Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
Strategic acquirers, private equity (buyout funds and growth funds) firms, and valuation benchmarks for Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles
1.1 - About Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
Companies in the Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles category design and supply airborne, surface, and subsea platforms that deliver persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) for defense and maritime missions. They integrate vehicles, mission sensors, and control software to enable day/night, all‑weather coverage, secure data links, and long‑endurance patrols. Buyers gain autonomous ISR capacity that extends operational reach, improves situational awareness, and reduces risk to personnel.
Offerings typically span fixed‑wing UAVs, rotary drones, and VTOL UAS for airborne ISR, alongside unmanned surface and underwater vehicles (USV/UUV) for maritime domain awareness. Providers equip platforms with EO/IR cameras, SAR radar, hyperspectral imaging, and SIGINT/COMINT payloads, tied to secure LOS/BLOS and SATCOM links. They deliver mission planning tools, ground control stations, C2 software, autonomous navigation with GNSS/INS, obstacle avoidance, and launch‑and‑recovery systems for contested, all‑weather operations.
Primary customers include defense ministries and procurement agencies, armed forces and special operations units, and coast guards or maritime security authorities. Outcomes center on persistent ISR coverage across air and sea, faster targeting and decision cycles, expanded maritime domain awareness and border monitoring, and lower operational risk and cost by replacing manned patrols. These companies support compliance with defense standards and integration into existing C2 networks.
2. Buyers in the Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
2.1 Top strategic acquirers of Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles companies
Kraken Robotics
- Description: Provider of advanced marine technology delivering synthetic aperture sonar, underwater sensors, batteries and robotic systems for unmanned underwater vehicles, enabling ultra-high-resolution seabed imaging and subsea intelligence for military and commercial customers.
- Key Products:
- Mine Countermeasure & Mine-Hunting Solutions: Integrated sonar and sensing platforms that detect, classify and support neutralization of naval mines, enabling safer, faster maritime operations
- High-Resolution Seabed Intelligence Solutions: Sensor suites generating detailed imagery and data analytics of seabed features to support intelligence, surveillance and environmental assessment tasks
- Seabed Mapping Systems: Modular mapping payloads that capture precise bathymetric and terrain data, producing accurate underwater maps for hydrographic, defense and commercial applications
- Advanced Underwater Sonar Robot: Cutting-edge robotic platform with enhanced sonar fitted to Remus AUVs, providing superior range and image clarity for underwater object detection trials.
- Company type: Private company
- Employees: ●●●●●
- Total funding raised: $●●●m
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- Acquisitions: ●●
2.2 - Strategic buyer groups for Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
M&A buyer group 1: Drones
Northrop Grumman
- Type: N/A
- Employees: ●●●●●
- Description: Provider of propulsion systems, engines, thrusters and end-to-end engineering, fabrication, integration, testing and analysis services for spacecraft, launchers and missiles, delivering flight-proven bipropellant, monopropellant and gel propulsion hardware with a four-decade record of failure-free missions.
- Key Products:
- Eclipse Rocket: American-made medium launch vehicle co-developed with Firefly Aerospace, expanding access to space and broadening the U.S. launch portfolio with agile, cost-effective lift capability
- E-2D Advanced Hawkeye: Carrier-based airborne early warning aircraft featuring advanced radar and command-and-control systems, providing real-time situational awareness and extended surveillance for naval forces
- Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS): Transformational fire-control network that integrates sensors and weapons to defeat complex, evolving air and missile threats, enlarging defended areas and giving warfighters faster decision time
- Integrated Assembly Line (IAL) for F-35 Center Fuselages: Robotics-driven manufacturing line that employs automation to produce high-quality F-35 center fuselages at record speed, improving precision, throughput and cost efficiency.
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●● companies3. Investors and private equity firms in Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
3.1 - Buyout funds in the Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
2.2 - Strategic buyer groups for Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
4 - Top valuation comps for Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles companies
4.2 - Public trading comparable groups for Defense Unmanned Surveillance Vehicles sector
Valuation benchmark group 1: Defense Electronics and Mission Systems Companies
Palantir Technologies
- Enterprise value: $●●●m
- Market Cap: $●●●m
- EV/Revenue: ●.●x
- EV/EBITDA: ●●.●x
- Description: Provider of data analytics and decision-making software platforms, delivering solutions for data integration, visualization, and security to support complex operations and strategic insights across government, commercial, and non-profit sectors.
- Key Products:
- Palantir Gotham: Intelligence platform for integrating, managing, and securing vast amounts of data
- Palantir Foundry: Operational platform for transforming complex data into a collaborative environment
- Palantir Apollo: Continuous delivery and infrastructure management system
- AI for IoT & Edge: Real-time decision-making for connected devices
- Data Cataloging: Tool for organizing, managing, and discovering data assets.