T²CAS™ ACHIEVES MAJOR MILESTONES TOWARD CERTIFICATION

Combined TAWS/TCAS System Expects TSO by end of January

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

PHOENIX, December 19, 2002 – ACSS, an L-3 Communications & Thales Company, has completed development flight test with T²CAS™, a combined terrain and traffic collision avoidance system. The new system introduces a higher level of safety to all areas of aviation by increasing pilot awareness to potential terrain hazards and basing its alerts and avoidance maneuvers on an aircraft’s actual ability to climb at a given moment – not based on predetermined computations.

The growing list of customers who have selected T²CAS includes Aeromexico, Federal Express, Northwest Airlines, the U.S. Customs Service, and Virgin Express, as well as others to be announced shortly.

“During the most recent FAA flight, ACSS was advised that we have no certification issues remaining,” said Dennis Porter, ACSS director of Program Management. “The FAA pilot was pleased with the stability and maturity of the design.”

ACSS has begun submitting TSOA paperwork to the FAA according to the same development schedule as was originally planned 18 months ago and expect to receive TSO Authorization from the FAA around the end of January.

In addition to T²CAS’s ability to increase an operator’s situational awareness and provide avoidance maneuvers based on an aircraft’s actual performance capability, the combined TCAS (Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System) and TAWS (Terrain Awareness Warning System) system also reduces weight, power consumption, space requirements, and wiring. The T²CAS line-replaceable unit is the same as the TCAS 2000, which allows the more than 6,000 TCAS 2000 customers throughout the world to simply swap out the TCAS box for the new T²CAS and use existing power and wiring.

ACSS (Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems, LLC), 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 and the T2CAS, a combined traffic and terrain collision avoidance system. More than 8,000 units of ACSS' TCAS products are currently operating in commercial, corporate and military aircraft. Thales Avionics is the exclusive sales agent of ACSS products to the Commercial Air Transport market. To learn more about ACSS, please visit the company's web site at www.L-3com.com/acss.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements set forth above involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-looking Statements included in the company's recent filings, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q, with the Securities and Exchange Commission.