened up some interesting market opportunities. Space is another area where the significant reduction in launch costs for low Earth orbit satellites has enabled new players to come in with new technology ideas which might not have been feasible before. So we'll see how things pan out. But I think there are a number of really interesting technology areas. Great. And you've mentioned Andy Smith a couple of times and as well as his appointment at Chess, also some very senior advisors helping with EMS. What do you think has most attracted people of this experience and standing to join Cohort? Well, we can offer really exciting careers to people. The businesses that we run operate, as I said right at the beginning, with a high degree of autonomy. And that means that the right leadership team really gets to experience the fruits and results of their decision-making and their leadership. For good people, that's a really exciting opportunity. Of course, not so good people prefer to rely on a complex web of reporting chains that they can hide behind. For the kind of people that we want, then that's a really great opportunity. It carries an awful lot of excitement and challenge with it. Of course, it's rewarded appropriately as well. Yeah, we've always found that whenever one of our senior leadership positions in the subsidiaries comes up, we get a very high level of interest from very high-quality candidates. Talking about our non-executives in Australia, I mean, we felt it was very important to get some local, really experienced support for our executives there because it's not so easy to mentor and work closely with from 10,000 miles away. So Michael, some of you who may know the business Chemring, was formerly the CEO of Chemring before Mick Ord took over. He's a very experienced Australian businessman and an ex-army man as well, so very experienced in the defense world. And Clint Thomas, our other non-executive director, is a distinguished retired admiral from the Royal Australian Navy, who was also the managing director of Serco's business in Australia as well. So two very talented, experienced, and well-networked people helping us out in Australia. Great. Another one probably for Simon. There's a couple of mentions of supply chain, and there's always the risk of blockages. And we've got a question in. There has been a recent spectacular increase in the prices for not just precious metals, but basic ones, including copper and also rare earths that have many technological uses. Do you fear any impact on your production costs yet? And do you take the precaution of stockpiling any critical raw materials? I think Andy can answer some of this with me. I think we don't generally stockpile things like raw materials and rare earth metals and things like that. There clearly have been some challenges. We're seeing it at Chess a bit. Generally, with pricing, we protect ourselves. Obviously, we agree fixed prices with our supply chain. And obviously, anything that's a key element, which may involve some of these parts, would be fixed in advance of the contract being signed. And then we would obviously have no exposure. We also, in longer contracts where you may not be able to do that, will have indices clauses built into the contract to give us some protection against inflation. And finally, we obviously have contingency to deal with some of these risks. I mean, the real key for us. I haven't seen issues, particularly Andy, in the pricing side of it. It's probably more in the actual supply side. It's actually getting your hand on the bits. And I think, Andy, you may want to say something there. Yeah, I think, I mean, the commodity prices don't have a direct impact because they make up a very small part of our overall cost base. And we aim to keep our supply chains as local as possible as well, relying on good general engineering partners, contract electronics manufacturers, to keep supply chains tight, close, and to ensure maximum resilience and reliability. Some things are inevitably going to be exposed to those global tightnesses. I mean, we saw that with high-performance semiconductor chips in the aftermath of COVID. As I mentioned earlier, we saw a little bit with permanent magnet motors, which formed part of Chess's equipment more recently. So yeah, I think we do need to look at those areas. And one important matter that Chess is going to be addressing is now, as it moves into higher volume production and more extended production, maintaining some stocking, not necessarily at Chess, but throughout the supply chain to ensure a high degree of resilience to economic or supply shocks of one kind or another. Right. Now, a question specifically for the U.K. There was a noticeable slowdown in U.K. Defense ordering last year as parties awaited the Strategic Defense Review. Is there a risk of, or are you seeing further delays as people now await for the Defense Investment Plan that was expected to have been out of the way by the end of 2025? Yeah, it was. Yeah. Well, I mean, I thought the Strategic Defense Review was a really good piece of work for the U.K. I mean, it was very clear, very articulate, and I think it was very well argued as well, written by some real experts, and that gave me a lot of confidence for the future of U.K. defense, coupled as it was to the announcements in long-term increases in defense expenditure, and it's been very disappointing that that hasn't so far been translated into action, and I think we've seen a very tight spending position in the U.K. generally. We've seen some self-inflicted wounds like the Ajax program that people may be familiar with in the U.K. MOD. But we're waiting with a lot of interest, really, to see this Defense Investment Plan because that will help us focus our own investments and priorities for the future as well in the U.K. But what I would say is that whereas we haven't seen that step change in defense spending in the U.K., in non-U.S. NATO more generally, in 2024, which is the last year we've got figures, defense spending, actual spending, not politicians talking about it, went up 19%. And if you look over to the east, Japanese spending went up 21% in that period. So these are real increases in spending and reflected in the large growth that we saw last year in our revenue and profit. And U.K., for the first time, is significantly under half of our revenue in the first half of this year. Right. Given current events, it would be a surprise not to have questions about across the other side of the Atlantic. We have one, which is caveated that nobody has a crystal ball. Do you, with your great experience, think that Trump's direct involvement in Venezuela has indeed increased the chances of China risking a similar move with Taiwan? I'd caveat any comments with this that I am not a diplomat and I'm not a foreign policy specialist. It is clear that by acting unilaterally and without a clear legal cover in invading a neighbor, the rules-based order where that sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen has been undermined to a certain extent. It does give a certain degree of diplomatic license for Japan, sorry, China potentially to interfere in Taiwan. And could even be certainly in debating terms and diplomatic terms used as a certain degree of cover by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. So to that extent, it is regrettable. On the other hand, I don't think many people are likely to regret the departure of Maduro. Very true. Back to a couple of specifics. Can you give a little more detail about the program that Chess has working with the Rheinmetall and indicate how much revenue per Skyranger system and how many Skyranger systems you might expect to be selling in coming years? Yes. As I mentioned, we provide the optical tracking systems and the multi-sensor tracking systems, which are actually fundamental to that system, an absolutely vital part of it in providing precise location information about the drone for the weapon to take on. But Simon, would you like to say a word or two about expected order flows and value? Yes. Where we're at is to date, we've had in total, and there are a number of variants of the system. We've had 173 systems ordered by Rheinmetall for Chess. We've been recently agreeing prices going forward. We tend to be fairly sensitive about prices because of commercial reasons and various things. But I can basically guide that each system is worth somewhere over GBP 200,000 to us in revenue terms, a bit north of that. And looking forward, I mean, these are numbers that are available from Rheinmetall. They're looking at potentially orders of up above potentially 1,600 systems for the Skyranger across a number of markets. These are the sort of numbers they're talking about. They have not placed orders with us yet for those quantities. But we will see. But there is significant demand, and some territories in Europe are looking at many hundreds of these systems potentially. I think Germany is probably the largest potential buyer of these systems. That's very helpful. And a similar question about KraitArray, where there was a recent large contract with Liquid Robotics. And again, if you can just talk a little bit more about the potential size of the market and what you might hope to take of that over time. Shall I come onto that? I think the answer is that we see quite a few varied uses for the KraitArray. I mean, its most sophisticated form, it actually provides a complete anti-submarine warfare system for light manned vessels or larger uncrewed vessels, complete with a full software suite and providing the ability with an operator to locate and track submarines. And that's quite a high-value system. And then in its most basic form, it's simply the array itself, which can be coupled to artificial intelligence and uncrewed vessels, typically as part of a multi-sensor system to operate over a wide area to localize and track submarines. And I can confirm that the system has been used operationally and successfully for tracking hostile submarines by at least one of our export customers. We see it's hard to be precise about numbers, but if, for example, we're selected, that's the sensor is selected for Atlantic Bastion, we would see that opportunity alone driving demand for hundreds of the basic sensors. And we also see, as our first successful implementation of the sophisticated full submarine tracking system, we see more demand for that as well. And that's a pretty high-value system. Great. We've got time just, I think, for a couple more questions. Both of us two here are about prime contractors, the larger groups in defense. First one is it different working with a newer business like Helsing compared to established primes? Yes, of course. I mean, the culture is very different, especially compared to the large primes. Personally, and I think as a group, we welcome the arrival of some of these newer software-driven businesses with some new thinking into defense. I think it's got the potential to unlock some very interesting new capabilities. It's going to be most successful where they work hand in hand with businesses like ours. Ideally, sort of businesses like ours that are agile and innovative and able to bring technology into fruition, into use. And also because we understand the way that our customers work and the way that the end users need to use the product, and we bring that to them as well. So I see that cooperation as being potentially a very valuable thing, I mean, not only just for us, but also for defense more widely. Yeah. And you've kindly answered the next question on primes, which is, how do you so successfully compete against them? And the answer is that you are doing different things in different areas in your own high-quality way. Well, we work with all of the primes as customers, and indeed, in some cases, as suppliers as well. So they're not just competitors. And I don't pretend that we would be a good choice to make the next nuclear submarine for the United Kingdom. I mean, we simply don't have the resource in terms of numbers of engineers or the processes that are required to actually have them all running in lockstep to produce that incredibly complicated system while meeting all of the demands of safety, functionality, speed, lethality, emissions, all of the many things that they have to achieve, but what we can do much better than what they can do is put those systems that make it effective, the communication system for surface ships, missile defense systems, torpedo launch systems, sensor systems, intelligence gathering systems, and we can do that because the processes that are used by those primes to manage those vast engineering projects would simply strangle and add cost to those small but innovative systems where you've got to move fast. We've talked a lot about the success of Cohort, and we have a question that there was a short period of decline in the share price at the end of last year after what has been a spectacular run, and the question was simply there had been public notifications of the directors, top-slicing some of their positions, which seems unlikely to have impacted the share price. Do you happen to know of any other reasons why the shares ended the year with a brief downtick? Yeah, we had I mean, I don't have the full details of this yet myself, but the answer is that we had an institutional seller that made a strategic decision to depart and did so, perhaps not in the most orderly way imaginable. So we had downward pressure on the share price, really, from that seller coming out with successive sell orders over an extended period until they succeeded in selling the remainder at the end of their stock, and at that point, we've seen the situation turn around and the share price is in positive territory again, so I mean, these are the technical factors that affect shares. I mean, it's relevant that in that period, I don't think we had a single RNS announcement of any sort of significance. So it wasn't stuff that we were putting out, and it wasn't market gossip that I'm aware of anyway. It was simply that technical factor of more sellers than buyers. Okay, just last question, crystal ball again, well, not quite a crystal ball. We've had an inquiry. If the Ukraine war was to be settled in the next few weeks or months, would that have any material, in fact, or any effect at all in your future revenue confidence? The answer to the question is no. The reason for that, I mean, we did actually see in 2024, 2025 a material impact from Ukraine with our business, MCL, which had a record year that year. For various reasons of U.K. strategy and approach, I mean, a different approach has been taken to supporting Ukraine. And so we've seen that, although it's not disappeared, it's significantly fallen off this year. So we actually have very little impact of Ukraine directly in what we're doing at the moment. But if you're thinking more widely about the question, well, if the conflict in Ukraine stops, everyone can stop worrying, and we can go back to not spending all this money on defense anymore. I really don't think that. I think that Rubicon has been passed, I'm afraid. And it's very clear that Vladimir Putin has got wider objectives than just Ukraine. I mean, that's apparent from the hybrid warfare that Russia is carrying out against countries like Poland at the moment. I don't know if anyone heard the interview on Radio 4 with the Polish. Essentially, if the—and I wish it would, because it's continuing to carry a terrible loss of life—the Ukrainian conflict came to an end in a matter of weeks, what we would see would be a highly contested border in the center of Ukraine with a buildup of forces on both sides as Russia continue to build up its capability with the aim of having another go. And on our side, the need to build up in order to deter that. So that coupled with the fact that Russia's economy is on a war footing of a tremendous nature, and it would be tremendously economically a challenge for it to actually stop that now, I think means that we're in a period of structural and unavoidable tension, which is going to be very difficult to get out of. Yep. I have a very, very accurate assessment, I'm afraid. Great. Well, I think that's all we have time for. I'd like to thank the audience for their attention and a very wide range of interesting questions. I'm sorry we haven't quite got through all of them. We'll try and do that later on. There are one or two about forecasts and estimates, which obviously the company can't look forward. But if you do go to the Equity Development website, you'll see our latest note that followed the interims and quite a lot of other coverage, which also covers, of course, forecasting and valuation. The audience will get questionnaires about the event, and Andy and Simon and the rest of us would be delighted if you can put in a little time to share your thoughts on that. And last but not least, thank you very much to Andy and Simon for a very, very clear presentation and addressing lots of questions. And we wish you all the best for a good second half and ongoing success. Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Andy. Thank you all.