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Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) provider Safran Electronics & Defense has acquired Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) company Orolia after an exclusive negotiation process that began in December 2021.
Orolia’s solutions include atomic clocks, time servers, simulation and resilience equipment for GNSS signals, as well as emergency locator beacons for commercial aviation and military applications. These make Orolia a highly complementary and synergistic part of Safran Electronics & Defense’s activities as it meets the challenges of positioning, navigation and synchronization in contested and vulnerable environments.
In most situations, GNSS systems are the reference providers of time and position data, but they need to be secured by combining them with accurate, high-integrity autonomous time or inertial references. Through this partnership with Orolia, Safran Electronics & Defense will offer a complete and cohesive set of resilient PNT architectures and equipment to meet the challenges of integrity and robustness for the unmanned, aviation, defense, space, transportation, new mobility and critical infrastructure markets.
Orolia employs more than 435 people in Europe and North America and has revenues of around €100 million.
“Orolia could not imagine a better fit than with Safran to secure its growth and leverage its PNT leadership positions,” said Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia. “Thanks to the addition of best-in-class timing and inertial technologies, premier access to the largest defense and aerospace markets, and a proven track-record in government program capture and execution, Safran and Orolia have now all the cards in hands to establish themselves as the Resilient PNT leader.”
“The acquisition of Orolia makes Safran one of the only companies with the full complement of PNT technologies, bringing together Orolia’s precise time referencing and Safran Electronics & Defense’s proven inertial navigation solutions,” said Martin Sion, CEO of Safran Electronics & Defense. “Our shared ambition is to become the world leader in resilient PNT for all conventional and strategic applications.”
