Qinetiq buys Australian defence services company Air Affairs

QinetiQ said on Monday that it has agreed to buy Australian defence services company Air Affairs for AUD53m (£31m) in cash and to sell its Belgium-based commercial space business, QinetiQ Space, to Redwire Space Europe for €32m (£28m) in cash.

The company said it has set out a clear strategy to focus on its "six distinctive offerings and align its capital deployment to its three home countries: US, UK and Australia".

It said the acquisition of Air Affairs is an exciting step" to further build and accelerate the group in Australia, growing its test and evaluation (T&E) and threat representation capability globally.

QinetiQ said Air Affairs is a leader in air threat representation, T&E, unmanned targets and mission rehearsal. The business provides targets and training services, and electronic warfare capabilities to the Australian Defence Force, as well as aerial surveillance and reconnaissance in support of government firefighting efforts.

It owns and operates a fleet of special mission aircraft and maintains an advanced manufacturing and engineering facility providing design, manufacture and certification operations. Air Affairs employs around 180 people, headquartered in Nowra, New South Wales.

Chief executive Steve Wadey said: "Following our announcement to acquire Avantus in the US in August, the acquisition of Air Affairs in Australia is a further exciting opportunity to accelerate our growth and reinforces our market leading position in test and evaluation, and air threat representation globally.

"Today's acquisition and disposal announcement reinforces the focus of our growth strategy on our six distinctive offerings in our three home countries, delivering mission critical solutions for our customers."