Lockheed Martin US Coast Guard's Deepwater Maritime Patrol Aircraft

TOUGHDISK® RUGGED HARD DISK SELECTED BY LOCKHEED MARTIN FOR USE IN
U.S. COAST GUARD'S DEEPWATER MARITIME PATROL AIRCRAFT

Ruggedized Packaging and Ability to Handle Extreme Temperatures Among
Selection Criteria for Deepwater Airborne Application

MOORESTOWN, NEW JERSEY, USA, (July 12, 2005)…Formation, Inc. announced today that its ToughDisk® 3500 Rugged Hard Disk has been selected by Lockheed Martin to provide rugged data storage for Maritime Patrol Aircraft in support of the U.S. Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System, a program to recapitalize the Coast Guard's aging cutters, electronics and aircraft.

ToughDisk is the key component of System Integrated Storage Units Formation will deliver with a storage capacity of over 400 GBytes. The units will contain all system software and data on the CN-235 aircraft. With 2,000-nautical mile range and 10-hour flight endurance, the CN-235 will be used to perform surveillance, search and rescue and transport duties suitable for both traditional Coast Guard missions as well as homeland security missions.

“Formation offered us the best technical solution for the value,” said Jim Kalb, Program Manager, Lockheed Martin. “We needed a data storage solution that performs reliably in harsh environmental conditions. We selected ToughDisk because it can handle our aggressive warm-up requirements and the extreme high and low temperatures of this application.”

ToughDisk rugged hard disks are high-performance, removable data storage units built specifically to withstand extreme temperature, shock, vibration, humidity and dust conditions. The TD3500 is a rugged drop-in replacement for standard 3.5” low profile disk drives with 73 or 100 GBytes capacity and SCSI or ATA interfaces.

“ToughDisk rugged hard disks have been selected for several military applications including manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft, submarine communications systems and ship based weapons systems,” said R. Nim Evatt, Formation CEO and President. “They have also been selected for commercial applications including use with a new inflight entertainment content loader for commercial airlines. Both military and commercial customers find Formation’s rugged hard disk product line attractive because of their significant cost and capacity advantages over solid state storage.”

Formation will manufacture the storage units at its Moorestown, NJ production facility. Delivery is slated to begin in August 2005.

About Integrated Deepwater System

IDS is a critical multi-year, multi-billion dollar program to modernize and replace the Coast Guard's aging ships and aircraft, and improve command and control and logistics systems. It is the largest recapitalization effort in the history of the Coast Guard. When complete, the interoperable IDS system will include three classes of new cutters and their associated small boats, a new fixed-wing manned aircraft fleet, upgraded helicopters, and both cutter-based and land-based unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). All of these highly capable assets are linked with Command, Control, Communications and Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems, and are supported by a new and far-reaching integrated logistics systems. IDS is essential to the support the Coast Guard's many missions, key among which is domestic Homeland Security.
In June 2002, the U.S. Coast Guard awarded the contract for IDS to Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2004 sales of $35.5 billion.

About Formation, Inc.

Formation, Inc. of Moorestown, NJ, USA provides a broad range of products and services to the aerospace, data communications, defense and transportation industries, including ruggedized disk products, avionics-class servers and Wireless Access Points, mobile gateway/router/firewall equipment and the Advanced Integrated Recorder. Formation also offers custom engineering and manufacturing services. For information call +1 856.234.5020.

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Company Contact: Gene Lovely +1 (856) 380-2926 genel@formation.com.