ATLAS North America Acquires Assets of Marine Sonic Technology

ATLAS North America LLC. (ANA), a wholly owned subsidiary of ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH, Germany, has acquired the business of Marine Sonic Technology (MSTL), Ltd., based in Yorktown, Virginia, USA, via an asset deal. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Sergio Diehl, President and Chief Executive Officer of ATLAS North America LLC., stated: "ATLAS North America's acquisition of Marine Sonic Technology creates for the ATLAS Group a greater worldwide stake within the sonar survey, mine warfare and the fast growing autonomous vehicle markets. MSTL's core competencies with high resolution sonar technology are highly synergistic to the ATLAS Group's existing capabilities, and with the addition of these new side scan products, expand ATLAS' total sonar product offerings. For ANA, the new combined facility provides the critical U. S. based production and manufacturing facility required to affix the "Made in the USA" label on SeaFox Mine Neutralization Vehicles, and other planned products for the U.S. Navy Mine Warfare Forces."

Martin H. Wilcox, President and Principal Research Engineer at Marine Sonic Technology, Ltd., added: "This acquisition will allow both organizations to enlarge and improve their research, development and manufacturing capabilities in the realm of marine technology. The entire Marine Sonic organization is looking forward to working with our new colleagues at Atlas North America."

Marine Sonic Technology, Ltd. is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of ultra-high resolution side scan sonar systems. Offering the highest resolution currently available at 1800 kHz, MSTL has continued to pioneer new advancements in sonar since its inception in the late 1980's. From the early Sonic High-Accuracy Ranging and Positioning System (SHARPS) to the latest ARC Scout which is the smallest dual-simultaneous digital CHIRP embedded system capable of producing near photographic imaging. Servicing industries around the globe such as Oil & Gas, Oceanic & Marine Construction, Search & Rescue, Law Enforcement, Military & Defense, and anywhere accurate ultra-high resolution underwater imaging is required.

ATLAS North America was established in September 2010. ANA serves the U.S. market with a specific focus on undersea warfare and unmanned vehicles. Located close to the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet bases and Washington, D.C. for enhanced customer service, ANA is capable of providing any of the ATLAS Group products as well as a broad range of associated technical and logistics support services for the entire product life-cycle. The primary goal of ANA is to introduce the full range of ATLAS products into the US defense market and to provide technical and logistics support to those ATLAS products already in the US inventory.

The initial focus is on ATLAS line of Remotely Operated and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (ROVs/AUVs) i.e. SeaFox, SeaCat and SeaOtter. ANA is currently executing mine neutralization contracts with the SeaFox UUV based on an urgent operational need statement (UONS) for the US NAVY. The installations are in the AVENGER CLASS mine countermeasure vessel, the MH-53E mine countermeasure helicopters and with the US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal community. More importantly, ANA, with access to the ATLAS Group systems fielded throughout NATO and the Rest-Of-World Navies, can socialize these incredible warfare capabilities within the US Defense Market. Many of these completed, fielded and modular systems may be applicable to the U.S. NAVY Surface, Submarine and Expeditionary Warfare communities.