SYRACUSE, NY, 24-APR-00 -- Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Syracuse (NE&SS-Syracuse) today announced that it has signed a contract with Yuehai Railway Company, Ltd. and the Foreign Trade and Economic Development Corporation of the Guangzhou Railway Group to monitor a new railway ferry system that will link southern mainland China with Hainan province. The rail ferry will cross the Qiongzhou Channel where NE&SS-Syracuse manages a vessel traffic management system(VTMS). include three specially built rail ferries, weighing 10,000 tons each, that will move the trains across the Qiongzhou Channel.

Under the new contract, valued at just over $1 million, NE&SS-Syracuse will link to the existing Qiongzhou Channel VTMS an additional remote radar station, three VHF radio systems, new microwave links, two operator workstations and a comprehensive information system. The Qiongzhou Channel VTMS was installed last year under a $3 million contract.

Bryan Young, director of the NE&SS-Syracuse marine traffic management business, said, The Qiongzhou vessel traffic management system was our first opportunity to help safeguard an important Chinese waterway. We are pleased to be able to expand that effort with this important railway ferry project, which is vital to economic expansion in the region.

When the project is fully implemented, the Yuehai Railway Company will turn the system over to the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration, which also is the customer for the Qiongzhou Channel project.

Work under the contract will begin in May and will be completed in a year. Additional expansion plans for this critical marine transportation system have already been announced.

A leader in ground-based and airborne radar, surface vessel and submarine electronic warfare, ASW systems and sensors, minehunting systems and vessel traffic management, Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Syracuse serves customers including all branches of the U.S. armed forces, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Transportation and State, defense and transportation departments of countries on six continents, and port and transportation-related private companies around the world. NE&SS-Syracuse employs approximately 2,000 people at its Syracuse, N.Y., headquarters and is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation.