L3 again goes to sea with another unmanned deal

L3 Technologies has made yet another acquisition to further build its unmanned maritime business, this time in a deal for surface vessel and related control systems provider ASV Global.

Terms of the transaction were undisclosed. The deal also brings additional anti-submarine warfare and future surface combatant unmanned off-board sensor offerings, L3 said Monday.

Unmanned sea vehicles and associated systems have been a focal point in New York City-based L3’s overall push to become what CEO Chris Kubasik has called a “nontraditional sixth prime.” That translates to being a more focused, high-end builder and integrator of technologies and other platforms called out in the 2017 National Security Strategy.

L3 went on an unmanned maritime buying spree last year that saw it make deals for undersea drone maker OceanServer, battery and energy technology company Open Water Power and autonomy and sensor system provider Adaptive Methods.

Headquartered in Louisiana and the U.K., ASV Global builds unmanned surface vessels sized between 10 and 42 feet that have software, control systems and other autonomy architectures. The company now operates as L3 ASV.

Sea is not the only domain where L3 has a buyer with respect to unmanned platforms. In June, the company quietly paid $15 million to buy hybrid quadrotor unmanned aircraft maker Latitude Engineering.

L3 has also been busy this year in acquiring companies in information security and space as part of its ongoing sixth prime transformation effort.