HEICO Subsidiary VPT Unveils Turnkey FLX Power Series for Space and Defense

BLACKSBURG, VA – September 16, 2026 — The aerospace and defense supply chain is undergoing a fundamental shift as prime contractors race to deploy advanced satellite constellations and modernized military platforms. Addressing the critical need for rapid system integration, VPT, Inc., a subsidiary of HEICO Corporation’s Electronic Technologies Group, announced today the launch of its FLX Series.

The new product line is a configurable DC-DC converter power solution engineered for mission-critical applications requiring robust, turnkey power conversion. By transitioning from supplying discrete, board-mounted hybrid converter modules to delivering pre-screened, multi-module integrated power chassis, the Virginia-based manufacturer is aiming to compress design cycles and optimize Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constraints for high-reliability systems.

Delivering scalable output power ranging from 1 W to 5,000 W with efficiencies reaching up to 90%, the FLX Series supports standard bus input voltages of 28 V, 50 V, and 270 V. The architecture integrates the company's proven DC-DC converters and electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters into a ruggedized, scalable housing designed for the harshest operating environments.

"The new FLX Series is highly scalable, optimizes SWaP, and delivers exactly the power and voltages a customer's system needs," said Kevin Seaton, Advising Engineer at VPT. "We designed this series for rugged environments and favorable lead times, each assembly is prequalified to Military Standards and offers configurable output rails through preferred connector interfaces for streamlined power integration."

Cracking the Defense SWaP Bottleneck

Modern military platforms are currently undergoing a massive avionics hardware refresh. Driven by the integration of advanced edge computing, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, electronic warfare suites, and directed-energy weapons, defense engineers are hitting severe thermal, electromagnetic, and volumetric limits.

One of the most significant engineering hurdles in next-generation platforms, such as collaborative combat aircraft and upgraded F-35 variants, is managing power distribution. High-power airborne payloads are rapidly shifting from legacy 28 V DC or 115 V AC systems to 270 V DC architectures to reduce cabling weight and minimize distribution losses. The FLX Series explicitly supports this 270 V transition alongside traditional voltages, positioning the hardware squarely within the modernization roadmaps of major defense programs.

Furthermore, thermal dissipation remains a persistent bottleneck. Avionics enclosures situated in unpressurized bays or compact drone airframes frequently suffer from severe thermal throttling. Traditional board-level components typically require power derating once baseplate temperatures exceed +85°C. In contrast, the FLX Series utilizes heavy conduction cooling via its ruggedized chassis to guarantee continuous operation up to +110°C without any power derating. This thermal resilience allows avionics architects to reduce the size and weight of auxiliary cooling loops, heat pipes, and external heat exchangers, directly addressing the military's strict SWaP mandates.

Accelerating NewSpace Deployment Cycles

The commercialization of low Earth orbit (LEO) and the rapid deployment of proliferated satellite constellations have fundamentally broken the traditional five-year spacecraft design cycle. NewSpace operators face a challenging paradox: they cannot afford the multi-million-dollar qualification costs and 18-month lead times of custom hermetic hybrid power supplies, yet purely commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components frequently suffer catastrophic failures when exposed to cosmic radiation.

The FLX Series addresses this "COTS-Plus" middle ground through configurable standardization. The platform provides a tiered radiation assurance approach within the exact same mechanical form factor and electrical pinout. For low-inclination LEO constellations with three-to-five-year lifespans, satellite manufacturers can specify standard 30 krad(Si) radiation-tolerant components. For deep space missions, medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites crossing the Van Allen belts, or 15-year geostationary telecommunications platforms, the internal slices can be upgraded to 100 krad(Si) radiation-hardened specifications.

Crucially, the architecture utilizes an optocoupler-free design. Optocouplers are notorious failure vectors in space radiation environments due to degradation from displacement damage and total ionizing dose. By employing proprietary magnetic or capacitive feedback isolation, the new power chassis natively eliminates this critical failure mechanism.

"Defense primes and commercial space operators frequently spend upwards of 18 months designing carrier boards, routing traces for EMI suppression, and running thermal qualification campaigns," noted a senior aerospace industry analyst familiar with spacecraft supply chains. "By packaging flight-proven modules inside a finished mechanical housing that arrives pre-screened, component manufacturers are effectively eliminating the integration tax and keeping launch schedules intact."

The Competitive Landscape of High-Reliability Power

The high-reliability DC-DC power conversion market has traditionally been dominated by discrete hermetic hybrid modules. Competitors such as Vicor Corporation focus heavily on ultra-dense, silicon-level packaging, while companies like Crane Aerospace & Electronics maintain a massive flight heritage in discrete hybrid bricks.

However, the FLX Series moves the Virginia-based manufacturer further into integrated multi-converter subsystem packaging, directly competing across component-level, module-level, and subsystem-level tiers. While a custom printed circuit board utilizing bare-die components might offer higher raw volumetric power density, it requires complex layout engineering and customer-led heat sinking.

The primary competitive advantage of the new scalable chassis is turnkey consolidation. By integrating compliance directly into the housing, the system inherently meets MIL-STD-461 for conducted emissions and susceptibility, MIL-STD-704 for aircraft power transients, MIL-STD-1275 for military ground vehicle surges, and DO-160 for airborne environmental conditions. This pre-qualification allows systems engineers to bypass the arduous process of selecting external discrete chokes and filter networks.

Moving Up the Defense Food Chain

From a financial and programmatic perspective, the launch of the FLX Series represents a calculated strategic maneuver for HEICO Corporation. The company’s Electronic Technologies Group (ETG) has recently demonstrated accelerated organic growth, driven heavily by global defense procurement cycles, missile re-stocking, and satellite constellation deployments.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, ETG reported a 36% year-over-year jump in net sales to a record $483.5 million, alongside an impressive operating margin expansion to 26.0%. The introduction of multi-kilowatt integrated power chassis is poised to further fuel this structural margin expansion by moving the subsidiary up the value stack.

Historically, sourcing discrete DC-DC hybrid converter modules yields an average selling price between $500 and $2,500 per unit. By supplying a complete, prequalified, multi-rail ruggedized chassis assembly capable of delivering up to 5,000 W, the transaction value shifts into the subassembly tier, where unit prices can range from $15,000 to well over $100,000 depending on radiation grading and channel complexity. This transition captures significantly greater customer wallet-share per platform win.

Moreover, power chassis designs that are integrated into aerospace airframes or satellite buses create exceptionally high switching costs. Once an enclosure is prequalified for shock, vibration, and electromagnetic interference on a major defense program, it virtually guarantees high-margin recurring spare and production revenue for decades, securing the manufacturer's footprint in the next generation of aerospace infrastructure.