Jane Edwards
Ian Northrop, CEO of digital engineering firm JHNA, said the company is looking to make more acquisitions as the Department of Defense increases adoption of open-architecture systems as part of its modernization efforts, the Washington Business Journal reported Thursday.
“I’m eager, we have a pipeline of opportunities, we have other owners we are talking to,” Northrop said. “I really, really want to get one done by the end of the year, and it’s a part of our long-term growth strategy as well.”
JHNA made its first acquisition by buying Technology Security Associates, which provides cybersecurity and systems engineering services to defense agencies, including Naval Air Systems Command.
Northrop said JHNA intends to meet the needs of customers by providing more secure open-architecture platforms, making the TSA transaction the right fit for the firm.
“Our core capabilities around model-based systems engineering, open architecture, modeling and simulations I think are great starting points, but we have some gaps,” said Northrop.
“Gaps around cybersecurity, specifically as it relates to platforms because that’s where we spend a lot of our time with our clients. It’s less about generic network security and more about how it relates to specifically warfighter systems and those same platforms,” he added.
