systems, material management systems, earned value management systems, purchasing systems and government property systems. If improper or illegal activities, errors or system inadequacies come to the attention of the U.S. government, as a result of an audit or otherwise, then we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties, contract adjustments and/or agreements to upgrade existing systems as well as administrative sanctions that may include the termination of our U.S. government contracts, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines and, under certain circumstances, suspension or debarment from future U.S. government contracts for a period of time. Whether or not illegal activities are alleged and regardless of materiality, the U.S. government also has the ability to decrease or withhold certain payments when it deems systems subject to its review to be inadequate. These laws and regulations affect how we do business with our customers and, in many instances, impose added costs on our business. • Defense contract awards that we receive may be subject to protests or lawsuits by competing bidders, which protests or lawsuits, if successful, could result in the U.S. government customer revoking part or all of any contracts it awards to us and our inability to recover amounts we have expended in anticipation of initiating production under any such contract. • Although we believe there is demand from international customers for our tactical wheeled vehicles, there is no assurance that additional orders will materialize. • In January 2026, the U.S. President issued an executive order directing the DoD and other defense-related agencies to prioritize the warfighter in procurement decisions, including increased emphasis on speed of delivery, affordability, domestic sourcing and operational readiness. While intended to enhance military effectiveness, this directive could result in changes to acquisition strategies, contract structures, technical requirements, pricing expectations or supplier selection criteria. Such changes could increase competition, reduce margins, accelerate delivery schedules or require additional capital investments, which could in turn have a material adverse effect on our net sales, financial condition, results of operations and/or cash flows. Under the executive order, the DoD could also impose conditions or otherwise create disincentives that could limit our ability to repurchase shares of our Common Stock or to pay dividends to our shareholders. Our results could be adversely affected by severe weather, natural disasters, and other events in the locations in which we or our customers or suppliers operate. We have manufacturing and other operations in locations prone to severe weather and natural disasters, including tornados, earthquakes, floods, fires, hurricanes, tsunamis or severe snowstorms, that could disrupt our operations. Our suppliers and customers also have operations in such locations. Severe weather, a natural disaster or other conditions or events that result in a prolonged disruption to our operations, or the operations of our customers or suppliers, could delay delivery of parts, materials or components to us or sales to our customers and could have a material adverse effect on our net sales, financial condition, results of operations and/or cash flows. Consolidation within our customer and dealer bases may impact our strategy, pricing and product margins. Significant consolidation in our customer and dealer bases could enhance the influence of customers and dealers over our business strategy. Intensified consolidation in the industries we serve may provide our customers and dealers with additional leverage in negotiations around our product and service offerings. For example, the Access segment’s largest customers are rental companies that serve the end user equipment rental markets. Should access equipment customers consolidate through mergers and acquisitions, or should larger access equipment customers continue to grow through the acquisition of smaller rental companies, the buying influence of access equipment customers may grow and may impact the competitive environment within the industry. Similarly, the municipal fire apparatus market distribution channel is comprised of a relatively small number of dealers that, if they were to consolidate, may create additional pricing pressure, as well as concentrated credit exposures, as our reliance on a smaller group of larger individual dealerships increases. If that trend in customer and dealer consolidation continues, it could have an unfavorable impact on our pricing and product margins. Disruptions within our dealer network could adversely affect our business. Although we sell the majority of our products directly to the end user, we market, sell and service products through a network of independent dealers in the Vocational segment and in a limited number of markets in the Access segment. As a result, our business with respect to these products is influenced by our ability to establish and manage new and existing relationships with dealers. We or a dealer may choose to terminate the relationship as a result of difficulties that our
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