AeroVironment Buys Pulse Aerospace in UAS Portfolio Expansion Push; Wahid Nawabi Quoted

Wahid Nawabi, President and CEO of AeroVironment

AeroVironment has purchased Lawrence, Kan.-based Pulse Aerospace for $25.7M in cash to expand its line of small unmanned aircraft systems.

œThis transaction brings together two highly complementary companies in terms of products, markets and culture, and will better position AeroVironment to grow our share of the small UAS market, Wahid Nawabi, president and CEO of AeroVironment, said in a statement published Tuesday.

Nawabi added AeroVironment looks forward to getting access to technical talent in the Lawrence area as it works to meet its objectives for long-term growth and advance the adoption of software analytics, sensors, robotics and other technologies.

Pulse Aerospace™s Kansas-based facility will now operate as AeroVironment Innovation Center-Midwest and focus on the development of small vertical takeoff and landing drones and mission planning platforms.

AeroVironment expects the acquisition to be accretive to its earnings by year three of operations.

Pulse Aerospace develops small VTOL UAS technologies including the HeliSynth platform, which is designed to provide flight control, endurance and payload capabilities to defense and commercial clients. The company secured from a defense client a multiyear contract worth over $13M to provide Vapor unmanned VTOL platforms, spares and services.

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