Redwire intends to acquire Edge Autonomy, an uncrewed airborne system builder (UAS), to boost its ability to offer national security customers a suite of interconnected platforms across domains.
The $925M deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, will be paid through $150M in cash and $775M in shares of Redwire stock.
Acronym soup: Redwire CEO Peter Cannito said the acquisition will position Redwire to compete in the era of joint all-domain command and control (aka JADC2), a Pentagon effort to buy systems where platforms on land, sea, air, space and cyber are all interconnected.
“If you think of it as establishing a grid-like architecture to support ground-based operations…[uncrewed aerial systems and spacecraft], when linked through communication, form an interconnected network that can do things where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” Cannito said.
Missions: Some potential missions where UAS and space could work together include:
- Communicating with the uncrewed aerial systems through over-the-horizon space-based comms (especially useful for Edge Autonomy systems, which can venture farther thanks to proprietary battery tech.)
- Using a space-based system to task and control an uncrewed system
Cannito also said pairing Group 2 uncrewed systems with space assets can sometimes allow those platforms to complete missions that would typically be better suited to more advanced (and more expensive) Group 3 uncrewed systems, offering customers a cost savings.
Tech overlap: In addition to boosted capabilities, there’s a technical benefit to the acquisition, since Redwire’s spacecraft and Edge Autonomy’s uncrewed aerial systems share a number of hardware and software requirements, including avionics, radio frequency systems, EO payloads, and alternative PNT, Cannito said.
What’s next: This is Redwire’s 11th acquisition—it most recently acquired satellite-builder Hera Systems in August in a bid to win more national security business. Cannito was mum on the potential for future acquisitions, only saying that the company has proved its ability to successfully conduct M&A deals and “will continue to look for good values.”
