AeroVironment acquires Planck Aerosystems

AeroVironment Inc., a global provider of intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, has acquired Planck Aerosystems Inc., a leading provider of advanced unmanned aircraft navigation solutions. The acquisition will significantly accelerate AeroVironment’s development of advanced autonomy capabilities.

Founded in 2014, Planck has worked closely with customers from the U.S. Department of Defense, security agencies, allied governments and offshore industrials to develop customer-centric unmanned aircraft solutions. Planck’s products include embedded technologies and fully integrated unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and leverage their deep technical expertise in UAS guidance and navigation, autonomy, and artificial intelligence.

Planck, based in San Diego, California, will be acquired by AeroVironment’s Petaluma-based medium unmanned aircraft systems (MUAS) business segment to focus on integrating its flight autonomy solutions, such as ACE™ (Autonomous Control Engine), into AeroVironment’s offerings to enable safe, autonomous takeoff and landing from moving platforms on land or at sea in GPS-denied environments. Other solutions include AVEM™, a fully integrated mobile tethered sensor platform designed for persistent autonomous operation from moving vehicles and vessels in any environment, and a suite of machine-learning object detection and tracking systems that are customized for specific end-user needs.

“Planck has a compelling product and technology roadmap with valuable capabilities that we plan to deploy and integrate with AeroVironment’s existing portfolio of intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems,” said Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment chairman, president and CEO. “The Planck team has developed advanced unmanned autonomy and navigation solutions for various defense and commercial customers and by working together, we believe we offer more compelling and differentiated solutions to our customers moving forward.”

“This transaction accelerates AeroVironment’s innovation in flight autonomy, increasing the effectiveness of our solutions in contested environments and reducing the cognitive load of operators, and adds a tethered small UAS to our portfolio of systems, creating exciting opportunities for upcoming programs of record,” Nawabi added.

“AeroVironment’s heritage of creating innovative solutions to meet customer needs is an ideal fit for the Planck team,” said Josh Wells, Planck CEO. “We couldn’t be more excited about joining forces with AeroVironment to deliver innovative, multi-domain unmanned systems to the next generation of U.S. and allied warfighters. AeroVironment’s reach, technical capabilities, and portfolio of unmanned systems will enable the Planck team to scale our products to more customers, and to provide better solutions in less time.”

Canaccord Genuity served as the exclusive financial advisor to Planck Aerosystems in connection with the transaction.