BAE Systems has increased its profit guidance for the year after posting a 13% rise in group sales to £13.4bn in its first half results.

The defence contractor said this reflects an “ongoing strong programme performance” across the portfolio, helped by the acquisition of the Space & Mission Systems (SMS) business in February.

BAE’s latest trading statement, covering the six months to the end of June, also showed the group had an order intake worth £15bn in H1. The largest of these was a contract worth £4.6bn, for the delivery of first three warships in Australia.

As a result, BAE has increased its sales guidance by 200 basis points, to 12% to 14%, which it said reflects continued strong operational performance “across all sectors”.

This guidance includes the acquisition of Ball Aerospace and the reduction in the group’s shareholding in Air Astana following its initial public offering, both of which were completed by BAE in February.

Chief executive at BAE, Charles Woodburn, said: “We delivered a strong operational and financial performance in the first half of the year, giving us confidence to increase our year-end guidance across all our key metrics.

“Our order intake shows that demand for our products and services remains high and we are well positioned for sustained growth in the coming years. We will keep investing in new technologies, facilities and our people so that we can deliver on our record order backlog and help our government customers stay ahead in an uncertain world.”

Equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, Aarin Chiekrie, commented that BAE had guided expectations for the full year, reflecting “strong order flow”.

In terms of stock market movement, however, Chiekrie added that while the increased guidance for BAE was relatively marginal, and the stock was “barely touched by the results release”.

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