Cubic Awarded Contract to Provide New Search and Rescue Equipment to Spanish Navy.

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2001

Cubic Defense Systems, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corporation (AMEX:CUB), has been awarded a contract to provide Personnel Locator Systems and new URX-3000 survival radios to the Spanish Navy. The advanced Cubic equipment is used to recover survivors during combat search-and-rescue operations.

The contract, worth approximately $1 million, marks the first sale of Cubic's new URX-3000. This new hand-held survival radio has a lighter weight, lower price and better performance than any other on the international market.

"Cubic has become a strong new player in the survival radio business in a very short period of time," said Craig Campbell, director of business development for Tactical Electronic Products. "We conducted a demo for the Spanish Navy and within three months received our first order. That's remarkable. It's been my experience that landing international business usually takes two years before you get a contract. It just goes to show you that a good product sells itself."

The new radio works in conjunction with Cubic's Personnel Locator System (PLS) -- the standard search-and-rescue avionics system used by military pilots around the world. Developed in the mid 1980s, Cubic's PLS has been combat-tested in the Persian Gulf War and has also flown in missions in the Balkans and Somalia.

Under the new contract, six PLS systems will be installed aboard the Spanish Navy AB-212 and SH-3 search-and-rescue helicopters. The PLS systems will provide a communications link between the rescue aircraft crew and the downed aviator, providing both two-way voice and exact GPS position of the survivor.

One innovative design feature of the new radio is that it uses a voice synthesizer chip instead of a visual display, which can present problems under harsh environmental conditions and is not always effective in an emergency situation. Capable of being programmed in any language, the voice synthesizer tells the downed aviator his exact location in longitude and latitude.

"Simplicity is the key in the search-and-rescue business," Campbell said. "Search-and-rescue operations are very stressful, often taking place at night. Using a survival radio is a skill that downed pilots don't have a chance to practice very often. With Cubic's URX-3000, the combat survivors can just turn their radios on and don't have to worry about anything else until the rescue crews locate them and request identification."

"In a very brief development time, our Avionics team came up with a survival radio superior to anything currently on the market," said Doug Fouser, vice president of Tactical Electronic Products, Cubic Defense Systems. "We're very pleased with the market reaction to our latest product introduction and look forward to further expanding our warfighter support."

Cubic Defense Systems is part of the Cubic Defense Group, which produces instrumented air and ground combat training systems, battle command training, simulations and provides simulation support for U.S. and allied military forces. The Group also produces high technology avionics, data links and communications products for government and commercial customers and provides a wide range of technical and logistics services.

The corporation's other major segment, Cubic Transportation Systems, designs and manufactures automatic fare collection systems for public mass transit authorities worldwide.