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Investigation into contractor focusing on emergency gear, warrant shows

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By DENNIS JOYCE djoyce@tampatrib.com

and ELAINE SILVESTRINI esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: July 17, 2009

TAMPA - Federal investigators who raided a St. Petersburg defense contractor are looking into products designed to help military air crews survive an emergency ejection, according to a search warrant obtained today by the Tribune.

Six Pentagon and immigration agencies are investigating Conax Florida Corp., a company that has operated locally for three decades and employs 220 people. Investigators Wednesday searched Conax buildings at 2801 75th St. N.

Search warrant documents, obtained from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa, detail property to be seized from Conax.

They focus on three products. Two are known as UWARS and SEAWARS, acronyms for water-activated parachute release systems. These systems comprise the main product line at Conax, a division of British defense contractor Cobham PLC, according to Cobham's 2002 annual report.

The third product, MA-16, is described as a reel device allowing an aircraft pilot to connect to a parachute while sitting in an ejection seat and to release from the parachute upon landing, according to a 2005 contract document from the federal Office of Management and Budget.

Specifically, the property to be seized includes "MA-16s that contain or appear to contain broken teeth, sheared teeth and bent shafts" as well as SEAWARS and UWARS devices containing "counterfeit/nonconforming" resistors and switches.

In recent years, counterfeit parts have been found in military aircraft and even NASA spacecraft.

Parts for aircraft are heavily regulated and require extensive documentation, Hans Weber, a San Diego-based consultant, told the Tribune this week.

Spare parts are expensive, Weber said, giving contractors an incentive to cheat.

The MA-16 "inertia reel" is in wide use by the military in the United States, its European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Australia, according the Web site of H. Koch and Sons Co., an Anaheim, Calif., company purchased by Cobham.

H. Koch and Sons was the sole designer, developer and manufacturer of the MA-16, according to the 2005 Office of Management Budget document.

Other property to be seized from Conax, the search warrant documents say, include records, correspondence and other documents related to the three products, and, if necessary, computers and any electronic storage devices.

Contacted today in Virginia, Cobham spokesman Greg Caires said the company is prevented by international treaties from talking about the Conax products.

"You know as much as we do now about the investigation," Caires said.
[footer]Reporter Michael Sasso contributed to this report. Editor Dennis Joyce can be reached at (813) 259-7604.

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