Antenna Research Associates Names Bill Gattle President and Chief Executive Officer

Antenna Research Associates ("ARA"), a portfolio company of OceanSound Partners and a leading provider of integrated radio frequency ("RF") and advanced communications solutions spanning Communications, Tactical RF, and Radar-Critical Subsystems for the aerospace and defense ("A&D") end markets, today announced the appointment of Bill Gattle as President and Chief Executive Officer. Gattle will lead the company at a key point in its progression, scaling ARA's existing strengths while expanding its ability to deliver increasingly integrated RF solutions to customers.

The appointment comes at a time when the U.S. Department of Defense is prioritizing the modernization of its defense posture, including the network connectivity that we believe underpins operational and tactical readiness within the armed forces. Demand is rising in parallel for RF content on airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance ("ISR") and precision-effects platforms, for identification and radar capability in contested airspace, and for the ground infrastructure supporting rapidly growing satellite constellations. These priorities play to ARA's strengths: advanced, low-cost, high-performance RF technology and the agility to shorten procurement timelines and accelerate the fielding of modern systems.

"We are thrilled to welcome Bill to ARA as he has built and scaled businesses against exactly this kind of demand, and he is the right leader for the next phase of ARA's growth and strategic transformation," said Ted Shanahan, Partner at OceanSound Partners. "We invested in ARA in 2024 because their six decades of electromagnetic spectrum expertise and more than 25 patents, applied in small form factors, put ARA exactly where the mission is going-unmanned aircraft, airborne sensing and identification, and tactical communications at the edge. What we set out to build on that foundation is a more complete, more integrated RF portfolio for ARA's customers."

Gattle brings nearly four decades of defense and space industry leadership to ARA. He most recently served as chairman of Trident Solutions, the successor company to LightRidge Solutions, where he continues to serve on the board. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of LightRidge, a company building electro-optical, infrared, and RF payloads for space and national security missions, where he led the sale of its Geost business to Rocket Lab in 2025. Before that, Gattle spent 35 years at Harris Corporation and its successor, L3Harris Technologies, most recently as President of Space and Intelligence Systems, leading a business spanning space-based sensing, ISR payloads, and data exploitation, and delivering systems to defense and intelligence customers across the space, air, land, and maritime domains.

"ARA has built genuinely differentiated technology with mission critical engineering expertise," said Gattle. "The demand signal for high-performance RF in contested spectrum has never been stronger, and our customers need it qualified and delivered at the pace and volume the mission requires. That is where we start. From there, we will add capability where customers are asking us for more, such as the power and networking content that surrounds the antenna. Our goal is to build a category leader in RF: a single partner that can take a customer from antenna to amplifier to network across defense, space, and national security missions. I'm looking forward to building that with this team."

He succeeds Logen Thiran, who served as Chief Executive Officer at ARA from 2012 to 2026.

About Antenna Research Associates

Established in 1963, ARA is a leading provider of integrated radio frequency and advanced communications solutions, including components, assemblies, and subsystems, to the aerospace and defense end markets. The company specializes in antennas and apertures engineered for size-, weight-, power- and cost-constrained environments, supporting airborne sensing and identification, tactical communications, radar, and SATCOM missions. In-house design, instrumented antenna ranges, and production capability at ARA's Laurel, Maryland facilities allow the company to move from requirement to qualified hardware at program speed. For more information, please visit www.ara-inc.com.

About OceanSound Partners

OceanSound Partners is a private equity firm that pursues control investments in technology and technology-enabled services companies serving aerospace, defense, government, and highly regulated end markets. OceanSound employs a partnership approach, working closely with founders, entrepreneurs, and executives of middle market businesses to support their strategic growth objectives. The firm has offices in New York, West Palm Beach, and Buenos Aires. For more information, please visit www.oceansoundpartners.com.

Contacts

Charlyn Lusk
Stanton
(646) 502-3549
[email protected]