AeroHydro Announces Army TACOM Distributed Collaborative Design Contract Award; Will Develop Geometry Exchange Manager for Product Development Framework.

Business/Technology Editors

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2000

AeroHydro has been chosen to develop a prototype Geometry Exchange Manager (GEM) to support distributed collaborative design of military and commercial ground vehicles, it was announced today.

The two year, $700,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award was issued to AeroHydro (www.aerohydro.com) by the US Army Tank-automotive &rmaments Command (TACOM). The award is a follow-on to a successful SBIR Phase I project AeroHydro completed in 1999.

The Product Development Framework (PDF) is a joint government-industry program lead by TACOM (www.tacom.army.mil) and TASC (www.tasc.com) , a division of Litton Industries[NYSE:LIT]. The goal of the PDF Program is to develop and commercialize infrastructure software to support distributed collaborative design of military and commercial ground vehicles.

The Geometry Exchange Manager is a key service of the Product Development Framework, enabling a distributed design/development team to exchange geometry information among heterogeneous 3-D modeling and CAD tools. GEM will enable centralized control and versioning of the product geometry while interoperating with a variety of low- and mid-range 3-D modelers. Such a capability will significantly facilitate integrator-supplier information exchange in the automotive and defense industries.

&uot;This project will enable AeroHydro to use our geometric software development expertise in a significant collaborative design project,&uot; said Michael Shook, Chief Operating Officer of AeroHydro. &uot;We're pleased that TACOM sees the potential for using our Relational Geometry technology in this environment.&uot;

About AeroHydro

AeroHydro, Inc. pioneered CAD software for designing ships and boats more than 20 years ago and they continue to be a leader in the marine design industry. Its products are based on their patented Relational Geometry engine that uniquely combines relational modeling constructs with freeform surface design. AeroHydro's products include MultiSurf(R), an industry leading marine design CAD package and SurfaceWorks(R), a powerful surface modeling program that extends SolidWorks' (Nasdaq:DASTY) solid modeling functionality. Note to editors: MultiSurf and SurfaceWorks are registered trademarks of AeroHydro. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About TASC

TASC, Inc. provides advanced information technology solutions for government and business worldwide in such areas as federal services, systems development, signals intelligence, space systems, and information services. Founded in 1966, TASC has more than 25 offices throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom. TASC will be a subcontractor to AeroHydro for GEM development.