SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), has been awarded one of two $5 million development contracts for the U.S. Army’s Programmable Objective Encryption Technologies (POET) program. The program will produce the next-generation, Type 1 cryptographic technologies for future communications equipment and networks used by joint forces. The total contract value could reach $12.3 million if all options are exercised.

The POET program is aligned with the National Security Agency’s Cryptographic Modernization Initiative, and will enable high data-rate, multi-level security for voice, video, data and imagery from a variety of military equipment and networks including U.S. Navy multi-band terminals and U.S. Air Force advanced broadband terminals equipment and networks such as the Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) and the Navy’s ForceNet programs. General Dynamics will deliver preliminary encryption device designs to the Army in 2007 with finished devices delivered by 2009.

“The POET-based devices will be among the first to secure very large amounts of information moving between equipment, services and networks across a widely distributed battlespace,” says John Cole, vice president of Information Assurance at General Dynamics C4 Systems. “General Dynamics’ leadership in information assurance technologies and products provides a strong platform for developing this new generation of core encryption devices for the military and government agencies.”

General Dynamics C4 Systems is a leading integrator of secure communication and information systems and technology. With more than 11,000 employees worldwide, the company specializes in command and control, communications networking, computing and information assurance for defense, government and select commercial customers in the United States and abroad.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 81,000 people worldwide and had 2006 revenues of $24.1 billion. The company is a market leader in mission-critical information systems and technologies; land and expeditionary combat systems, arnaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine

systems, and business aviation.

General Dynamics Corp.