Cubic Corp. [CUB] yesterday said it has agreed to acquired Abraxas Corp., a provider of risk mitigation and subject matter expertise in the national security and cyber security arenas, for $124 million in cash.

Cubic said that Abraxas has clients in the national security, homeland security and law enforcement sectors. The Northern Virginia-based company will operate as a subsidiary within Cubic’s Mission Support Services segment and will continue to be led by Rodney Smith, president of Abraxas.

“Abraxas will be the cornerstone of an expanded Cubic presence in the national security and cyber security sectors,” John Thomas, vice president of finance and corporate development at Cubic, said in a statement.

The pending acquisition builds on another Cubic made over the summer in the cyber security space. Safe Harbor Holdings, which was tucked into Cubic’s Defense Systems segment, gave Cubic a small entr�e into the cyber space with a supply of customized hardware and software solutions (Defense Daily, June 23).

Abraxas has 280 employees and had $60 million in sales last year. The acquisition is expected to close in December and Cubic expects it to be accretive to earnings.

BB&T was Abraxas’ financial advisor on the deal.