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ATK Receives Contracts Worth $1.8 Million to Produce Structures for Ariane 5 Launch Vehicle; Awards Expand Work on European Heavy-Lift Launcher

Mar 13, 2001

ATK (Alliant Techsystems, NYSE: ATK) said ATK Aerospace Composite Structures Company, Clearfield, Utah, has been awarded contracts worth approximately $1.8 million from EADS CASA Espacio, Madrid, Spain, to produce composite structures for the Ariane 5 space launch vehicle -- the first new-generation heavy-lift launcher to enter commercial service.

Under a nine-month contract valued at approximately $1 million, ATK Aerospace Composite Structures Company will fabricate a composite adapter that serves as a link between the Ariane 5 vehicle's upper stage and the payload. A second contract worth approximately $800,000 calls for the company to produce additional interstage skirts, which connect the lower and upper stages of the vehicle. These additional flight models represent a follow-on to an original $4 million contract award received in 1999.

Work under both contracts will be performed at the company's Southern Composites Center in Iuka, Miss., a 325,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art production facility that opened in 1998.

"These contracts represent a significant expansion of the work we are doing for EADS CASA Espacio on the important Ariane 5 vehicle," said Travis Campbell, president, ATK Aerospace Composite Structures Company. "They also illustrate our growing role as a strategic supplier of composite structures for the world's leading space launch vehicles."

CASA (Construcciones Aeronauticas S.A.), Spain's largest aerospace company, is a founding member of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS). EADS is the third largest aerospace company in the world and the largest company in Europe.

Patented manufacturing techniques, together with strict and uncompromising attention to process control, schedule, and affordability, have made ATK one of the world's leading manufacturers of composite structures. The company operates more fiber placement machines than any other supplier in the world, and also is an industry leader in both hand laid-up and filament-wound composite structures.

ATK Aerospace Composite Structures Company is part of ATK's Aerospace segment, which comprises the corporation's propulsion and composite structures operations. The segment employs approximately 2,300 people in California, Colorado, Florida, Mississippi, New York, Utah, and West Virginia. Sales in fiscal year 2000 were $530 million.

ATK is a $1.1 billion aerospace and defense company with leading market positions in munitions, precision capabilities, propulsion, and composite structures. The company, which is headquartered in Hopkins, Minn., employs approximately 6,000 people and has three business segments: Conventional Munitions, Aerospace, and Defense Systems. ATK news and information can be found on the Internet at http://www.atk.com/

SOURCE: ATK

Contact: Media, Rod Bitz, 952-931-5413, rod_bitz@atk.com, or Investors,
Steve Wold, 952-931-6747, steve_wold@atk.com, both of ATK