GA-ASI Demonstrates Lynx II Radar at US Army Yuma Proving Grounds

Released on Wednesday, July 16, 2008

FARNBOROUGH INTERNATIONAL AIR SHOW � 16 July 2008 � General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical reconnaissance radars, today announced that it successfully completed a weeklong series of Lynx® II production radar performance flight tests at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds (YPG) test range following radar improvements further boosting performance levels beyond System Development and Demonstration (SDD) requirements. GA-ASI originally developed the synthetic aperture radar with ground moving target indicator (SAR/ GMTI) for the Army's Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) UAS Program and recently completed final delivery of SDD radars to the U.S. Army.

"The outstanding results achieved by the Army-developed Lynx II radars show that the radar exceeds SAR and GMTI requirements of the Army's SDD (radar) program and ER/MP Operational Requirements Document (ORD)," said Linden P. Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. "These results demonstrate GA-ASI's continuing commitment to improve the capabilities of the Lynx II radar beyond the SDD performance levels as it enters production."

Testing of SAR imaging, GMTI detections, and EO/IR cross-cueing was managed by the U.S. Army's YPG Test Center using GA-ASI production radars that included software improvements exceeding the performance of the SDD baseline radars. Test results were collected by YPG and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) personnel for formal analysis.

GA-ASI is in production for 33 Lynx II radars for delivery in 2008 and 2009. The first six of these units will be delivered in September 2008 to the Iraqi Air Force ISR Program, a U.S. Air Force Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program contracted through Hawker Beechcraft Corporation.

The Lynx II radar provides the all-weather precision capability to detect time-sensitive targets and offers a long-range, wide-area surveillance capability that can provide high-resolution SAR imagery slant ranges well beyond effective electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) range. It also incorporates a broad area GMTI scanning capability to detect moving vehicles with the ability to cross-cue to an EO/IR payload via the CLAW® payload control software.