BlueHalo on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI), a small research and development (R&D) company serving defense and federal civilian government customers and contractors.
Terms of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, were not disclosed.
IAI has expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), cybersecurity, hypersonics, space, 5G, data analytics, modeling and simulation, and radio frequency and communications.
IAI, which is based in Rockville, Md., does R&D and provides products and services for a wide range of Defense Department, federal civilian and contractor clients. Its customers include among others the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration,
BAE Systems, Boeing [BA], General Dynamics [GD], Lockheed Martin [LMT], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Raytheon Technologies [RTX].
BlueHalo, which is based in Arlington, Va., and is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Arlington Capital Partners, was created in October 2020 through the acquisition of five small defense companies with a focus on space superiority, directed energy, missile defense, C4ISR, cyber and intelligence mission solutions.
The pending acquisition will enhance BlueHalo’s capabilities in a number of areas.
“Their multi-domain AI/ML capabilities are world-class, which brings a tremendous opportunity to encapsulate our existing products and platforms with IAI’s technology,” Diek Minkhorst, BlueHalo’s vice president of corporate development, told Defense Daily in an email reply to questions about the deal. “Whether that be through BlueHalo’s Target Acquisition and Tracking System or continuing to develop our drone swarming utilizing BlueHalo’s proprietary drone platforms, IAI will enhance and accelerate many or our current programs in addition to the work they are already doing.”
IAI also offers a software-as-a-service product with AI/ML tools for data collection and analytics, including video analytics, that makes use of publicly available data and brings with it cybersecurity products that complement BlueHalo’s capabilities, he said, adding that these are a just a “handful” of the technologies that IAI brings with it.
Jonathan Moneymaker, BlueHalo’s CEO, said in a statement that, “With nearly one-third of their workforce having PhDs, IAI has an incredibly deep bench of world-class scientists, developers and engineers, and we at BlueHalo could not be more excited to partner with the IAI management team as we continue to expand our capabilities across areas critical to national security. Encapsulating BlueHalo’s mission areas with IAI’s world-class multi-domain artificial intelligence/machine learning-base technologies will accelerate and enhance BlueHalo’s trajectory while creating a repeatable, sustainable engine of innovation.”
IAI said that merging with BlueHalo will allow it to apply its expertise to a broader set of problems and challenges. IAI’s entire management team will remain with the company, which has just over 260 employees.
Raymond James and Associates served as IAI’s financial adviser on the deal.