Blackstone backs Falcata, merging two defense firms to build cheaper interceptors
What's the deal? Blackstone has made an undisclosed investment to launch FalcataDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a defense technology company formed by merging TSC with Applied Systems Engineering, Inc. (ASEI)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The combined platform develops sensing, guidance, navigation, and control technologies for missile defense and other national security missions.
What's the endgame? Falcata will fold together both companies' programs and customer relationships across advanced seekers and radar, guidance electronics, GPS-denied navigation, ISR, and launchers. The goal: produce lower-cost interceptors — and the critical components inside them — at greater scale.
Why now? The US and its allies face a shifting threat environment in which cheap drones and missiles can be deployed in volume. Recent conflicts have shown the need for defensive systems that combine effectiveness with mass production.
"Recent conflicts have demonstrated that lower-cost interceptors are a cornerstone of our national security strategy," said Jonathan Moneymaker, chairman of Falcata. He added that building more interceptors requires greater capacity across the sensing, guidance, navigation, and control technologies inside them.
What's in it for the backer? Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager with over $1.3 trillion in assets, is positioning Falcata to expand manufacturing and engineering capacity. "Falcata will help ensure our industrial base is ready to advance capability faster and break the supply chain chokepoints that our national defense increasingly requires," said David Kaden, senior managing director at Blackstone.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLCDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → advised Blackstone, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLPDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → as legal counsel.
The signal: A private equity giant is betting that the next defense bottleneck is not just interceptors but the scarce components that guide them. By consolidating two specialist suppliers, Blackstone is wagering that affordable, high-volume defense manufacturing is where demand — and returns — now sit.
Read more: wallstreet-online.de
Image credit: U.S. Missile Defense Agency
