Cubic Wins $11 Million Contract to Provide Tactical Common Data Link for RQ-8B Fire Scout UAV.

SAN DIEGO -- Cubic Defense Applications, the defense segment of Cubic Corporation (AMEX:CUB) has received an $11 million contract from Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems to provide its Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) for the Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Air Vehicle (VTUAV).

Cubic's data link -- consisting of air data terminals and ground data terminals -- will serve as the wireless connection between Fire Scout and control stations aboard Littoral Combat Ships. Northrop Grumman is under contract with the Naval Air Systems Command to provide four Fire Scout MQ-8Bs to the Navy. Fire Scout can take off and land on any aviation-capable ship. It possesses the capability to watch for threats within 150 nautical miles of the ground control station, and can accurately designate a target and direct weapons to it. In addition to these ISR and targeting functions, Fire Scout can deliver supplies to troops behind enemy lines without endangering the lives of manned helicopter crews.

"The MQ 8-B Fire Scout will be the first Department of Defense unmanned vehicle to incorporate Cubic's Tactical Common Data Link," said Rick Lober, senior vice president and general manager of Cubic's Communications and Electronics Business Unit. "Our TCDL system offers significant technical, size, weight and cost advantages compared to competitive products. We are proud of our selection by Northrop Grumman for the MQ-8B data link system."

Cubic's high-speed TCDL will assist in Fire Scout's reconnaissance, surveillance and targeting missions by providing a large amount of bandwidth -- up to 10.71 Mbps -- to transfer data from the Fire Scout's video, laser and infrared targeting sensors, as well as its laser designator/range finder.

"The Fire Scout, which will go operational in 2008, will be quite a workhorse for Navy, providing ISR and targeting information as well as delivering supplies to troops," said Robert Kalebaugh, senior manager of Tactical Data Links and Avionics Programs for Cubic. "Our data link for the Fire Scout will also do heavy lifting from a communications standpoint. TCDL can accept data from many different sources, then encrypt, multiplex, encode, transmit, demultiplex and route this data at high speed to shipboard workstations for timely exploitation."

Cubic's TCDL will be integrated into the MQ-8B Fire Scout beginning in March 2007, with a testing period to follow. The TCDL has received the Department of Defense's Joint Interoperability Test Command specification compliance verification. A variant, the Navy Communications Data Link System (CDLS), has been installed aboard the USS Eisenhower, and additional systems are expected to be aboard major large deck ships early next year. The Cubic data link system is the first of its kind to demonstrate cross-vendor and cross-platform interoperability with legacy systems in use today.

Cubic's Communications and Electronic Business Unit is part of Cubic Defense Applications (CDA), one of Cubic's two major segments. CDA is a world leader in realistic combat training systems, mission support services and defense electronics. The corporation's other major segment, Cubic Transportation Systems, designs and manufactures automatic fare collection systems for public mass transit authorities. For more information about Cubic, see the company's website at www.cubic.com.