The U.S. Navy received a significant upgrade to its fleet today as Lockheed Martin and DRS Technologies, Inc. delivered the 4,000th Advanced Display System, providing submarine sailors with a full range of vital information in a single console.

The AN/UYQ-70 (Q-70) Enhanced Control Display Work Station (ECDWS) is being installed on U.S. Navy submarines and represents a new standard for processing and display capabilities for onboard combat and acoustic systems. With the ECDWS, submarine sailors enjoy enhanced, real-time processing, secure target detection and analysis capabilities, and target motion and situation analysis on one console.

"Lockheed Martin continues to provide leading-edge, quality Q-70 systems that act as the guiding intelligence of our weapons and acoustic systems infrastructure," said Rear Adm. John Butler, the Navy's program executive officer for submarines. "The Q-70 systems are extremely flexible and perform flawlessly under extreme environmental conditions. These technologies give us a crucial edge in safeguarding the nation we are honored to protect."

The Lockheed Martin-DRS team has been supporting the Q-70 program since it was competitively awarded in 1994, and is delivering the ECDWS units as an upgrade under an open-architecture business model called the Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion (ARCI) program. The ARCI Program provides common sonar systems within an open systems architecture that exploits commercial computing technology -- a proven path for top performance and significant cost-effective processing upgrades at least every two years.

"What's most impressive about the Lockheed Martin-DRS team is that it has accomplished this impressive capability to provide the U.S. Navy with the latest, state-of-the-art equipment, while also reducing program costs by an incredible $1.6 billion," said U.S. Rep. John Murtha (PA-12) who attended a ceremony marking the delivery in Johnstown.

Lockheed Martin and DRS develop and provide ruggedized, COTS-based tactical display and computing systems that support common operating environments in current and future surface, subsurface and airborne platforms.

"We are focused on the Navy's ever-evolving needs at sea or in the air, working to create future combat displays and systems that revolutionize its defense capabilities," said Rick Ambrose, president of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors' Tactical Systems line of business.

Paul G. Casner, DRS Technologies' chief operating officer, remarked, "As an integral part of the Navy's plans for implementing open-system architecture for the network-centric tactical warfare environment, these systems support rapid data exchange between cooperative forces and are the cornerstones of the Navy's fleet modernization initiatives."

Q-70 workstations and systems currently are installed onboard Virginia, Seawolf, Los Angeles and Ohio Class submarines, Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers, aircraft carriers, the E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, LPD, LHD and LHA type amphibious ships, as well as ground mobile units.

DRS Technologies, headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, provides leading edge products and services to defense, government intelligence and commercial customers. Focused on defense technology, DRS develops and manufactures a broad range of mission critical systems. The company employs 5,800 people worldwide. For more information about DRS Technologies, please visit the company's web site at http://www.drs.com/ .

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services.

For additional information, visit our web site: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/ .

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin