| Carnegie Mellon, United Defense Selected
to Provide Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicles for U.S. Marine Corps
Contact:
Herb Muktarian
United Defense
herb.muktarian@baesystems.com
(717) 225-8004
YORK, PA, February 10, 2005 - Carnegie Mellon University's
National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC) and United Defense
Industries, Inc. (NYSE:UDI) have been awarded a $26.4 million contract
with the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Program Office for Robotic
Systems to design, develop and produce tactical unmanned ground
vehicles (TUGV) for the U.S. Marine Corps.
The Gladiator TUGV will provide the Marine Air-Ground Task Force
(MAGTF) with a tele-operated unmanned ground vehicle for remote
combat tasks, increasing survivability by identifying and neutralizing
threats and reducing risk to Marines. Gladiator will provide Marines
with remote, unmanned scout, reconnaissance and surveillance while
the operator remains concealed at a distance.
"United Defense is pleased that the Joint Program Office for
Robotic Systems and the Marine Corps have selected our team to provide
Marines with enhanced battlefield capability, and we are committed
to leading the transition of unmanned ground vehicle technology
to our troops as a force multiplier and to increase survivability,"
said Elmer Doty, Vice President and General Manager, United Defense
Ground Systems Division.
"The United States Congress mandated that one third of all
military vehicles be unmanned by 2015," said Donald Smith,
director of economic development for Carnegie Mellon and the University
of Pittsburgh. "We are pleased that the first major step in
responding to this challenge is based on Carnegie Mellon's technology
and will be manufactured in western Pennsylvania."
"This is terrific news for our region," said U.S. Rep.
John Murtha. "It continues to demonstrate Carnegie Mellon's
leadership in robotics, brings a major new line of work to the United
Defense plant in Fayette County and positions our region to play
a strong role in manufacturing of unmanned ground vehicles, which
will be used more and more by our military."
Carnegie Mellon's NREC leads a team that includes United Defense
as principal subcontractor and teammate. Carnegie Mellon will lead
the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of the program
as prime contractor, working closely with United Defense to draw
on its experience in program management, engineering, integration
and integrated logistics support tasks as Gladiator development
moves toward production and fielding. Carnegie Mellon and United
Defense will capitalize on the strengths of both organizations to
ensure success during the SDD phase and a smooth transition to production.
Other members of the NREC Gladiator team include General Dynamics
Armaments and Technical Products (GDATP), Tadiran Electronic Systems,
and Timoney Technologies Limited.
Carnegie Mellon and United Defense will establish a combined project
office in Pittsburgh, co-locating key university and United Defense
personnel at NREC. During the production phase, work is planned
for United Defense's Fayette County, Pa. facility. Ultimately, 200
Gladiator vehicles could be built for the Marine Corps.
The same team recently completed a highly successful prototype
development program - including mobility and Scout demonstrations
- that validated the Carnegie Mellon team design under the ONR development
program. The team's Gladiator design meets all key performance parameters;
the prototype developed under the recently concluded ONR program
already meets many critical requirements.
About NREC
Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Consortium, part
of the Robotics Institute in the School of Computer Science, is
the nation's leading facility for robotics and autonomous vehicle
innovation-to-prototype research. For more information about NREC,
visit http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu;
for more on the Robotics Institute, visit http://www.ri.cmu.edu.
About United Defense
United Defense designs, develops and produces combat vehicles, artillery,
naval guns, missile launchers and precision munitions used by the
U.S. Department of Defense and allies worldwide, and provides non-nuclear
ship repair, modernization and conversion to the U.S. Navy and other
U.S. Government agencies. To learn more about United Defense, 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 Annual Report on Form 10 K for the year ended December
31, 2003 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.
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