FLIR acquires Altavian

FLIR Systems said today it has acquired Altavian, which builds small unmanned aerial systems for defense and public safety customers.

The Gainesville, FL-based Altavian was founded in 2011.

"With both quadcopter and fixed-wing UAS designs, Altavian's expertise includes aeronautics, avionics, and software, and its solutions are engineered around an open system architecture aligned to the needs of government and defense customers," FLIR said. "Altavian is one of five drone manufacturers approved by the U.S. Department of Defense under the Blue sUAS program to sell to the U.S. military and federal agencies."

Altavian will be integrated into FLIR's defense technologies segment.