FIRST STC FOR T2CAS ON MESABA AVRO-85
STC For Citation V And Ultra To Be Available In Early 2004

Contact:
Steve Henden
Manager, Communications
ACSS, an L-3 Communications & Thales Company
623-445-7021

ORLANDO, Oct. 7, 2003 – A little over two years after ACSS, an L-3 Communications & Thales Company, announced its plan to develop a combined traffic and terrain avoidance system, the T²CAS^tm. T²CAS will earn its first supplemental type certification (STC) on board an AVRO-85 operated by Mesaba Airlines. Additional STCs will be available for T²CAS on Citation V and Ultras beginning in early 2004, marking the safety avionics system’s first entry into the business jet market.

“We’re extremely proud of this accomplishments and now look forward to bringing the same commitment to safety and excellence to the business jet market,” said Joe Hoffman, ACSS president.

T²CAS is a unique safety avionics product that combines a performance-based terrain awareness warning system (TAWS) with the industry’s leading traffic alert and collision avoidance system, the TCAS 2000. T²CAS received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification in February. The system has been designed as a “plug-and-play” replacement for the TCAS 2000, ACSS’s second generation TCAS II currently flying on more than 7,000 corporate, regional, air transport and military aircraft.

The TCAS 2000 is already standard on many business airframes, including aircraft from Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream and Raytheon.

Along with optional Windshear and GPS, T²CAS provides a powerful combination of functionalities that result in space, wiring, weight and power savings. T²CAS is a performance-based system that can be applied to any business, regional, air transport or military aircraft to avoid Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), which gives operators more time to clear terrain and traffic with an increased margin to maneuver and reduce nuisance alerts. The Ground Collision Avoidance Module (GCAM) within T²CAS enables Modes 1-5 and provides unique predictive warnings and cockpit displays.

Among the patented features is a Terrain Advisory Line that indicates where the terrain is should the aircraft continue on its current flight path. The length and duration of the alert line mirrors the cautionary terrain segment within 30 degrees either side of the aircraft flight path, out to four minutes in front of the aircraft. When the GCAM detects that the aircraft does not have sufficient climb capability to clear the terrain by a standard vertical recovery maneuver, it generates a unique identifiable “Avoid Terrain” aural-visual alert.

In addition to Mesaba, many other operators that have already placed orders for T²CAS, including Aero California, Aeromexico, Air Atlanta Icelandic, Federal Express, Northwest Airlines, Régional, and Virgin Express. In addition, the U.S. Customs Service has selected T²CAS for use on its P-3 aircraft. The T²CAS will be proposed to airlines as a supplier furnished equipment (SFE) option on all new Airbus long range, single aisle and wide body aircraft and a Service Bulletin for retrofit aircraft will be available in early 2004. STCs are also being developed for ATR aircraft.

ACSS (Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems), an L-3 Communications & Thales Company, is a leader in safety avionics systems. ACSS products include the TCAS 2000 and TCAS 1500 traffic alert and collision avoidance systems, a family of Mode S transponders, the T²CAS, a combined traffic and terrain collision avoidance system, and MASS, an enhanced TCAS system for military operations. More than 9,000 units of ACSS's TCAS products are operating in commercial, corporate and military aircraft. To learn more about ACSS, please visit the company's web site at www.L-3co m .com/acss .