David Learmount/LONDON
Lockheed Martin is expected to gain clearance this week to hand over operating software for the UK's long-delayed new en route air traffic control centre (NERC) at Swanwick, near Southampton.
This would enable a speedy contract completion for the Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre (SCATCC), says UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) chief executive Bill Semple.
A landmark test on 5 April of the complete 194 workstation NERC system in full operational configuration appears to have been a complete success, says NATS. Semple says that the system worked as specified, including improvements which NATS had requested. On 15 April, senior NATS managers, led by Semple, are to review the test results and, if satisfied, Lockheed Martin will hand the operating system over to NATS, and the NERC Project Team will begin the implementation phase.
Present planning sees NERC fully operational in late 1999/early 2000, says Semple, but he insists it will only go into operation when NATS is completely happy with it.
The NERC operating system handover is one of the three remaining hurdles to clear before awarding the SCATCC contract. Clearance will signal confidence in a system which comprises 85% of the software that SCATCC will use. The two final hurdles are the remaining commercial negotiations with Lockheed Martin, which had been named preferred bidder in mid-1997, and final agreement with the UK Treasury over the Private Finance Initiative deal by which the investment needed is to be raised. Semple says that all three hurdles could be cleared "within weeks".
Source: Flight International
