StockerYale Awarded Specialty Optical Fiber Contract From NGNN For Virginia Class Submarines

Salem, NH - StockerYale, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of structured light lasers, LED modules and specialty optical fibers for industry leading OEMs, recently announced a significant contract award for its specialty optical fiber by Northrop Grumman Newport News (NGNN), a sector within the Ships business of Northrop Grumman Corporation , for the U.S. Navy's Virginia class submarine fleet.

The fiber will be used for Light Weight Wide Aperture Array (LWWAA) Hydrophone Systems in support of the Virginia class attack submarine program. StockerYale will supply fiber to Northrop Grumman Newport News for the next three submarines to be added to the fleet. Fiber shipments to Northrop Grumman Newport News are expected to begin in September 2007.

"We're excited to partner with world class customers like Northrop Grumman on critical programs that demonstrate our technical expertise and ability to produce large quantities of highly-specialized optical fiber" said Mark Blodgett, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of StockerYale. "Our engineers and scientists worked diligently to customize a fiber that meets the exact technical and time-sensitive requirements for the LWWAA program as outlined by Northrop Grumman. We are pleased to be awarded this important, defense contract."

The US Navy's Virginia class submarines employ LWWAA systems on either side of the hull, which provide sonar sensor input to the submarine's combat system. Northrop Grumman designed, developed and manufactures the key optical sensing elements of the Fiber Optic Acoustic Sensors (FOAS) arrays for the LWWAA system. StockerYale's specialty optical fiber is a key component for NGC's FOAS arrays.

"This is both our first major government contract and largest contract for specialty optical fiber received to date," Blodgett noted. "As we continue to grow our specialty optical fiber business, we will realize strong financial operating leverage from this higher margin, high potential business unit."

SOURCE: StockerYale, Inc.