NETANYA, Israel, December 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — RADA Electronic Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: RADIF – News) announced today that the first upgraded Israel Air Force (IAF) A-4 “Skyhawk” has successfully completed its inaugural flight. This critical milestone of the program was accomplished within a tightly planned schedule of only 11 months following the program initiation. The A-4 “Skyhawk” is the IAF’s advanced trainer used in the flight academy and as a lead-in fighter trainer for both the modern fighters (F-15 and F-16).
The program, activated on January 1st, 2004, includes replacements of out-dated avionic units onboard the aircraft with newly designed equipment. The modernization aims at improving the training environment of air cadets flying the aircraft, enables a complete debrief of each flight using 3 dimensional graphic displays synchronized with video and audio recordings, while significantly reducing the aircraft’s cost of ownership.
The flight testing phase is scheduled to be completed within 3 months; with serial production and installation continuing until the third quarter of 2005.
RADA’s President, Brig. Gen (Res.) Herzle Bodinger, a former IAF Commander and former IAF Flight Academy Commander, commented on the successful flight: “We have justified the confidence the IAF and Ministry of Defense have put in RADA, by selecting and trusting us to perform this task. We thank the IAF and Ministry of Defence for their cooperation and salute our partners in this venture: Israel Aircraft Industries, Vectop and Nir Or for their outstanding performance.”
Zvika Alon, RADA’s V.P of Business Development, added: “This program enables RADA to provide similar affordable solutions to other customers operating various trainers with common needs worldwide. Our solutions allow Air Cadets to train in an environment very similar to the one they will find later on their flying career in most advanced fighters.”
About RADA
RADA Electronic Industries Ltd. is an Israel based company involved in the military and commercial aerospace industries. The Company specializes in Avionics, Ground Debriefing Stations (Video, ACMI and Maintenance) and Automatic Test Equipment.
Note: Certain statements in this press release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially. Such risk uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, changes in general economic conditions, risks in product and technology developments, market acceptance of new products and continuing product demand, level of competition and other factors described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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December 8, 2004 at 7:35 pm