VSE (VSEC) Risk Factors

The financial markets can experience high levels of volatility and disruption, reducing the availability of credit and other capital sources for certain issuers. We may access these markets from time to time to support certain business activities, including funding acquisitions and refinancing existing indebtedness. We may also access these markets to acquire credit support for our letters of credit. A number of factors could cause us to incur higher borrowing costs, experience greater difficulty accessing public and private markets for debt or prevent us from raising capital in the equity capital markets. These factors include disruptions or declines in the global capital markets, a decline in our financial performance, outlook, or credit ratings and/or volatility in the price of shares of our common stock due to our trading volume and public float. The occurrence of any or all of these events may adversely affect our ability to fund our operations, meet contractual commitments, make future investments or desirable acquisitions, or respond to competitive challenges.

Our financial performance is heavily dependent on the abilities of our operating and administrative staff with respect to technical skills, operating performance, pricing, cost management, safety, and administrative and compliance efforts. A wide diversity of contract types, nature of work, work locations, and legal and regulatory complexities challenge our administrative staff and skill sets. We also face challenges associated with our quality of workforce, quality of work, safety, and labor relations compliance. Our current and projected work in foreign countries exposes us to challenges associated with export and ethics compliance, local laws and customs, workforce issues, extended supply chain, political unrest, and war zone threats. Failure to attract or retain an adequately skilled workforce, lack of knowledge or training in critical functions, or inadequate staffing levels, can result in lost work, reduced profit margins, losses from cost overruns, performance deficiencies, workplace accidents, and regulatory noncompliance.

We have made investments in inventory, facilities, and lease commitments to support specific business programs, work requirements, and service offerings. A slowing or disruption of these business programs, work requirements, or service offerings that results in operating below intended levels could cause us to suffer financial losses.

The aviation industry is highly regulated by the FAA and similar regulatory agencies in other countries. Aviation engines, engine accessories and components that we sell components and repair services for must meet certain airworthiness standards established by the FAA or the equivalent agencies in certain other countries. We also operate repair facilities that are licensed by the FAA and equivalent agencies of certain other countries to perform such services. New and more stringent regulations may be adopted in the future that could have an adverse effect on us. Lastly, border tariffs and new trade deals could have significant effects on our customers and, in turn, on our suppliers, which may impact our business.

Our work includes many manual tasks, including warehousing, shipping, and packing of truck parts inventory, and maintaining and repairing aircraft components and equipment. Some of our work efforts involve the handling of hazardous materials. These services may pose certain challenges that could cause us to be exposed to legal and other liabilities arising from performance issues, work related incidents or employee misconduct that result in damages, injury or death to third parties. Such events could cause us to suffer financial losses and adversely affect our financial condition. See Item 3, "Legal Proceedings" below.

Our operations are subject to and affected by a variety of existing federal, state, and local environmental protection laws and regulations. In addition, we could be affected by future laws or regulations, including those imposed in response to concerns over climate change, other aspects of the environment, or natural resources. We expect to incur future capital and operating costs to comply with current and future environmental laws and regulations, and such costs could be substantial, depending on the future proliferation of environmental rules and regulations and the extent to which we discover currently unknown environmental conditions. Some of our contract work includes the use of chemical solvents and the handling of hazardous materials to maintain, repair, and refurbish vehicles, aircraft engines, and equipment. This exposes us to certain environmental and pollution risks. Various federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations impose restrictions on the discharge of pollutants into the environment and establish standards for the transportation, storage, and disposal of toxic and hazardous wastes. Substantial fines, penalties, and criminal sanctions may be imposed for noncompliance, and certain environmental laws impose joint and several "strict liability" for remediation of spills and releases of oil and hazardous substances. Such laws and regulations impose liability upon a party for environmental cleanup and remediation costs and damage without regard to negligence or fault on the part of such party and could expose us to liability for the conduct of or conditions caused by third parties. Costs associated with compliance with Federal, State, and local provisions regulating the discharge of materials or that otherwise relate to the protection of the environment have not had a material adverse effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, or competitive position. However, we cannot predict the likelihood of such a material adverse effect should we experience the occurrence of a future environmental or pollution event. The adoption of new environmental laws and regulations, stricter enforcement of existing laws and regulations, imposition of new cleanup requirements, discovery of previously unknown or more extensive contamination, litigation involving environmental impacts, our inability to recover related costs under our government contracts, or the financial insolvency of other responsible parties could cause us to incur costs that could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.

The aviation and vehicle parts industries are highly fragmented, have several highly visible leading companies, and are characterized by intense competition. Some of our original equipment manufacturer ("OEM") competitors have greater name recognition than VSE or our subsidiaries, as well as complementary lines of business and financial, marketing and other resources that we do not have. In addition, OEMs, aircraft maintenance providers, leasing companies and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") certificated repair facilities may attempt to bundle their services and product offerings in the supply industry, thereby significantly increasing industry competition.

We face cybersecurity risk related to our computer systems and data, which may include unauthorized access, acts by computer hackers, computer viruses, malicious code, organized cybersecurity attacks and other security problems and system disruptions, including possible unauthorized access to our and our customers' information. We also rely on third-parties to host certain enterprise systems and manage and host our data and that of our customers. Our ability to monitor such third parties' security measures and the full impact of the systemic risk is limited. If our systems, data, or any third party service that we use is unavailable to us for any reason, our customers may experience service interruptions, which could significantly impact our operations, reputation, business, and financial results. Lack of access to our data and that of our clients, or failure of our systems or those of our third-party service providers, may result in interruptions in our service, all of which may cause a loss in customers, refunds of product fees, and/or material harm to our reputation and operating results. We maintain a cybersecurity risk management program to monitor and mitigate cybersecurity threats and an incident response plan for emerging threats. To date, costs associated with preventing or remediating information management security breaches or complying with related laws and regulations have not had a material adverse effect on our capital expenditures, earnings or competitive position. Additionally, we have obtained insurance that provides coverage for certain cybersecurity incidents. Despite these efforts, we can make no assurances that we will be able to mitigate, detect, prevent, timely and adequately respond, or fully recover from the negative effects of cybersecurity incidents or other cybersecurity compromises, and such cybersecurity incidents, depending on their nature and scope, could potentially result in the misappropriation, destruction, corruption, or unavailability of personal information, critical data and confidential or proprietary information (our own or that of third parties) and the disruption of business operations. The potential consequences of a material cybersecurity incident include financial loss, reputational damage, damage to our IT systems, data loss, litigation with third parties, theft of intellectual property, fines, customer attrition, diminution in the value of our investment in research and development, and increased cybersecurity protection and remediation costs due to the increasing sophistication and proliferation of threats, which in turn could adversely affect our competitiveness and results of operations. Any imposition of liability, particularly liability that is not covered by insurance or is in excess of insurance coverage, could materially harm our operating results and financial condition.