ATK Selected to Develop Alternative Warhead for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ATK (NYSE: ATK) announced that it has been selected by the U.S. Army to develop an alternative warhead for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).  ATK was one of three companies competing to proceed into the Engineering and Manufacturing Design and Demonstration (EMDD) phase of the program.  ATK will be a subcontractor to GMLRS prime contractor Lockheed Martin. 

The GMLRS alternative warhead eliminates the use of submunitions, but performs as a drop-in replacement for the currently-fielded Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) warhead. 

"This new warhead offers the advantage of uncompromised performance without leaving unexploded submunitions on the battlefield," said Dave Wise, Vice President and General Manager of ATK Defense Components.  "We look forward to further development and integration of our improved warhead solution for GMLRS.  We are also excited to demonstrate that we can adapt our lethality-enhanced ordnance design for other missile, mortar, artillery and air-dropped weapon applications."

During live-fire testing by the U.S. Army, ATK's alternative warhead – featuring ATK's Lethality Enhanced Ordnance (LEO) design – demonstrated that it meets performance and mission requirements, lowers technical risk, and matches current weapon flight characteristics without modifications to the existing GMLRS delivery system.  In addition, the design improves user safety by lessening the risk of chain-reaction explosions should the warhead be struck by bullets or fragments, or encounter other hazardous events.

ATK will refine the design to enhance manufacturability, ensuring a low risk transition to low rate initial production.  Warhead production work will be performed at ATK's Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) facility in Rocket Center, W.Va.  ABL is a U.S. Navy-owned, ATK-operated facility specializing in advanced manufacturing technologies for a variety of programs supporting current and future U.S. industrial base needs in conventional munitions assemblies, advanced electronic fuzing and integration, solid rocket motor propulsion, and advanced material structures.  ATK's Plymouth, Minn. facility will provide key engineering and program support.

ATK is an aerospace, defense, and commercial products company with operations in 22 states, Puerto Rico, and internationally, and revenues of approximately $4.8 billion.  News and information can be found on the Internet at www.atk.com.

Certain information discussed in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Although ATK believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved.  Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Among those factors are: changes in governmental spending, budgetary policies and product sourcing strategies; the company's competitive environment; the terms and timing of awards and contracts; and economic conditions.  ATK undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For further information on factors that could impact ATK, and statements contained herein, please refer to ATK's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE ATK

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