Rockwell Adapts Its Downed Pilot Finder for Military

In an ironic twist, a Rockwell International defense division has parlayed its efforts to develop new commercial products into a $13-million Air Force contract for a high-tech system to locate downed combat pilots.

If adopted by the Air Force at the end of the test phase, the contract could be expanded for as long as three years and bring in an additional $54.2 million in revenue to the company’s Autonetics and Missile Systems unit here.

The military pact stems from the defense-oriented unit’s efforts to develop civilian uses for technology that uses satellites to pinpoint a transmitting unit to within a few feet anywhere on Earth.

Rockwell has been working for several years to develop miniature global position-finding equipment and has developed several programs, including automobile navigation, that use small transmitters.

“It’s a case of our efforts to increase commercial work coming back to pay off with a military contract,” said Fred Sheldon, director of strategic management and business development for the unit.

The Air Force decided to seek bids for a new pilot locater system after Air Force pilot Scott F. O’Grady was downed in Bosnia last June, Sheldon said. O’Grady, whose F-16 fighter was shot down by a Serbian missile, remained on the ground in a war zone for six days before he was rescued.

The initial Air Force contract for the pilot locater system calls for three Rockwell units, led by Autonetics, to develop a hand-held locater radio system that incorporates a global position finder, global satellite communications and high-security radio transmission technology.

The system would replace the Air Force’s current pilot survival radios, which have limited broadcast range and don’t have global positioning or secure transmitting capabilities.

The initial 18-month contract calls for the company to deliver 35 devices to the Air Force for testing. If the devices are adopted, Rockwell could be called on to provide 11,000 additional units, Sheldon said.

The new contract won’t create more employment, a spokeswoman said. The 3,000-employee Anaheim facility already has about 300 openings, mainly in engineering and research, because of other new contracts and vacancies from attrition. A Rockwell facility in Iowa is expected to handle most of the production work.