# OceanSound-backed antenna maker ARA announces merger with amplifier maker Empower RF
Empower RF supplies the power half of the "power and networking content" new chief executive Bill Gattle said ARA would add. The announcement gave no price, terms or closing status.
Published 2026-10-09 by TGOs. Canonical: https://tgos.io/news/2026/10/09/oceansound-backed-antenna-maker-ara-announces-merger-with-amplifier/
Antenna Research Associates (ARA), an OceanSound Partners portfolio company based in Laurel, Md., announced a merger on Thursday, Oct. 8, with Empower RF Systems, a developer and manufacturer of high-power solid-state RF and microwave amplifiers.[1] ARA specializes in antennas and apertures engineered for size-, weight-, power- and cost-constrained environments.[1] Empower RF's amplifier modules and systems cover HF through X-band for electronic warfare, counter-UAS, SATCOM, threat simulation and radar missions.[1]
The deal arrived 16 days after ARA named Bill Gattle president and chief executive.[1][2] On Sept. 22, Gattle said ARA would add capability "such as the power and networking content that surrounds the antenna."[2] The goal, he said, was "a single partner that can take a customer from antenna to amplifier to network."[2] Announcing the merger, Gattle said that in contested spectrum, "power and aperture cannot be engineered in isolation."[1]
Gattle spent 35 years at Harris and its successor, L3Harris Technologies, most recently as president of Space and Intelligence Systems.[2] As chief executive of LightRidge, he led the 2025 sale of its Geost business to Rocket Lab.[2]
OceanSound invested in ARA in 2024 and set out to build "a more complete, more integrated RF portfolio," partner Ted Shanahan said in September.[2] On Oct. 5, three days before the merger announcement, IMSAR, a separate company outside the merger, announced it had completed a strategic investment from OceanSound.[1][3] The Springville, Utah, company makes low size, weight and power synthetic aperture radar payloads for unmanned and manned aircraft.[3] It intends to broaden from radar toward multi-mission RF sensing, partly through acquisitions.[3]
## Why it matters
Networking is the part of Gattle's September list that this merger does not supply. On Thursday he said ARA "will keep adding technology that sets ARA apart."[1][2] The companies will show their combined capabilities at the AUSA Annual Meeting in Washington, Oct. 12 to 14.[1]
## Sources
1. OceanSound Partners: Antenna Research Associates and Empower RF Systems Announce Merger to Build an Integrated RF Platform for Contested-Spectrum Missions (Oct. 8, 2026)
2. OceanSound Partners: Antenna Research Associates Names Bill Gattle President and Chief Executive Officer (Sept. 22, 2026)
3. OceanSound Partners: IMSAR, a Leading Provider of Synthetic Aperture Radar Solutions, Announces Strategic Investment from OceanSound Partners (Oct. 5, 2026)