longer.blue

Steve Schmidt: In June, the FAA awarded Air Space Intelligence a 12-year contract worth up to $876 million. In October, Politico reported (https://substack.com/redirect/dae52d99-7fd3-4b55-9b58-3f17d032d181?j=eyJ1IjoiM3l4ZmcifQ.hpb3ubRX7plOuMbh-IUtAgGZCwTBtGvmtmMe_1zPSqU) that the FAA was pursuing an ownership stake in the company and discussing a warrant to buy its stock. Picture an FAA engineer walking into the administrator’s office to say that a contractor’s software needs to come out. Why should that engineer ever have to wonder what pulling the software would do to the value of the government’s stake? Whose idea was it to put that question in the room? On Tuesday, the FAA announced (https://substack.com/redirect/dae52d99-7fd3-4b55-9b58-3f17d032d181?j=eyJ1IjoiM3l4ZmcifQ.hpb3ubRX7plOuMbh-IUtAgGZCwTBtGvmtmMe_1zPSqU) that the company’s SMART tool had expanded to all 22 air route traffic control centers. On Friday, the company denied any role in the ground stop. Duffy said SMART was disconnected from the equipment that failed. Put him under oath. Get the system logs, the change orders, and the tests that preceded the rollout. Get the equity term sheet and every draft. Find out who proposed it, who signed off on pursuing it, and what authority they thought they had.