DRS to Make Thermal Weapon Sights

PARSIPPANY, N.J., June 8 -- DRS Technologies Inc. announced today it has received $43 million in new orders to produce a line of thermal weapon sights for US Army ground force applications, from the Army's Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) in Fort Monmouth, N.J., on behalf of Program Executive Office Soldier.

DRS will produce light, medium and heavy thermal weapon sights, using its microbolometer-based infrared technology. The sights will give soldiers and armament crews better threat detection ranges views at a lower cost, DRS said; they will mount onto a variety of light, medium and heavy weapons, including M2 and M240 machine guns, M4, M16 and M82 assault rifles, the M24 Sniper Weapon System, M107 antimateriel gun, M136 rocket launcher, MK19 and M203 grenade launchers and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon.

Work will be done at the DRS Optronics facilities in Palm Bay and Melbourne, Fla., and at DRS Infrared Technologies facilities in Dallas, Texas. Deliveries of more than 4000 TWS units will begin in October 2005 and continue through October 2006. The orders are part of a five-year contract awarded to DRS in March 2004 that has a base value of $118 million and a total value of $375 million, including options.

For more information, visit: www.drs.com