Huntington Ingalls Acquires Autonomy Business of Spatial Integrated Systems

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced today that it has acquired the autonomy business of Spatial Integrated Systems Inc. (SIS).

The acquisition will provide HII unmanned surface vessel (USV) solutions.

“I am pleased that HII will carry on SIS’s vision to deliver advanced autonomy to our armed forces in support of our national interest,” said Dr. Ali Farsaie, CEO and founder of SIS.

SIS’s unmanned systems solutions — including multi-vehicle collaborative autonomy, sensor fusion and perception — have been fielded for more than 6,000 hours on 23 vessel types. They have supported multiple development projects and demonstrations advancing autonomy in unmanned systems in the maritime, ground and air domains.

The acquisition of SIS’s autonomy business follows other recent unmanned systems activity by HII, including the acquisition of Hydroid, a strategic alliance with Kongsberg Maritime, an equity investment in Sea Machines, and the groundbreaking on a new HII Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence in Hampton, Virginia.

The transaction closed on Dec. 31, 2020 and approximately 50 employees from SIS, primarily located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, have joined HII Technical Solutions’ Unmanned Systems business group. Sam Lewis, president and chief operating officer of SIS, will lead the company’s USV efforts, reporting to Fotheringham. The cost of the transaction is not being disclosed.