Rockwell Mounts Peace Offensive

Rockwell International Inc., in a move to commercialize more of its technical know-how, unveiled a plan this week that will apply its military technology to the transportation industry.

Kent M. Black, executive vice president and chief operating officer, said a Rockwell Texas subsidiary has signed an $800,000 contract with Techsonic Industries Inc. in Eufaula, Ga., to provide Global Positioning System receiver engines for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system.

And as part of its expansion into the lucrative intelligent-vehicle highway systems, also known as “smart highways,” Rockwell said it has completed the first phase of an integrated traffic operations center in Troy, Mich., which is designed and developed for the Road Commission of Oakland County. That is part of a five-year, $70-million smart-highway program being developed for safer and faster traffic routing.

The design of the traffic operations center was furnished by Rockwell’s Defense Electronics subsidiary in Anaheim.