Cerberus Establishes North Wind After Acquiring Calspan’s Hypersonic & Defense Test Systems Units From TransDigm

Cerberus Capital Management has purchased Calspan’s hypersonic and defense test systems business units from TransDigm Group (NYSE: TGD) for an undisclosed sum and formed an independent entity that will focus on delivering hypersonic test infrastructure and services to U.S. government and commercial clients.

North Wind will be based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and will be led by David Meier, who has served as president and CEO of Calspan Aero Systems Engineering since 2015, Cerberus said Thursday.

“We’re excited to be joining forces with a like-minded partner in Cerberus to establish North Wind and drive the expansion and modernization of our nation’s valuable test infrastructure with a focus on hypersonics,” said Meier.

Anthony Castrogiovanni, chief technology officer at Calspan, will serve as CTO at North Wind.

Stephanie Mumford, president of Calspan Systems, will assume the same role at the North Wind Systems business unit in Newport News, Virginia.

“We’ve been tracking this company for a while and admire their innovation and expertise in hypersonics analysis and testing. Enabling the U.S. to meet the great need for hypersonic capabilities, North Wind is an important investment,” said Michael Palmer, senior managing director at the Supply Chain and Strategic Opportunities platform at Cerberus.

North Wind will provide hypersonic and research, development, test and evaluation capabilities through its five business segments: applied R&D; test facility design and build; test articles and critical system components; test services; and flight testing and flight systems.

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