Engineered Support to Restart Production on FY03 Contract Orders for Deployable Power System Units; Expects to Restart Full Prod

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 9  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Engineered Support Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:EASI) today announced that, as it previously forecasted in its third quarter earnings call report, its U.S. Air Force customer has lifted the stop work order imposed on the FY03 contract modification for production of Deployable Power Generation and Distribution System (DPGDS) primary Power Units (PUs).

In August, the company successfully completed a five-week reliability audit conducted under operational conditions, involving a sample of four DPGDS PUs.  The audit was completed to the satisfaction of the Air Force, without any significant issues that adversely affected the reliability of the units, according to Engineered Support Vice Chairman and CEO Gerald A. Potthoff.  The system maintained over 99 percent mission availability during the testing -- well above the Air Force standards, and in 33 days of testing the power plant was off-line for less than two minutes, Potthoff explained.

The lifting of the stop work order involves 30 PPUs in various stages of production under the DPGDS contract and allows for the completion of production and/or retrofit work to address the previously identified and resolved system reliability issues.  The formal report on the reliability audit will be issued to the Air Force later this month and the company expects that the evaluation of this report will then trigger the removal of the stop work order on the remaining increment of 65 DPGDS PUs currently under contract.  These units would be delivered throughout fiscal 2006.

"We expect that, with the resolution of the previous reliability issues, the successful completion of the recent Reliability Audit, and the lifting of stop-work orders, new production orders for both the Air Force and Army will be released. This will set up the DPGDS program for a very bright future," Potthoff said.

"We strongly believe that the DPGDS provides an advanced, state of the art technology, power capability for use in providing prime power under austere conditions.  Not only are we gratified to see DPGDS power units available for our military units and members serving overseas in the Global War on Terror, we're also pleased to be able to make our power and other advanced sustainment solutions available to our government customers as they provide relief to the Hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast region.

"Once again, I would like to express my appreciation to our valued Air Force and Army customers, our partner Caterpillar, our key suppliers and, most importantly our many ESSI employees, for their strong support during this entire process," the CEO said.

Engineered Support Systems, Inc. provides advanced sustainment solutions including the design, manufacture and supply of integrated military electronics, support equipment and technical and logistics services for all branches of America's armed forces and certain foreign militaries, homeland security forces and selected government and intelligence agencies. The company also produces specialized equipment and systems for commercial and industrial applications. For additional information, please visit the Company's website at http://www.engineeredsupport.com/ . 

DATASOURCE: Engineered Support Systems, Inc.



CONTACT:  Larry Cox, Communications Mgr of Engineered Support Systems,

Inc., [phone],  



Web site:  http://www.engineeredsupport.com/ 

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