L3 adds to unmanned undersea portfolio with Adapative Methods buy

L3 Technologies has acquired undersea technology manufacturer Adaptive Methods to further build a portfolio in the unmanned and anti-submarine warfare domains.

Terms of the transaction completed on Sept. 8 were undisclosed. Centreville, Va.-based Adaptive Methods will join L3’s sensor systems segment and will be renamed L3 Adaptive Methods.

This represents L3’s third acquisition in five months of a company with a footprint in the unmanned undersea market. L3 purchased drone maker OceanServer in April and added battery and energy technology company Open Water Power in May.

Founded in 1973, Adaptive Methods builds autonomy and sensor payload systems for use in unmanned undersea vehicles. The company designs tactical buoy systems for manned and unmanned maritime vehicles and sonar processing systems for anti-submarine warfare. Adaptive Methods also offers displays and command-and-control systems for anti-submarine warfare.

The company received approximately $19.4 million in unclassified prime contracting obligations during the 2016 federal fiscal year with substantially all of that from the Navy. Approximately 71.1 percent of those obligations were for research-and-development work, according to Deltek.

Other defense contractors have joined L3 over the past two years with respect to acquisitions of underwater drone makers. General Dynamics purchased Bluefin Robotics in February 2016 and Boeing added Liquid Robotics in December of that year.