A Kratos satellite ground station. Photo: Kratos

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions on Tuesday said it has agreed to acquire the ASC Signal division from Communications & Power Industries (CPI) for $35 million in cash, a deal that expands its business in the ground segment supporting space-based systems. CPI is required by U.S. anti-trust regulators to divest its ASC Signal antenna business as a condition of its recent acquisition of the former satellite communications technology business of General Dynamics.

ASC designs and manufactures antenna systems for satellite communications, radar, electronic warfare and High-Frequency (HF) applications. The division has more than 100 employees. The division includes antenna products used in a variety of mission-critical space applications ranging from Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TT&C) to satellite communications and earth sensing and observation for military and commercial satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO), and Geostationary Orbit (GEO).  Kratos said its expanded portfolio that now includes transportable and fixed earth station antennas ranging from 2.4-meter to 18-meter in diameter, radar antennas for air traffic control and weather applications, and lines of HF and specialty antennas, positions the company to meet the needs of the combined Kratos and ASC customer base.

Kratos said its current antenna-related business is focused on full-scale large, complex systems in which antennas are just a part and often involve antennas from different manufacturers. ASC’s antennas will expand Kratos’ business here, particularly with U.S. government and national security customers, Kratos said. Kratos’ space business includes a number of products and solutions across the ground segment.

ASC’s sales, which were not disclosed, are split roughly equal between commercial and U.S. government customers, Phil Carrai, president of Kratos’ Space, Training and Cybersecurity Division said. The government business is largely with the U.S. military but also includes other customers, including the intelligence community, he said.

“The addition of ASC provides an important building block for Kratos’ continued growth as the industry’s broadest supplier of advanced products across the ground segment,” Phil Carrai, president of Kratos’ Space, Training and Cybersecurity Division, said in a statement. “Beyond the strong product lines and North American manufacturing base, it brings the ability for us to advance our strategy of building important ground segment technologies directly into antenna’s and better integrating antennas into increasingly virtualized ground systems. In addition, the acquisition brings engineering expertise and a product platform for growing Kratos’ solutions in the Q and V band markets that will become a critical part of the industry’s future.”

The deal expected to close within 30 days.

This article was first published by our sister publication Defense Daily.