TCOM’s Equinox acquisition put together firm for ‘all-domain’ world
By DRONELIFE Options Editor Jim Magill
TCOM Equinox acquisition
Officers with TCOM LP, a producer of lighter-than-air aerostat platforms, mentioned the latest acquisition of Equinox Revolutionary Programs, a producer of each free-flying and tethered drones, will give the mixed firm the power to facilitate communications “from the ground to the stratosphere and beyond.”
The acquisition, which closed in April, combines two firms with complementary property geared towards the aerospace, protection and industrial industries. Equinox makes a speciality of superior multi-rotor drone know-how, specializing in tethered and heavy-lift drone programs, whereas TCOM provides superior sensors, customer-specific communications, and clever person interfaces with a broad vary of airborne platforms.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from our customer base that there’s just a whole lot of it interest in more autonomous and mobile systems,” mentioned Kurt McIntyre, director of enterprise improvement and options structure at TCOM. “Bringing Equinox into the fold really offers a highly complementary suite of products capable of addressing all layers and domains within an all-domain construct.”
The all-domain concept, initiated by the U.S. Division of Protection, considered one of TCOM most important prospects, which states that “a soldier, an operator, has to be successful now in all domains, meaning space, air, maritime, border patrol, it doesn’t matter,” Gal Borenstein, a TCOM spokesman, mentioned.
Each new type of know-how launched into the ISR [Intelligence, surveillance and Reconnaissance] markets through which TCOM operates is “based on the idea that the soldier can get their communication across all these different domains.”
For greater than half a century, TECOM has been a number one producer of tethered aerostat programs, primarily based on airships or hot-air balloons. These airships present prospects with superior sensors, customer-specific communications, and intelligent-user interfaces at a fraction of the price of satellite-based programs.
“The aerostats basically were the unsung heroes of the first and second wars in Iraq,” Borenstein mentioned. They have been instrumental in serving to to facilitate the escape of the Kuwaiti royal household, in addition to serving to result in the seize of Saddam Hussein. The airships have been additionally extensively used within the battle in Afghanistan, the place they have been used to conduct surveillance operations within the mountainous terrain.
Nonetheless, in newer years, the event of drone know-how has added a brand new dimension to ISR operations. McIntyre mentioned that together with its tethered aerostat programs, which function in what’s referred to as mid-tier airspace, TCOM additionally produces “high-altitude balloons, which are stratospheric, covering that upper tier. The acquisition of Equinox really fills that critical gap,” he mentioned.
“There’s just a lot of synergies on what we do with our current products and tether elevated sensors and what they bring to the table,” McIntyre mentioned. “It’s just a nice logical fit.”
John Graziano, TCOM’s director of company communications, mentioned with the acquisition of Equinox, the corporate’s capabilities will prolong “from the ground through the stratosphere and into space.” As well as, the acquisition will enable TCOM to optimize its suite of providing to prospects.
“If they need something more mobile, more autonomous, obviously the Equinox tethered UAS fits that solution set very nicely, covering that lower tier,” he mentioned. Alternatively, “with the aerostats, we can take up a whole lot of payload, a whole lot of weight for long durations.”
As well as, TCOM’s newly acquired capabilities enable the corporate to supply a collection of technological choices to service prospects with decreased manpower capabilities, he mentioned.
In an e-mail assertion, TCOM mentioned “the addition of Equinox’s product portfolio provides customers the ability to choose from a full suite of offerings which enables them to balance between flight time, power, and payload capacity for varying mission sets and unique applications across various market sectors.”
TCOM mentioned the acquisition would additional its plans to broaden the marketplace for tethered drones and aerostat programs by strategic partnership and continued funding into progressive applied sciences. The assertion mentioned that Equinox’s experience in radio frequency and system engineering, in addition to electro-mechanical airframe integration, would “not only complement our existing technology roadmap but also serve to bring this cutting-edge innovation under one operation.”
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Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, an expert drone providers market, and a fascinated observer of the rising drone trade and the regulatory setting for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles centered on the industrial drone area and is a global speaker and acknowledged determine within the trade. Miriam has a level from the College of Chicago and over 20 years of expertise in excessive tech gross sales and advertising and marketing for brand spanking new applied sciences.
For drone trade consulting or writing, E-mail Miriam.
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