Westar Awarded $21 Million Contract to Provide Test Support Services to U.S. Army Aviation Technical Test Center

Market Wire, October, 2006

Westar Aerospace & Defense Group, Inc. will provide test support services to the U.S. Army Aviation Technical Test Center (ATTC) at Ft. Rucker, Ala., under a five-year contract valued at more than $21 million.

"Westar's 20-plus years of experience in flight testing, evaluation and analysis fully supports the ATTC's mission to optimize aviation war fighting capabilities to ensure full spectrum dominance of the battlefield for the soldier," said Westar's Joe Townsend, vice president, Aviation Technical Services.

The ATTC is the Army's premier aviation developmental flight test organization, internationally recognized as a center of excellence in the test and evaluation of both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft and associated aviation systems and equipment.

Westar has been the prime contractor for the ATTC's Test Support Services, and for its Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) Data Services since 1995. Under these contracts Westar helps the ATTC in planning, conducting, analyzing and reporting on the development and airworthiness qualifications of aircraft, aviation systems, and associated equipment throughout their life-cycles.

Under the new five-year contract, Westar will provide the ATTC with various overlapping, but unique services for effective testing. These include RAM Data Services, IT Services, Multi-Media Support & Preparation, and Administrative and Logistic Tasks.

"We are extremely proud of the opportunity to continue our support of the ATTC," said Townsend. "It underscores the confidence our customers have in the outstanding performance of Westar personnel."

Headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., Westar Aerospace and Defense Group, Inc. is a systems engineering contractor with more than $200 million in annual sales and 1,100 professionals around the world dedicated to providing high-value engineering, software solutions, logistics and IT support services to the U.S. Department of Defense, allied governments and select commercial customers. Westar is a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based QinetiQ (LSE: QQ.), an international defense and security technology company with approximately 2,500 employees in the U.S.

For more information on Westar Aerospace & Defense Group, visit: www.westar.com

Media Contact: Mike Ruggeri Vice President, Communications Westar Aerospace & Defense Group, Inc. 636-300-5151 (office) 636-627-9070 (mobile) Email Contact