TransDigm Group Inc. [TDG] yesterday said it has agreed to acquire Airborne Systems Inc. for $250 million in cash, giving it a range of products for aerial delivery.

Airborne Systems’ Dragonfly guided precision aerial delivery system. Photo: Airborne Systems

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014 pending regulatory approvals. Airborne Systems is part of HDT Global, a portfolio company of the private equity firm Metalmark Capital.

Airborne Systems had $160 million in sales for the fiscal year that ended June 30. About 45 percent of its sales came from domestic customers and 55 percent from international customers.

Airborne is based in New Jersey and designs and manufactures personnel parachutes, cargo aerial delivery systems, emergency escape systems, naval decoys and other related products. The company has sole source positions with government customers in the United States and Britain and over 50 other nations.

“Airborne Systems is a unique company and asset in the aerospace industry,” Nicholas Howley, TransDigm’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “It is the worldwide market and technology leader in military personnel parachutes, guided aerial cargo and payload delivery systems and related products.”

Howley said another attractive feature of the acquisition is Airborne Systems’ large international customer base, noting that its diversified customer base “provides a buffer to the current uncertainties of the U.S. defense spending environment.”