The National Air & Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) has awarded Ball Aerospace a $28 million task order to develop the Integrated Overhead Non-imaging Infrared (ONIR) Tasking, Processing, Exploitation, & Dissemination (TPED) System (IOTS) as part of Ball's larger Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) Exploitation contract.

IOTS is an end-to-end integrated system for ingesting, archiving, processing, analyzing, and reporting data collected by current and future space-based infrared sensors. Ball's IOTS developments will upgrade existing capabilities in the field by giving the warfighter increased support and helping to keep our troops safe.

The IOTS program will be supported by the Systems Engineering Solutions office in Dayton, OH. Customers include NASIC, other members of the intelligence community, and operational military units.

"The IOTS effort presents many technical and schedule challenges, but clearly demonstrates the Government's confidence in Ball's leadership in MASINT, ONIR, and systems engineering capabilities," said Steve Everding, who leads the Ball Aerospace IOTS program team. "We are recognized as a leader in the ONIR community and we understand that our superior performance in leading the IOTS team is key to future larger opportunities."

Demonstrating strong leadership over this NASIC task order will solidly position us for national level IOTS ONIR programs," Everding added.

The IOTS development effort is a three-year effort that began May 25, 2005. Ball Aerospace will be supported by Booz Allen & Hamilton, Inc., Command Technologies, Inc. (CTI), a subsidiary of MTC Technologies, Inc. (MTC), Institute for Scientific Research, Inc. (ISR), Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector, Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems sector, Oracle Federal Systems (OFS), Raytheon Company (RTN), Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), and Technology Service Corp. (TSC).

Ball Corporation is a supplier of metal and plastic packaging products, primarily for the beverage and food industries. The company also owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which develops sensors, spacecraft, systems and components for government and commercial markets. Ball Corporation employs more than 13,500 people and reported 2004 sales of $5.4 billion.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this news release contains "forward-looking" statements and other statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," and variations of same and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key risks and uncertainties are summarized in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in Exhibit 99.2 in the most recent Form 10-K. These filings are available at our Web site and at www.sec.gov. Factors that might affect our packaging segments include fluctuation in consumer and customer demand; availability and cost of raw materials, particularly the recent significant increases in resin, steel, aluminum and energy costs, and the ability to pass such increases on to customers; competitive packaging availability, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; industry productive capacity and competitive activity; failure to achieve anticipated productivity improvements or production cost reductions, including those associated with our beverage can end project; the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; international business risks, including foreign exchange rates, tax rates and activities of foreign subsidiaries; and the effect of LIFO accounting on earnings. Factors that might affect aerospace segment include: funding, authorization and availability of government contracts and the nature and continuation of those contracts; and technical uncertainty associated with segment contracts. Factors that could affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; regulatory action or laws including tax, environmental and workplace safety; governmental investigations; goodwill impairment; antitrust and other litigation; strikes; boycotts; labor cost changes; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and changes to unaudited results due to statutory audits or management's evaluation of the company's internal control over financial reporting.

SOURCE: Ball Aerospace