Kratos closes public safety business sale

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions said Monday it has completed the sale of its public safety business to continue transforming into a more focused technology platform company.

The divestiture is part of San Diego-based Kratos' strategy to focus on four key areas it sees as potentially offering larger growth: unmanned systems, satellite technology, training and microwave electronics.

“We have got to focus on those because we have won some big stuff. We are going to win some other big stuff and we need to focus where the big growth opportunities are,” Kratos CEO Eric DeMarco said in a Feb. 28 call with investors.

The company's unmanned portfolio in particular looks set to swell as it is a subcontractor to Dynetics on the "Gremlins" program with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. They won a head-to-head competition with General Atomics in April for the potential $64 million program to build unmanned aerial drones that can be launched and retrieved in-flight.

Sweden-based Securitas is the buyer for the now-former Kratos public safety and security systems integration business. That unit's customers are commercial enterprises in sectors such as transportation and health care.