San
Diego, CA, March 6, 2002 - The Conic enterprise of L-3 Communications'
(NYSE:LLL) newly formed Telemetry-West division announced
that it has been awarded a contract valued at $3.5 million
by Astrium SAS of France to supply numerous Command Decryption
Units (CDUs) for the Eurostar 3000 satellite program, with
opportunities for follow-on awards. These units have begun
shipping and will continue to be delivered throughout 2002.
This award underscores L-3 Conic's commitment to increasing
its presence in the European space market and to building
high quality products that meet stringent U.S. export requirements.
L-3
Conic was selected to design, manufacture and control the
CDUs, which, when installed on the satellite's onboard computer,
will provide communications security at the satellite level.
The CDUs combine L-3 Conic's field-proven miniaturization
technology and the latest in U.S. COMSEC algorithms to deliver
unmatched decryption capabilities.
Astrium's
Eurostar 3000 will provide voice, video and data services
at speeds of up to 432 kilobits per second to laptop computer
users in most areas of the world. In order for the satellite
to be used by U.S. government agencies, departments and contractors,
its decrypt functions must meet National Security Agency (NSA)-approved
cryptography standards to protect the command and control
uplinks.
"This
strategic win underscores L-3's commitment to increasing its
presence in the estimated $100 million European space market
with state-of-the-art technologies and to building high quality
products," said Alan Howell, vice president of business development
at L-3 Telemetry-West. "We look forward to supporting the
Eurostar 3000 satellite program with our CDUs."
L-3
Communications Telemetry-West is the world's premier provider
of tailored flight hardware and systems solutions for missile
telemetry/flight termination and spacecraft telemetry, tracking
and control (TT&C), as well as tactical intelligence receivers
and terrestrial HF and microwave radios. Additionally, Telemetry-West
leads the telemetry and test industry in the design and manufacture
of advanced real-time commercial-off-the-shelf ground hardware
and software solutions for spacecraft command and control,
satellite manufacturing and on-orbit operations, launch testing
and monitoring, flight test, weapons test and development,
surveillance and detection and general-purpose data acquisition.
All solutions are offered with complete systems engineering
and integration services and are backed by a global customer
support organization. The company has more than 50 years of
experience in telemetry and data acquisition technology and
serves virtually every major aerospace organization in the
world.
Headquartered
in New York City, L-3 Communications is a leading merchant
supplier of secure communications systems and products, avionics
and ocean products, training products, microwave components
and telemetry, instrumentation, space and wireless products.
Its customers include the Department of Defense, selected
U.S. government intelligence agencies, aerospace prime contractors
and commercial telecommunications and wireless customers.
To
learn more about L-3 Communications and its Telemetry-West
division, please visit the company's Web site at www.L-3Com.com.
Safe
Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995: Except for historical information contained herein,
the matters set forth in this news release are forward-looking
statements. The forward-looking statements set forth above
involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from any such statement,
including the risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's
Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-looking Statements
included in the company's recent filings, including Forms
10-K and 10-Q, with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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