AeroVironment Buys BlueHalo for $4.1B to Create Defense Drone Giant

Enabling AeroVironment’s entry into segments and strengthens multi-domain capabilities.

AeroVironment and Blue Halo's acquisition logo.
AeroVironment and Blue Halo's acquisition logo.
Blue Halo

Defense contractor AeroVironment said it will acquire BlueHalo in an all-stock transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $4.1 billion.

The company expects the acquisition to expand manufacturing capacity and create a diversified defense tech company with a highly complementary and differentiated portfolio of solutions in Uncrewed Systems, short and long range Loitering Munitions, Counter UAS, Space Technologies, Electronic Warfare and Cyber, powered by AI and Autonomy.

BlueHalo, an Arlington Capital Partners portfolio company, was founded as a platform providing capabilities in several key mission areas: Space Technologies, Counter-Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (cUAS), Directed Energy, Electronic Warfare, Cyber, Artificial Intelligence and other Emerging Technologies including Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles (UUVs).

Since its founding in 2019, BlueHalo’s accomplishments include being the first to successfully operationally field directed energy (DE) laser weapon systems (LWS) with its LOCUST LWS, being awarded Space Force’s multi-billion dollar program to transform space operations with BADGER, its adaptive phased array product and serving as a leader in Radio Frequency Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (RF C-UAS), delivering its 1000th system last year with its Titan and Titan-SV systems. BlueHalo has focused on research and development allowing for the development of products and services to transform the future of global defense.

BlueHalo estimates that it will achieve more than $900 million in revenues for 2024, in addition to funded backlog of nearly $600 million and a pipeline of multiple billion-dollar opportunities and programs of record. BlueHalo generated approximately $886 million of revenue in 2023, compared to $759 million and $660 million in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

AV expects that BlueHalo’s portfolio of 10 flagship solution families and more than 100 patents will integrate with AV’s complementary existing expertise in the design, development, manufacturing, training and servicing of Uncrewed Systems, Loitering Munitions and Advanced Technologies. AV and BlueHalo believe that these synergies will primarily be identified as administrative and operational cost savings and sharing best practices from each company. 

On a pro forma basis, the combined company is expected to deliver more than $1.7 billion in revenue.

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