Cubic Corp. has acquired an unmanned aircraft builder.
Cubic (NYSE: CUB) said on July 24 that it has acquired the assets of Shield Aviation of San Diego. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Myles Newlove founded the company in 2008, and was its CEO.
Shield provides autonomous aircraft systems — specifically, the medium-altitude, propeller driven Ares aircraft. Going forward, Cubic plans to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (or ISR) as a service, said Jerry Madigan, president of Cubic’s ISR Systems subsidiary. The market for such services is growing, Madigan said.
Cubic already provides the data link as well as the command and control link for the Shield Aviation aircraft. It also provides similar services for other unmanned systems.
Cubic has hired Shield’s 10 employees but not its founder and CEO.
The Ares vehicle is a class III unmanned aircraft. The category takes in craft ranging from 55 pounds to 1,320 pounds, and is smaller than General Atomics’ Predator and Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk. The Ares can stay airborne for 12-15 hours, depending on payload, and requires a short runway to take off and land.
In April of 2015, Shield Aviation offered to sell $4 million in equity, according to a securities filing.
