ASDWire distribution date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:05 GMT +0100

Westar to Provide Systems Engineering Support to Army Aviation's Apache Helicopter Fleet

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 19, 2006 --[ASDWire.com]-- The U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command (AMCOM) has awarded Westar Aerospace & Defense Group, Inc., a task order to provide airworthiness and qualification engineering support to the Apache Helicopter (AH-64) Division of the Aviation Engineering Directorate. The award’s value slightly exceeds $2 million, and includes five option years.

Westar, which has been fulfilling Army Aviation task orders for more than 17 years, will apply its systems engineering expertise to manage Category One Quality Deficiency Reports, Safety of Flight Messages, Aviation Safety Action Messages, and Airworthiness Releases—technical documents that provide operating instructions and limitations necessary for the safe flight of an aircraft.

The company will also review qualification test plans and reports for engineering change proposals, review safety system issues, and conduct risk assessments as they apply to the AH-64 fleet.

“Before any changes are made to the Apache, whether it’s a modification to the entire fleet or to a single aircraft, our job is to support engineering recommendations that ensure the strictest of system specification requirements are met. That’s our area of expertise,” said Kurt Heine, Director, EXPRESS Programs, Westar Aerospace & Defense Group.

Headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., Westar Aerospace and Defense Group, Inc. is a systems engineering contractor with more than $200 million in annual sales and 1100 professionals around the world dedicated to providing high-value engineering, software solutions, logistics and IT support services to the U.S. Department of Defense, allied governments and select commercial customers. Westar is a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based QinetiQ (London: QQ.), an international defense and security technology company with approximately 2,500 employees in the U.S.

For more information on Westar, visit: www.westar.com

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