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SECURE COMMUNITIES: Gives jailers access to federal immigration databases that use fingerprints to check the criminal record and immigration status of each inmate. Anyone fingerprinted in the past is in the databases, including legal immigrants or those who have been arrested or deported previously. Immigration officials are automatically notified of inmates in the country illegally. They decide, based on the seriousness of the charge and resources available, whether to put those inmates in federal custody once their criminal charges are resolved.

287(g): Provides access to the same databases used in Secure Communities, but it also trains local officers to interview immigrants and begin deportation proceedings. In counties with 287(g), nearly all illegal immigrants who show up in the database are deported after their criminal charges are resolved.

5m RAAF landing order

The Australians will use the system on airfields in East Timor to guide incoming flights.

The transponder landing system (TLS) is made by US electronics firm Advanced Navigation and Positioning, which has an ongoing relationship with Radiola, the prime contractor on the project.

Radiola takes the TLS and mounts it on a fourwheel that can be carried by helicopter and towed by a truck, making it transportable (TTLS).

The whole system weighs about seven tonnes, and when fully operational with radio links and antenna masts resembles a camouflaged building, said Richard Thompson, manager of Radiola's defence and aerospace division.

He said the RAAF realised early on in its East Timor campaign that it lacked equipment that could quickly be set up to help pilots landing at airfields with no effective approach and landing aids.

Traditional instrument landing systems are fixed and need extensive civil works such as concrete pads, cable trenching and power feeds.

Mr Thompson said Radiola had pursued international contracts in the past five years, building on its work with the New Zealand Air Force.

"We look for niche projects with niche product requirements and act as an integrator. We identified a problem the Australian Air Force had in its precision landing capabilities. We built the project from scratch, sowed the seed with them and nursed it through to a sale.

"East Timor cropped up while this was going on and was the catalyst that really clinched the deal."

Radiola has also signed a threeyear support contract for the TTLS.

Mr Thompson's division of Radiola is also doing work in Western Australia and Bangladesh, all of it in civil aviation.

Military around the world were now showing interest in the TTLS, said Mr Thompson, including the US military, which was considering using it in Antarctica.

Radiola was formed in 1990 with a management buyout of the major part of AWA New Zealand.

The company changed its name three years later.

It employs 40 people, including eight in the defence and aerospace division.