Vertex Aerospace to buy Raytheon services business

US aviation services provider Vertex Aerospace has agreed to purchase Raytheon Technologies Corporation's Defense Training and Mission Critical Solutions business, saying the sustainment and training unit will add “scale and diversity” to its portfolio.

Vertex will gain an enterprise that employs more than 2,000 people and that generated about USD1 billion in sales last year. The business, which is also known as Global Training and Logistics, serves both government and commercial customers and is part of Raytheon Intelligence & Space.

Vertex is based in Madison, Mississippi, and has 3,500 employees. Its services include maintaining aircraft, managing aviation supply chains, and flying aircraft for research and development and training missions.

Raytheon chairman and CEO Greg Hayes told a Morgan Stanley investor conference on 15 September that he expects the divestiture to close by year's end. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Hayes indicated in May that Raytheon was looking to sell the business as it was no longer a good fit for the US-based parent company.

While Raytheon is shedding some activities, it is bolstering others, including in the space domain. A day after Raytheon announced on 14 September that it has agreed to buy US space electronics supplier SEAKR Engineering, Hayes said that more space acquisitions could follow.

“We want to be not just in sensing but we want to be in all of the components that make up that ecosystem in space,” Hayes told the investor conference.