SRA to buy Era

SRA International Inc. will acquire Era Corp., a privately held provider of advanced surveillance technologies for air traffic management, airport operations, military and security markets. Financial terms were not announced.

Era is a major supplier of next-generation surveillance and flight-tracking solutions, including multilateration. That technology locates an object by accurately computing the variations in the time it takes a signal emitted from an aircraft to arrive at three or more different receivers.

Era also manufactures Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and other technologies that deliver high-performance, high-reliability surveillance systems to more than 100 customers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia.

ADS-B relies on an aircraft's Global Positioning System to provide flight information such as altitude, airspeed, position, aircraft type, identification and direction. The system transmits this information through a dedicated radio data link to all receivers capable of decoding ADS-B signals, Era said.

The Reston, Va., company has nearly 300 employees with production facilities and research and development centers in the United States and the Czech Republic.

Era has won many competitive procurement awards for ADS-B and multilateration systems during the past two years, including in Dublin, Ireland; New York; Singapore; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Thailand.

SRA embarked on a five-year plan in 2007 to broaden its product and services offerings, significantly increase annual revenue, and expand operating margins, the company said.

Air traffic is projected to double in the next decade along with the demand for the company's surveillance solutions, Dave Ellison, Era president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"We anticipate that the air surveillance market will continue to offer abundant opportunities for growth as traditional ground-based radar is replaced by these more powerful, dependable systems," added Stan Sloane, SRA president and CEO. "Era is an important part of our long-term growth plans and will help position us strategically for leadership in advanced surveillance technologies."

The sale is expected to be completed by the end of SRA's fiscal year June 30.

SRA, of Fairfax, Va., ranks No. 33 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.