United Defense to Develop Advanced Gun Barrel Technologies for U.S. Navy

Contact:
Jeff Van Keuren
Public Affairs
(763) 572-7615
jeff.van.keuren@udlp.com

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, March 11, 2003 - United Defense Industries, Inc. (NYSE: UDI) has been awarded a contract by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Arlington, Virginia, to develop and demonstrate advanced gun barrel technologies for naval guns. This technology program is part of ONR's Time Critical Strike (TCS) Future Naval Capabilities (FNC) program.

The Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract has a total Not To Exceed (NTE) value of $ 10.2 million over five years (2003 - 2007). At time of award, $ 1.1 million was funded.

The overall objective for the Advanced Gun Barrel Technologies FNC program is to develop next generation gun barrel design solutions for current and future naval gun systems. This will be accomplished by combining the most promising technologies currently in development into gun barrel designs that will yield significant improvements to barrel life and overall gun system performance, as well as life cycle cost improvements over current mono-bloc steel configurations.

"Development of advanced gun barrel designs are important in addressing risks for future naval gun systems," said Jim Schoppenhorst, United Defense Program Director for DD(X) systems. "We will select and develop the most promising advanced material and coating technologies for our demonstrator barrels with the goal of achieving significant improvements in barrel wear and barrel fatigue, in a highly producible design."

About United Defense Industries, Inc.
United Defense is a leader in the design, development and production of combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile launchers and precision munitions used by the U.S. Department of Defense and allies worldwide, and is America's largest non-nuclear ship repair, modernization and conversion company. To learn more about United Defense Industries, Inc., visit http://www.uniteddefense.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Information in this release may involve guidance, expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to United Defense Industries, Inc. as of the date of the release, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Please refer to the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2002, and in our other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a further discussion of the factors and risks associated with our business.