SUNNYVALE, Calif., 16-FEB-04 -- The Central Florida Chapter of the Air Force Association has named the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) program built by Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] as a winner of the General Bernard A. Schriever Fellowship Award for providing years of vital communications to America's military forces worldwide.

For over two decades, the Department of Defense has entrusted DSCS to provide reliable, secure communications to U.S. armed forces around the globe, said Leonard F. Kwiatkowski, vice president, military space, Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale. We take great pride in the DSCS program's impressive record of performance and longevity and we are pleased that the program has been selected for this important honor.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., is the prime contractor for the DSCS III program, which provides uninterrupted secure voice and high-data rate communications to Department of Defense users, essential tools in monitoring events and deploying and sustaining forces anywhere in the world. The DSCS constellation supported military operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom and will continue to provide vital communications links to U.S. and Allied Forces around the globe well into the future.

Each DSCS III satellite has a design life of 10-years, although several of the DSCS satellites on-orbit today have far exceeded their design life expectancy and continue to perform with outstanding results. The very first DSCS III spacecraft was launched on Oct. 30, 1982 aboard a Titan 34D launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral and is currently used for testing. The last in a series of 14 DSCS spacecraft built for the U.S. Air Force was successfully launched on August 29, 2003 and is now fully operational.

The Air Force Association established The General Bernard A. Schriever Fellowship in 2000 to honor General Schriever and other leaders who have advanced America's Air Force space program. Recipients of the award, which were announced at the Air Force's Annual Gala on Feb. 13, 2004, are designated as fellows in the Aerospace Education Foundation, a non-profit educational charity that promotes aerospace excellence.