BAE Systems Acquires Riptide Autonomous Solutions Business

BAE Systems, Inc. has announced the purchase of the key assets of Riptide Autonomous Solutions (Riptide), a Plymouth, Massachusetts-based provider of innovative, affordable unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) technology and solutions. Specializing in small UUVs, Riptide’s platforms are sophisticated yet simple, efficient, and highly flexible, offering performance discriminators within this domain that include greater depth, range, endurance, and speed.

Jeff Smith, founder and president of Riptide Autonomous Solutions, stated, "Everyone at Riptide is excited to be joining BAE Systems, given our shared focus and strategic vision for the undersea market."

Riptide employees will join the BAE Systems Electronic Systems sector, many as part of the FAST Labs™ organization, where our scientists and engineers innovate capabilities to address some of the toughest challenges in the defense, aerospace, and security domains. The FAST Labs team looks forward to maturing Riptide’s platform technology, demonstrating new solutions, and scaling manufacturing production. This is consistent with our strategy to acquire and incubate small business innovations that can yield disruptive technology breakthroughs for BAE Systems programs of record.

"Adding Riptide's technological capabilities will position us to provide customers unmatched flexibility by offering a family of UUVs and integrated payload solutions capable of supporting a variety of critical missions," said Terry Crimmins, president of BAE Systems Electronic Systems.

"Coupling our extensive expertise in sonar, signal processing, sensor fusion, undersea communications, electronic warfare, and autonomous systems with Riptide’s unique UUV platforms will enable us to affordably address rapidly expanding maritime mission requirements in the global defense, commercial, and research markets."

In an official press release, BAE said that they expect to maintain the Riptide facilities in Plymouth, Massachusetts, further expanding their footprint in the New England area.

Headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, BAE Systems Electronic Systems is a premier provider of commercial and defense electronics for flight and engine control, electronic warfare, surveillance, communications, geospatial intelligence, and power and energy management.