Jane Edwards 
- Blackstone has launched Falcata through TSC-ASEI combination
- The combined company targets interceptor guidance chain technologies
- Leaders cite growing need for lower-cost interceptors
Falcata has launched as a Blackstone-backed defense technology company to help expand U.S. industrial capacity for interceptor technologies in support of national security missions.
Blackstone said Thursday it made a strategic investment in Falcata to help the latter bring together technologies that support multiple stages of interceptor guidance.
The launch follows a series of agreements the Department of War signed with industry to increase munitions production, including deals to strengthen the interceptor supply chain.
Goldman Sachs & Co. acted as Blackstone’s exclusive financial advisor, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett provided legal counsel.
What Is Falcata?
Falcata is a defense technology company formed after Blackstone-managed funds acquired TSC and Applied Systems Engineering Inc. and combined them into a single platform.
The company develops and produces sensing, guidance, navigation and control technologies for missile defense and other national security missions. Its portfolio includes advanced seekers and radar, control actuation systems, guidance electronics, navigation for GPS-denied environments, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and launchers.
Falcata plans to expand on the work of both predecessor firms while investing in new technology, production capacity and personnel.
What Did Falcata & Blackstone Leaders Say About the Launch?
Falcata CEO Brandon Wolfson said Blackstone’s backing gives the company the resources to broaden its customer offerings and speed the shift of key technologies from development to production.
“We can now pursue bigger challenges, invest ahead of their needs and move critical technologies from development into production faster, while maintaining the technical rigor, agility and customer focus that have made both companies successful,” Wolfson noted.
Jonathan Moneymaker, chairman of Falcata and a previous Wash100 awardee, said lower-cost interceptors play a central role in U.S. national security strategy.
“Producing more interceptors requires greater capacity across critical sensing, guidance, navigation and control technologies inside them. We are building Falcata to deliver the technology America and its allies need – at the scale the mission demands,” added Moneymaker, who recently joined the MITRE board of trustees and was named chairman of the LeoLabs board of directors.
David Kaden, senior managing director at Blackstone, said Falcata brings greater resources, manufacturing capacity and engineering together under one organization to address a national security need.
