Geopolitical. Changes in U.S. Government and other nations' administrations and their associated shifts in policy and priorities could also impact our operations and market conditions. Our business is highly sensitive to geopolitical and security issues, including foreign policy actions taken by governments such as tariffs, sanctions, embargoes, export and import controls, and other trade restrictions, which can affect the demand for, and our ability to sell, our products and services, cause disruptions to our supply chain, and, ultimately, could adversely affect our business.
Economic sanctions, export controls, and other trade restrictions, for instance those that the U.S. Government and other nations implemented against Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine or those relating to the conflict in the Middle East, could directly and indirectly result in the disruption of our business and supply chain. Conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere have increased the threat of malicious cyber activity from nation states and other actors. China has placed restrictions on and sanctioned our company and certain executives in connection with foreign military sales by the U.S. Government to Taiwan involving our products and services. We will continue to follow official U.S. Government guidance as it relates to sales to Taiwan and do not currently expect a material impact to our business from these actions.
Global conflicts, including those noted above, have significantly elevated global geopolitical tensions and security concerns and resulted in increased demand for some of our products and services. However, if we are unable to increase production to meet demand in the timeframe customers expect, whether due to supply constraints, government funding, or otherwise, then we may lose sales opportunities as those customers seek alternatives, even less capable ones, that may be delivered more quickly. Furthermore, the level of continuing demand and our ability to sell to customers to meet that demand is subject in part to changes in government policies and priorities. Our ability to invest, or attract investment, to fund increased production to meet anticipated demand, and our ability to earn returns on those investments, is subject to government policies and priorities and our ability to perform, the impacts of which could impact our results of operations.
Government actions relating to rare earth minerals that are used in certain of our products, including U.S. Government sourcing prohibitions on the import of such minerals and the imposition of export controls on such minerals by China, have raised concerns about supply availability. The rare earth supply chain continues to be vulnerable to disruption due to increasing scarcity and constrained capacity, and we are developing and executing mitigation plans designed to safeguard supply and meet future delivery commitments. We believe we will continue to meet our production and delivery commitments. However, if we are unable to successfully mitigate disruptions to the availability of rare earth minerals, our future profits, margins and cash flows may be adversely affected.
Certain materials and component parts that go into making our products are imported into the U.S. and are subject to tariffs, sanctions, embargoes, export and import controls, and other trade restrictions. The U.S. Government has increased, expanded, or imposed new tariffs on goods imported from various countries. We also export certain products to other countries, and several countries have increased or imposed additional tariffs in response to U.S. tariffs. The tariff environment has been dynamic in 2025, with changes occurring on an ongoing basis, and it is possible that additional developments will occur in the future, including as a result of negotiations between the U.S. and trade partners and legal challenges to the tariffs. At this time, excluding the near-term cash flow impact, we do not believe that the tariffs announced by the U.S. or actions taken in response to these tariffs by other countries will have a material adverse effect upon our results of operation or financial condition over the long term. The actual impact of the tariffs is subject to a number of factors including the effective date and duration of such tariffs, changes in the amount, scope and nature of the tariffs, any countermeasures that the target countries may take, the result of negotiations between the U.S. and trade partners, how our Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers react, possible substitution effects, possible duty-free entry entitlements, the outcome of any legal challenges, and any mitigating actions that may become available.
Our international sales also could be adversely affected by actions taken by the U.S. Government, including the exercise of foreign policy, Congressional oversight or the financing of particular programs, that may alter the international demand for our products or that may prevent, restrict or otherwise impose conditions upon the sale and delivery of our products or the transfer of sensitive technology. For example, the U.S. Government has imposed certain sanctions on Türkish entities and persons, which has affected our ability to obtain certain U.S. export permits or authorizations necessary to perform under our existing contracts supporting the Türkish Utility Helicopter Program (TUHP), and could impact our work with Türkish industry and our opportunity for sales in Türkiye generally. See "Note 1 – Organization and Significant Accounting Policies" included in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information on TUHP. Our inability to perform under, or compete for, contracts with international customers because of actions taken by the U.S. Government has resulted and may in the future result in our inability to recover our costs, incurrence of reach-forward losses, claims and contract terminations by these customers and suppliers, and limitations on our ability to pursue new business, which could have an adverse effect on our operating results.
Macroeconomic. Heightened levels of inflation and the potential worsening of macroeconomic conditions, including slower growth or recession, changes to fiscal and monetary policy, tighter credit, higher interest rates and currency fluctuations, present risks for us, our suppliers and the stability of the broader defense industrial base. If we are unable to successfully mitigate these impacts, our future profits, margins and cash flows, particularly for existing fixed-price contracts, may be adversely affected. Although we believe defense spending is more resilient to adverse macroeconomic conditions than many other industrial sectors, our suppliers and other partners, many of which are more exposed to commercial markets or have fewer resources, may be adversely impacted to a more significant degree than we are by an economic downturn. Such an impact could affect their performance and adversely impact our operations.
In addition, macroeconomic conditions could cause budgetary pressures for our government customers resulting in reductions or delays in spending, which could adversely impact our business. Higher interest rates increase the borrowing costs on new debt and could affect the fair value of our investments. Interest rates also impact our pension obligations. For example, higher interest rates reduce the measure of our gross pension obligations while lower interest rates increase it.
Public health. We face a wide variety of risks related to public health crises, epidemics, pandemics or similar events. If a new health epidemic or outbreak were to occur, we could experience broad and varied effects similar to the impact of COVID-19, including adverse impacts to our workforce and supply chain, inflationary pressures and increased costs, schedule or production delays, market volatility and other financial ramifications. If any of these were to occur, our future results and performance could be adversely impacted.