In more evidence about how the military industrial complex dominates New Mexico, even indirectly, an Associated Press story from the Albuquerque Journal talks about a million dollar contract to Management Sciences Inc. The Albuquerque-based company won a $1.5 million contract to build “smarter black boxes” for military aircraft.
MSI will build Digital Data Download (D3) systems for the Navy’s F-18 fighters, all 15000 of them. They were tapped to build the black box through the Naval Air Systems Command.
In a hint of the military’s growing desire for microelectronics it describes the new black box, the D3 “uses computers and smart sensors about the width of a human hair integrated throughout an airplane to constantly monitor systems.” MSI subcontracts with Honeywell to build the black boxes, and eventually will work with them to commercialize this and other products.
Source:
AP. “Sensors Will go in f-18s.” Albuquerque Journal. March 26, 2002
