SYRACUSE, NY, 03-OCT-01 -- Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems (NE&SS)-Radar Systems today announced the full system acceptance of its Romanian Vessel Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS). The system has been installed at the Port of Constantza on the Black Sea and now is fully operational. Our international competition yielded Lockheed Martin as a vessel traffic service technology leader capable of supplying affordable, integrated solutions for all identified sites, said Gheorghe Moldoveanu, technical manager at the National Company Maritime Ports Administration Constantza (NCMPAC). Lockheed Martin's VTMIS allows us to take advantage of the latest technology to bring the obsolete system we were operating in the Port of Constantza into the 21st century.

Lockheed Martin developed the VTMIS under a $2 million contract signed in November of 1999. Factory Acceptance Testing was successfully completed in November 2000 and Site Acceptance Testing was successfully completed in April 2001. The system allows Romanian VTMIS operators to monitor all vessel traffic from a control center with the goal of improving safety and security and optimizing overall port operations.

Lockheed Martin supplied displays, processors, software, database design, sensors, integration software and two radar systems. The land-based radar sites provide position locations of all vessels and barges in the port area and at the crossroads of the Danube-Black Sea Canal in land waterways and maritime lanes.

In the near future, it will be possible to exchange information with other Black Sea ports that have similar systems. Lockheed Martin signed a contract in 2000 with the Turkish government for a VTMIS in the Turkish Straits.

We are pleased to have provided the VTMIS to the National Company Constantza Maritime Port Administration S.A. ahead of schedule, said Brad Shannon, program manager for Lockheed Martin. Constantza is Romania's largest and busiest port and this system will help direct more ships through the port safely and efficiently.

NE&SS-Radar Systems provides vessel traffic systems throughout U.S. waterways under a U.S. Coast Guard contract, and has installed systems in 10 other nations, including Romania.

A leader in the design, development and integration of radar systems, vessel traffic management, simulation and training systems, and other complex electronic systems, NE&SS-Radar Systems 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, and defense and transportation departments of countries on six continents. Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems (NE&SS)-Radar Systems employs more than 2,200 people at its Syracuse, N.Y., headquarters and is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation.