Timothy Conver
Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets
Thank you, Jikun. We expect the following areas to contribute to our fiscal year 2013 growth: international small UAS sales, Switchblade Loitering Munition Systems and electric vehicle products. In formulating our guidance for fiscal 2013, we considered 3 levels of risk. First, the inherent risk in predicting the timing and the rate of adoption in our innovation strategy; second, macro risks associated with budgets, funding, ops, tempo, recession, sequestration and the like; and third, timing risks associated with government order delays probably exacerbated by sequestration overhang.
We're optimistic about the many specific growth opportunities for fiscal '13 that I have outlined today, and we are aggressively pursuing their capture. Nevertheless, we've tempered our outlook for the overarching market uncertainties discussed earlier, resulting in a more conservative plan and a wider guidance range.
Our fiscal 2013 anticipated revenue is between $348 million and $370 million with diluted EPS of between $1.41 and $1.51. We again expect about a 40%-60% split between the first half and the second half of the year. We anticipate customer delivery schedules will define our Q1 revenue this year at about the same level as last year, which was $62 million.
Because we are staffed and operating for continued growth, I expect a flat year-over-year Q1 revenue should produce a net loss for the first quarter.
There are practical limits to providing greater visibility when were are often creating new opportunities for which few or no baselines exist and where greater disclosure would be helpful to competitors. So we'll continue to balance forecasting transparency with caution for the long-term benefit of our stakeholders.
At a high level, however, here's a way to think about our fiscal '13 revenue plan, starting with beginning backlog of $93 million, add our Q1 to date bookings of $45 million, plus the balance of the government fiscal year '12 Raven orders that we expect to book and ship in our fiscal '13 of $60 million, plus the balance of the EES segment revenue of $30 million necessary to match its fiscal '12 revenue, for a total of $228 million. This represents about 63% visibility, leaving 37% left to reach the midpoint of our revenue guidance range, a percentage that is consistent with our visibility in prior years. We expect a combination of identified high-probability unmanned airplane system orders and EES growth opportunities to provide this revenue.
Overall, I'm more confident than ever in our products and market positioning, our team, our ability to deliver uniquely valuable solutions to our customers and our ability to sustain long-term growth.
Thank you for your continued interest in AeroVironment. And now Jikun, Tom and I will take your questions.