FLIR Systems (Arlington, VA) has acquired Altavian (Gainesville, FL), a manufacturer of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for defense and public safety customers. Altavian’s airframes integrate multiple sensors, including FLIR thermal technology, to provide users with decision support and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability.
Altavian designs and manufactures Group 1 UAS solutions for long- or short-range operations. With quadcopter and fixed-wing UAS designs, the company’s expertise includes aeronautics, avionics, and software, and its solutions are engineered around an open-system architecture aligned to the needs of government and defense customers. The company is one of five drone manufacturers approved by the U.S. Department of Defense under the Blue sUAS program to sell to the U.S. military and federal agencies.
With the new additions of a low-cost, rapidly deployable quadcopter and a longer-range fixed-wing UAS, FLIR is strengthening its drone lineup that includes its Black Hornet and SkyRaider platforms used extensively by militaries worldwide, explains Roger Wells, General Manager of the Unmanned Systems and Integrated Solutions business of FLIR Systems’ Defense Technologies Segment, under which Altavian will be integrated.
For more information, please visit flir.com/defense-uas.