GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
US company hopes purchase will make it "major presence on network-centric battlefield"
L-3 Communications has boosted its hopes of becoming a major player in network-centric warfare programmes by acquiring ComCept, a designer of architectures for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems.
L-3 is a major supplier of ISR products and the acquisition of the small but influential US think-tank will add system development and integration capabilities.
ComCept "has the roadmap to the ISR future", says L-3 chairman and chief executive Frank Lanza. Its capabilities are "complementary and synergistic" with the ISR focus at L-3's Communications Systems and Integrated Systems sectors, he says. "When we add this centrepiece to our existing complementary businesses, we...become a major presence on the network-centric battlefield."
The deal will particularly benefit Integrated Systems, formed following the $1.13 billion acquisition of Aircraft Integrated Systems (AIS) from Raytheon earlier this year. AIS is a major player in the modification of aircraft for specialised missions, and ComCept works with Big Safari, the project office responsible for the US Air Force's special mission aircraft, including EC-130 Compass Call electronic warfare and RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence aircraft.
Rockwall, Texas-based ComCept capabilities include requirements development, modeling, simulation and systems integration. L-3 describes the company's network-centric collaborative targeting technology as a "key enabler" for the USAF's Multi-Mission Command and Control Aircraft, a potential60-aircraft programme to replace the E-3 Sentry early warning aircraft and E-8 Joint STARS airborne surveillance aircraft.
The AIS acquisition gave products-based L-3 an integration capability for the first time. "We do not build aircraft or missiles, so we needed a way to integrate our products for customers who do not want to buy just products," says Lanza.
The ComCept acquisition fulfils what he says is the next step, to "add some upfront requirements analysis, modeling and simulation to AIS" - a capability he jokingly dubs the "L-Works" in a reference to Boeing's Phantom Works and Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works.
ComCept was formed by Brian Cullen, formerly chairman of Raytheon E-Systems (which later became AIS). Cullen will stay as division president. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, but L-3 says ComCept is profitable, with projected 2003 revenues of $24 million.
Source: Flight International
