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BAE SYSTEMS Australia Achieves Major Milestones On Project Wedgetail

19 May 2003

BAE Systems Australia, as a subcontractor to The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA], has successfully completed four major design reviews for Project Wedgetail - on schedule and within budget.

These are the first major Wedgetail Segment reviews conducted in Australia and have resulted in major design review baselines for the Australian Industry Component of the state-of-the-art Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) system.

Air Vice Marshal Norm Gray, head of the AEW&C programme for the Royal Australian Air Force, said: "Completion of critical design reviews ahead of schedule is a indication of the excellent relationship enjoyed by the Commonwealth when working with the combined BAE Systems and Boeing team. Successful preliminary reviews for the Mission Support Segment and the Operational Mission Simulator are key steps in the evolution of the Wedgetail System."

Two Critical Design Reviews (CDRs) for the Electronic Warfare Sub-systems were completed in April: Electronic Warfare Self Protection* (EWSP) and Electronic Support Measures* (ESM). The ESM CDR was two months ahead of the original contracted schedule.

"The successful completion of these Critical Design Reviews enables us to proceed with the production programs of the Electronic Warfare Systems. We have already taken delivery of the first of the antenna sets from ELTA, our major ESM partner, for installation on the Wedgetail aircraft later this year," said Steve Wynd, Program Manager Wedgetail - BAE Systems Australia.

The first major segment level Preliminary Design Reviews (PDRs) for the Ground Support Segments of Project Wedgetail were also completed in April. This covered the Mission Support Segment* (MSS) and Operational Mission Simulator* (OMS).

"This enables BAE Systems Australia to continue into the detailed design phase of these software intensive segments, and to establish the computer systems hardware baselines later this year," said Wynd.

The next major Support Segment review for BAE Systems is the AEW&C Support Facility (ASF) PDR scheduled for later this year.
About the sub-systems:

*Electronic Warfare Self Protection (EWSP)
The EWSP suite provides detection, tracking, identification and countermeasures against airborne, shipborne and landbased threats. The system provides countermeasures from take-off to landing.

*Electronic Support Measures (ESM)
The ESM is a subsystem of the AEW& C's Airborne Mission Segment. It is a detection system for surveillance, target identification, threat warning and target tracking. It has the inherent ability to detect, measure and identify threat radars. The ESM equipment developed by BAE Systems Australia for Project Wedgetail is the next generation of the ALR 2001 system developed for the AP-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft.

*Mission Support Segment (MSS)
The MSS gathers the tasking and planning data required for an AEW&C mission. It supports flight and mission planning for all of the aircraft sub-systems, enabling the crew to prepare and carry out the operation. Post-mission functions include mission debriefings, analysis and replay of mission data and production of mission reports. Project Wedgetail will be delivered with two deployable MSSs as well as the fixed facilities at Tindal and Williamtown.

*Operational Mission Simulator (OMS)
The BAE Systems OMS provides realistic training for the AEW&C aircraft mission crew by simulating the mission systems and aircraft environment. The OMS allows instructors to monitor and coach individual students, without compromising the fidelity of the aircraft environment and reducing the airframe hours required for training mission crew. The OMS facilitates training in rarely occurring or potentially dangerous situations, helping the crew to develop and maintain their capabilities so that they are always in a high state of readiness. The OMS provides a significant subset of the mission crew's ground training. This will be complemented with Boeing's mission crew training program.

About BAE SYSTEMS:

BAE Systems is a systems company, innovating for a safer world. BAE Systems employs nearly 100,000 people including Joint Ventures, and has annual sales of around 12 billion. The company offers a global capability in air, sea, land and space with a world-class prime contracting ability supported by a range of key skills. BAE Systems designs, manufactures and supports military aircraft, surface ships, submarines, radar, avionics, communications, electronics, guided weapon systems and a range of other defence products. BAE Systems is dedicated to making the intelligent connections needed to deliver innovative solutions.

In Australia, the company employs 2,500 people, supports customers at more than 50 locations across the country and has its centre of operations in Adelaide. BAE Systems is a leader in engineering and systems integration and is a major supplier of support services, electronics and software.