AAI to Develop Next-Gen RF Test Equipment for US Navy Aircraft

• eCASS Contract from Lockheed Martin Valued at $43 Million

(Hunt Valley, Md., April 29, 2010) -- AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced today that it has won a contract from Lockheed Martin to design and build the radio frequency (RF) components, also called mission equipment kits (MEKs), in the next-generation automatic test equipment for the U.S. Navy aircraft fleet. AAI is Lockheed Martin's teammate and principal subcontractor for the electronic Consolidated Automated Support System (eCASS) program. The Navy expects to deploy eCASS aboard all of its aircraft carriers, as well as at many of its naval air stations. The system is critical to ensuring the mission readiness of naval aircraft in conflict areas around the world.

The value of the not-to-exceed contract is $43 million and includes immediate funding of $2 million. Under this contract, AAI has agreed to design and build 49 MEKs, the RF test subsystems, for Lockheed Martin's eCASS test stations, which will be utilized by the Navy to test all of the critical systems -- including weapons, avionics and navigation -- on its aircraft fleet. In addition, AAI has agreed to provide two depot MEKs.

"We have longstanding experience in RF and electronic warfare testing," says Vice President of Test & Training Systems Robert Peters of AAI. "Our eCASS MEKs will build on those successes by being smaller, faster, more mobile and more adaptable than their predecessors for the original CASS platform."

Source : Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT)