The New York-based defense contractor made $151 million, or $1.24 a share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up from the year-ago $119 million, or $1.01 a share. Revenue rose 52% from a year ago to $2.9 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were looking for a profit of $1.21 a share on revenue of $2.85 billion.

Consolidated organic sales growth, excluding acquisitions, was 10.7%. Organic sales growth for the company's defense businesses was 11%, driven primarily by strong demand for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and products, secure networked communications systems, aircraft modernization and maintenance, government services and several specialized products, including those for simulation devices, guidance and navigation, electro-optical/infrared and acoustic undersea anti-submarine warfare products. Organic sales growth for the company's commercial businesses was 8.5%, primarily due to volume increases for airport security products and microwave components, which were partially offset by volume decreases for commercial aviation products.

Consolidated operating income jumped 39.5% to $306.1 million, but operating margin dropped to 10.6% from 11.5% for the 2004 fourth quarter. This decrease was principally due to the Titan acquired businesses, which reduced consolidated operating margin by 60 basis points because Titan's business is largely performed under lower margin (and lower risk) cost-reimbursable type and time-and-material type contracts.

For the 2005 fourth quarter, funded orders increased by 32.1% to $2.77 billion. At Dec. 31, funded backlog was $7 billion, up 47.1%.

"L-3 finished the year with strong fourth-quarter performance," said CEO Frank C. Lanza. "We had solid growth in several of our business areas, including ISR, secure communications, government services, security detection systems, simulation devices, microwave components, EO/IR products and displays."

The company forecast 2006 earnings of $4.80 to $4.95 a share on sales of $12 billion. Wall Street was looking for $4.89 on $11.85 billion.