UK's Royal Navy Employs Hood Tech Vision's Imagers in First Maritime Deployment of U AV in an Operational Theatre UK's Royal

Navy recently acquired and has now deployed Hood Tech Vision's imagers to track Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Hood River, OR, January 08, 2014 --UK's Royal Navy recently acquired and has now d eployed Hood Tech Vision's imagers to track Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. From: Hood Tech Corp Vision, Inc., Hood River, Oregon Date: January 7, 2014 Subject: UK's Royal Navy Employs Hood Tech Vision's Imagers in First Maritime Deploy ment of UAV in an Operational Theatre Contact: Dr. Andy von Flotow, Hood Tech Corp Vision, Inc., 541-387-2288, andy@ho odtech.com According to a recent online article (http://www.suasnews.com/2013/12/26565/firs t-ever-royal-navy-drone-launched-in-30million-mission-to-stop-somali-pirates/?ut m_source=sUAS+News+Daily&utm_campaign=174b3720e5RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=em ail&utm_term=0_b3c0776dde-174b3720e5-303664173), Hood Tech Vision's imager is depl oyed on the UK's Royal Fleet Auxiliary Cardigan Bay. The imager flies on a popular s mall UAV and becomes the Royal Navy's first instance of maritime UAV use in an opera tional theatre... The purpose is to help interdict Somali piratesthreatening shippi ng in the Indian Ocean. The imager is an eye in the sky over the horizon. This is not the first time that Hood Tech Vision's imagers have played a role in c ombating pirates. The most famous earlier use was from the USS Bainbridge during the stand-off following the abduction of Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama , the subject of the recent movie Captain Phillips. The imagers on two aircraft will likely operate up to 300 hours a month. They wil l spot pirates threatening shipping in the Indian Ocean. The small UAV cannot be armed, so that our imager is the reason for putting the a ircraft in action, and it provides the information necessary to keep forces safe , said a Hood Tech Vision representative. We expect all our imagers to work every time for that purpose. When Hood Tech began producing 800-gm video-camera turrets in 1998, it enabled a n entirely new class of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Hood Technology V ision now designs and manufactures imaging and video processing systems at the h ighest level of the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS): leve l 9. Hood Tech matches improved stabilization technology with electro-optical le nses that zoom up to 170 times. This results in a field of view of 0.3 degrees, in a package that weighs less than six kg. Designed for manned and unmanned aer ial vehicles (UAVs), boats, land vehicles, and stationary mounts, the reliabilit y and utility of Hood Tech's daylight and thermal imaging products has been demons trated over more than 750,000 hours of use in a variety of temperatures, humidit y, dust, smoke, haze, and other environmental factors (http://www.hoodtechvision .com). Dr. Andy von Flotow founded Hood Technology in Hood River, Oregon in 1992. Alon g with the design and manufacture of stabilized imaging systems, Hood Tech: Develops, tests, and manufactures launch and retrieval systems for UAVs Operates controlled launch and quiet wind tunnel test facilities Monitors blade vibrations in industrial turbines and jet engines, including diag nostic methods that predict possible future failures. The Hood Tech web site is: www.hoodtech.com

Contact: Andy von Flotow Hood Tech 3100 Cascade Hood River, OR 97031 541-387-2288 ken@hoodtech.com http://www.hoodtech.com