Advanced Photonix Awarded $1.6M Contract for U.S. Navy Missile Weapons Program

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Photonix, Inc.^® (NYSE MKT: API) announced today that it has received a contract worth approximately $1,600,000 from a leading military contractor, which acts as a prime supplier for the U.S. Navy's Guided Missile Weapon System. The contract is for a custom photodiode and is expected to be completed within the next 18 months, and payment is due upon shipment.

The Navy's Guided Missile Weapon System is the world's most modern ship self-defense weapon and has been specifically designed to provide exceptional protection for ships of all sizes. The specific guided missile is a supersonic, light-weight, quick-reaction, fire-and-forget missile designed to destroy anti-ship missiles. Its autonomous dual-mode passive Radio-Frequency-to-Infrared guidance design requires no shipboard support after the missile is launched. This provides uniquely high-firepower capability for engaging multiple threats simultaneously.

Richard Kurtz, API's President and CEO, said, "We are very pleased to have been awarded this contract.  This vital missile program has been one of the Navy's most reliable missile guided systems, and we are proud to have been a part of this successful endeavor.  This is an ongoing program which we have been fortunate to have for the past 15 years and expect this program to continue into the future."

Photodiodes convert light into current; a conventional solar panel is really just a large area photodiode itself. For this particular purpose, it serves as a detector on the missile's proximity sensor. Because the missile's airframe rotates like a rifle bullet for greater accuracy, the system requires four detectors mounted 90 degrees away from each other. So as the airframe rolls, there is always a detector sensing for proximity.

Ideally, the ship's missile will strike the enemy's incoming missile, but the proximity sensors are there to ensure that, if there is not a direct heads-on hit, the Navy's missile will detonate as it passes by the incoming missile protecting the fleet below.

The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a lightweight, quick-reaction, fire-and-forget missile designed to destroy anti-ship cruise missiles and asymmetric air and surface threats. The RIM-116 RAM was developed as a cooperative program between the U.S. and German governments and continues to be cooperatively produced and supported. Currently, there are two RIM-116 configurations: Block 1A (RIM-116B) and Block 2 (RIM-116C). Block 1A is nearing completion of full rate production. The RAM Block 2 configuration, for which API is supplying its photodiodes, is currently in low rate initial production and undergoing Developmental and Operational Testing.

In addition to missile guidance, API's technology serves the military by providing components for heads-up displays, satellite positioning, laser range finders, and navigation.

In fiscal 2014, military and aerospace contracts generated $2.7 million of API's total revenue of $29.0 million. API anticipates that this contract, along with the absence of government sequestration this fiscal year, will result in greater revenue from these customers.

This project is part of API's Optosolutions line of business that serves not only the military/aerospace industry but also customers in testing and measuring [T&M] as well as the medical market. In the T&M market, API technology is used in such diverse areas as water quality monitoring, the control of seed planting, safety monitoring, currency validation, counterfeit detection, and pyrometry (heat measurement at a distance). Among the uses for API's work in the medical field are immunoassay testing, retina eye diagnostics, pulse oximetry and flow cytometry. The Company estimates that the total addressable market for its optoelectronics is roughly $150 million annually.

In addition to its Optosolutions, API operates a high-speed optical receiver [HSOR] line of business which addresses bandwidth infrastructure demand: Long Haul/Metro 100G and beyond; fiber-to-the-curb (FTTx); cloud computing; 4G/LTE wireless backhaul; and manufacturing test (ComTest) of next generation telecom. The field has an expected CAGR of more than 30%.

API's Terahertz business line is a disruptive technology for non-destructive testing and process control. This includes nuclear gauge replacement and single sensor with multiple measurement devices.

About Advanced Photonix, Inc.
Advanced Photonix, Inc.® (NYSE MKT: API) is a leading supplier of optoelectronic sensors, devices and instruments used by Test and Measurement, Process Control, Medical, Telecommunication and Homeland Security markets. The company has three product lines: Optosolutions focuses on enabling manufacturers to measure physical properties, including temperature, particular counting, color, and fluorescence for Medical, Homeland Security and Process Control applications. The Terahertz sensor product line is targeted to the Process Control, to enable quality control, and Security markets through nondestructive testing. The T-Gauge^® sensor can measure subsurface physical properties, like multi-layers thicknesses, density, moisture content, anomaly detection and some chemical features, online and in real time. High-Speed Optical Receiver (HSOR) products are used by the telecommunication market in both telecommunication equipment and in test and measurement equipment utilized in the manufacturing of telecommunication equipment. For more information visit us on the web at www.advancedphotonix.com.

The information contained herein includes forward looking statements that are based on assumptions that management believes to be reasonable but are subject to inherent uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, unforeseen technological obstacles which may prevent or slow the development and/or manufacture of new products; potential problems with the integration of the acquired company and its technology and possible inability to achieve expected synergies; obstacles to successfully combining product offerings and lack of customer acceptance of such offerings; limited (or slower than anticipated) customer acceptance of new products which have been and are being developed by the Company; and a decline in the general demand for optoelectronic products.

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SOURCE Advanced Photonix, Inc.