Astronics Corporation has been awarded a follow-on contract from the U.S. government to supply spares and replacement parts for the F-16 night vision instrumentation program for which Astronics in recent years converted over 1,100 aircraft to night vision capability. It also announced a development contract for an undisclosed foreign government to upgrade the lighting systems of certain fighters in their military fleet for compatibility with night vision goggles.

The follow-on spares contract with the U.S. government provides for Astronics to supply spare parts for certain critical components for up to ten years for the U.S. F-16 fleet, including such devices as cockpit control assemblies, avionics keyboards and indicator units. During the period 1999 through 2002, over 1,100 F-16 Fighting Falcons were converted with Astronics' lighting systems to allow for the use of night vision goggles in the aircraft. The conversion provides for the lighting systems to emit minimal amounts of infrared energy and requires significant modification or replacement of cockpit and external lighting by Astronics' products, the leading technology for this type of application. The spares contract value will depend on component failure rates experienced by the U.S. Air Force. (This contract is in addition to the F-16 spares contract valued at an estimated $30 million over a ten-year period that was announced January 22, 2002.)

Astronics was also recently awarded a developmental contract with an undisclosed foreign military to provide the night vision instrumentation systems (NVIS) for its fleet of fighters. The award covers certain design and development activities and two initial ship sets of hardware. The contract is being administered through the U.S. government's foreign military sales program.

James Kramer, Vice President of Astronics' Luminescent Systems operation, commented, "Clearly our expertise with adapting manned military equipment for the use of night vision goggles is recognized world wide. The success of the conversion of the U.S. F-16 fleet to night vision capability with our technology has provided us in-roads to many other fleets around the world, as well as to other applications such as in ground vehicles. With this technology and the incremental technology we have developed through our experience with this program, we continue to uncover solid market opportunities, even in today's difficult market. We believe we have much opportunity to continue to apply and advance our technology, to expand the content we provide for every aircraft and to continue to develop new approaches with such aircraft as the Joint Strike Fighter and even still with the F-16, a versatile, multi-role fighter that continues to be in high demand around the world."

FMI: www.Astronics.com