DRS Technologies Receives $6.8 Million Contract to Upgrade Acoustic Data Recorders for U.S. Navy P-3C Aircraft

The $6.8 million contract was awarded to DRS by the Naval AirSystems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River, Maryland. For this award,DRS will upgrade over 70 older tape-based AN/AQH-13 ADR and ADR-Dconfigurations to the new, reliable, hard drive AN/AQH-13B ADR-HDconfiguration. Additional improvements will include replacement ofobsolete parts and other components providing increased reliability.Work for this order will be accomplished by the company's DRS Data &Imaging Systems unit in Oakland, New Jersey. Product deliveries areexpected to begin immediately and continue through June 2007.Additional contracts related to the upgrade of more recorders areanticipated by the company.

"DRS has provided various configurations of the ADRs to the U.S.Navy and allied international countries that fly P-3 aircraft for overthree decades and is a key supplier for these customers' airmodernization efforts," said Fred L. Marion, president of DRS'sSurveillance & Reconnaissance Group. "This new, COTS-based,high-capacity line of data storage solutions was developedspecifically for the critical surveillance missions of the P-3C, theworld's most widely deployed, long-range, maritime patrol aircraft."

Lightweight, cost-effective, low-powered and ruggedized, theAN/AQH-13B Acoustic Data Recorder system is designed to record 32channels of acoustic information from sonobuoys dropped into the sea,plus other annotation data used to support the antisubmarine warfaremissions of P-3C aircraft. The system was designed to be alightweight, plug-compatible replacement for two DRS-developed16-channel recorders currently operating throughout the U.S. Navy'sfleet. It also was designed to be compatible with other COTSinterfaces and can be implemented readily for other applications asfuture recording requirements evolve. The AN/AQH-13 is built andtested to stringent standards and is qualified to withstand thehostile environments encountered by patrol aircraft at sea.

The COTS-based design of DRS's recorder systems provides costsavings for customers, while meeting or exceeding criticalperformance, reliability and long-term support requirements. DRS hassuccessfully delivered thousands of recorders to the U.S. Air Force,U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, as well as international military forces, forair, sea and land applications.

DRS Technologies, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey,provides leading edge products and services to defense, governmentintelligence and commercial customers. Focused on defense technology,DRS develops and manufactures a broad range of mission criticalsystems. The company employs 6,000 people worldwide.

For more information about DRS Technologies, please visit thecompany's web site at www.drs.com.