By Calvin Biesecker

The private equity firm Ranger Aerospace has acquired military outsourcing contractor US Logistics, Inc., as part of an effort to build up its size and capabilities in this area of government contracting.

Terms of the deal, which closed on Aug. 11, were not disclosed. Ranger did the deal through its newest investment platform, Ranger International Services Group, Inc.

US Logistics, which is based in North Carolina and has over 600 employees working with the United States military and large prime contractors, provides support services such as maintenance and modification of tactical vehicles, aircraft maintenance, warehouse and logistics solutions, human resources outsourcing, and technical staffing. The company operates in 38 states and eight countries.

Earlier this year Ranger International acquired CAV International, which specializes in airfield services and logistics. The combined operations of US Logistics and CAV International are expected to employ over 1,000 professionals by the end of 2009 and generate about $100 million in sales.

Ranger International said that both US Logistics and CAV are growing steadily and have “robust bidding pipelines.”

“This acquisition allows us to expand both the breadth and depth of our government services capacity and provide better services to our customers in more locations worldwide,” Steve Townes, CEO of Ranger International Services Group and founder of Ranger Aerospace said in a statement. “This investment quickly vaults us forward to an outstanding level of critical mass on behalf of our customers and employees. We view this deal as a critical next step in achieving our long term objective of building a highly specialized independent Government Services & Logistics provider that is focused on solving our nation’s airfield, vehicular overhaul, logistics, and base services challenges domestically and abroad.”

Ranger Aerospace said that additional investments, including acquisitions, are planned in the government services area.

US Logistics will continue to be led by Michael Boyce, its founder, president and CEO. Boyce remains a stakeholder in the company too.

Ranger Aerospace has investments in several rotorcraft services companies in Texas that are unrelated to the operations under Ranger International. The lead investor in Ranger International is First New England Capital, a private equity fund.