United Industrial Corporation has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary AAI Corporation has acquired privately held Aerosonde Pty Ltd. and Aerosonde North America, Inc. in stock purchase transactions for an aggregate purchase price of $6.5 million, with additional consideration payable upon the achievement of certain milestones.

AAI is considered a premier U.S. designer, manufacturer, and systems integrator of tactical unmanned aircraft systems, ground control station technologies, and other innovative unmanned system capabilities.

Aerosonde Pty is a Victoria, Australia-based manufacturer and developer of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems with civil and military customers in Australia, Asia, and North America. Aerosonde North America operates the Aerosonde UAV in support of R&D and weather forecasting requirements of U.S.- based customers, including the U.S. Air Force, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA.

The acquisition of Aerosonde is a perfect fit for our blueprint of strategically expanding our unmanned aircraft systems capabilities to meet the growing and diversified requirements of military, homeland security, and civilian markets, said Steven E. Reid, AAI’s vice president of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

Source and more information: tmcnet