Christopher T. Calio
President and Chief Operating Officer at RTX
Thank you, Greg, and good morning, everyone. First, I want to acknowledge and express my appreciation for Greg's leadership. He has created significant value over the last decade as CEO and has shaped RTX into the best portfolio in A&D with our three industry-leading businesses, leaving a strong foundation for our continued success.
Before we discuss our first quarter, I want to spend a few moments on the strength of this foundation and how we plan to build upon it in 2024 and beyond. Now I know we've highlighted it before, but I think it's worth repeating. Collins is an industry-leader, number one or number two on 70% of its product portfolio, and has an off-warranty installed base of $100 billion, which will create decades of aftermarket growth. At Pratt, the large commercial engine business has an installed base of 12,000 engines and a backlog of over 10,000 GTFs, which will also drive growth for decades to come. But Pratt is much more than the GTF.
Pratt & Whitney Canada remains the premier small engine business with sole-source positions on over 200 platforms and 63,000 engines in service, which also comes with long aftermarket tails. And Pratt's military engine business is set to power the F-35 and B-21 Bomber well into the future.
At Raytheon, our defense franchises are essential to the U.S. and our allies as they confront the threats of today and tomorrow with programs like the Patriot Air Defense System, GEM-T, NASAMS, SPY-6 Radars, AMRAAM, Tomahawk, and the standard missile family, and future technologies like LTAMDS, hypersonics, and LRSO, the Long Range Stand Off cruise missile.
So as we move forward, our focus will continue to be transforming RTX from the best portfolio in A&D into the best company in A&D. This means being recognized by our customers as a trusted partner that executes on its commitments. It means leveraging our core operating system to help drive operational excellence in terms of quality and cost. It means being the provider of differentiated technologies that create a competitive advantage. And it means converting all of these attributes into best-in-class financial performance and long-term shareholder value.
All right. With that, let me move to the quarter on Slide 2. We've gotten off to a strong start to the year with organic sales up 12%, segment operating profit up 10%, and free cash flow in line with our expectations. Commercial OE was up 33% across RTX, driven by continued strong demand for new aircraft. And commercial aftermarket was up 11% as we continue to see strong growth in both domestic and international RPKs. So clearly, the commercial aero demand is there. But as you all know, the industry is still working through supply chain constraints and other challenges, which is leading to some OE production rate uncertainty. And this will continue to be a watch item for us for the year.
On the defense side, we delivered 7% growth year-over-year and ended the quarter with a defense book-to-bill of 105 and a backlog of $77 billion. We're pleased the fiscal year 2024 spending bills have been enacted and provide $886 billion in defense spending, which is up 3%. But more importantly, the budget supports our key programs and technologies, including next-generation propulsion, critical munitions, and upgrades to the F135, ensuring it remains the only engine powering every variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The budget also supports investment in key capabilities to address current and future threats, such as systems that counter unmanned aircraft and hypersonics, where RTX provides leading technologies. And we are encouraged by the progress on the Ukraine Supplemental Bill, which the DoD will use to further deepen critical U.S. munition stockpiles such as TO, Javelin, and Excalibur, and provide needed air defense capabilities to the region with NASAMS and Patriot.
Internationally, we continue to see heightened demand from U.S. allies. In the quarter, Raytheon was awarded a $1.2 billion contract to supply Germany with additional Patriot Air and Missile Defense Systems.
Okay. Let me move beyond the end-market dynamics and talk about some of our critical initiatives. And I'll start with an update on the GTF fleet management plan. We continue to stay on track here, and our financial and operational outlook remain consistent with our prior comments. As you may have seen, in March, the GTF airworthiness directives were issued and are consistent with our service bulletins and service instructions. On the technical side, the results from the ultrasonic angle scan inspections have all been in line with our initial expectations and assumptions.
With regard to new engine production, as we said on our last call, all GTF engines being delivered to our customers' final assembly lines have full-life HPC and HPT discs. And on the MRO side, we have started the process of incorporating full-life discs into certain engine overhauls. And as we previously said, we expect to progressively ramp this effort throughout the year.
In addition, the PW1100 engine shop visits completed in the quarter were in line with our plan and up 50% year-over-year. With regard to overhaul turnaround time, our average wing-to-wing turnaround time assumptions remain consistent with our prior guidance of roughly 250 to 300 days. And with the AD now issued, we are now essentially at our peak AOG level. We continue to expect an average of roughly 350 AOGs from 2024 through 2026. And lastly, we have reached support agreements with nine of our customers, and these are in line with our assumptions.
With that, let's turn to Slide 3, and I'll share a bit more on how we're leveraging our core operating system and digital transformation to drive quality, efficiency, and productivity. As I've said before, our core operating system is all about driving continuous improvements that compound over time to create a significant impact on our business. Let me give you a few recent examples. Our nacelle business within Collins deployed CORE across seven factories that support the A320neo program, resulting in an 8% improvement in on-time delivery and a 17% improvement in quality. And at Raytheon on the TPY-2 program, which is a radar designed to detect and intercept ballistic missiles, we leverage CORE practices to help double first-pass yield on high-volume circuit cards, resulting in a 40% reduction in manufacturing hours per unit and improved on-time delivery.
We also remain committed to enhancing our factories through digitization, automation, and connected equipment. Last year, we connected 20 factories and have another 20 planned to be completed by the end of this year. Once fully connected, these factories will achieve improved overall equipment efficiency, better quality, and ultimately, higher output. And lastly, we will continue to invest both directly and indirectly through RTX Ventures and our cross-company technology roadmaps to develop differentiated technologies to fill our product pipeline. These include areas such as advanced materials, electrification, power and thermal management, and microelectronics. This year, we will invest about $3 billion in company-funded R&D, along with $5 billion in customer-funded R&D to develop new technologies and products. We are also expanding our manufacturing capacity in key areas to meet customer demand, a key priority within our $2.5 billion of capital investment in 2024.
One of our most significant new products coming to the market is LTAMDS, which is the next-generation advanced 360-degree air defense radar that provides significant performance improvement against a range of threats, including UAS and hypersonics. This program recently completed another successful live-fire event with representatives from seven countries in attendance. And we expect both the first domestic LRIP and international FMS contracts this year. And today, we're announcing a $115 million expansion of our Raytheon Redstone Missile Integration Facility in Huntsville, Alabama. When complete, the factory's capacity for integrating and delivering several of our critical munitions programs will increase by more than 50%.
So with the best portfolio within A&D, CORE driving our continuous improvement in operational excellence, and ongoing investments in next-generation technologies, I'm incredibly confident in RTX's future and our ability to transform into the best company in A&D.
With that, let me turn it over to Neil to take you through our first quarter results. Neil?
