LOGAN, Utah – Frontgrade Technologies, a Veritas Capital company, announced the acquisition Aug. 7 of Aethercomm, a Carlsbad, California-based manufacturer of high-power amplifier modules and switches.
“Our enabling superpower is providing turnkey solutions for a satellite provider that wants an RF payload for communications from spacecraft to the ground or spacecraft to spacecraft,” Tim Lynch, Frontgrade chief strategy officer, told SpaceNews. “We had a fair amount of the building blocks to provide that turnkey solution before. But the addition of Aethercomm gives us the amplification portion of the RF chain.”
Colorado Springs-based Frontgrade supplies radiation-hardened electronics. Prior to the acquisition, Frontgrade offered no active RF components.
Now, “we have the solution that makes the easy button more apparent and more feasible for our customer,” Lynch said.
Frontgrade Aethercomm
Aethercomm will operate as a new division, Frontgrade Aethercomm. Frontgrade was known as CAES Space Systems, the former electronics unit of British defense and aerospace contractor Cobham, before being purchased early this year by Veritas.
“Aethercomm’s RF technologies have an excellent reputation for reliability and are very complementary to Frontgrade’s current portfolio of processing, power and propulsion solutions,” Mike Elias, Frontgrade president and CEO, said in a statement. “We look forward to integrating Aethercomm’s business capabilities and highly skilled team with Frontgrade.”
Todd Thornton, Aethercomm founder and CEO, along with senior managers will remain with Frontgrade Aethercomm.
“This strategic combination was made possible through the dedication of our team and enables Aethercomm to benefit from increased scale and investment in R&D and people to better serve our customers,” Thornton said in a statement. “By adding our active RF solutions to the existing Frontgrade platform, we will ensure that companies operating in the aerospace and defense sectors are equipped with an innovative and fully integrated product suite.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article said the acquisition was announced in June. It was announced Aug. 7.
