Stolen Defense Parts: Stemming the Tide, Following the Ring : Congressional Inquiries Set on Supply System

A congressional investigation into the security of the defense supply system was announced Monday after fresh disclosures on the disappearance of equipment from the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.

“The American taxpayer is being robbed and national security is being threatened by these actions,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) in a statement disclosing that the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on sea power, of which he is a member, will conduct hearings on possible new safeguards for the massive supply system.

His announcement came one day after The Times reported details of supply system abuses that were detected by a Navy auditor who was reassigned from the Kitty Hawk after threats on his life, and one week after federal authorities in San Diego disclosed that they had cracked an international ring that had diverted stolen Navy equipment to Iran. The smuggled equipment included sophisticated parts for the F-14 Tomcat fighter and components for the Navy’s Phoenix missile system, according to a federal affidavit describing the stolen material as among “the most sophisticated combat weaponry known to the Free World.”

In a letter to Rep. Charles Bennett (D-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee on sea power, Hunter said past congressional investigations have centered on waste and overspending in the procurement of spare parts and “it’s time we addressed the system accountable for such spare parts once they are purchased.”

“If $5-million worth of F-14 parts can be stolen from one aircraft carrier,” Hunter said, “imagine the potential for abuse that exists Navywide and throughout the Department of Defense.”

An aide to Bennett confirmed that the subcommittee “plans to have some sort of investigation” on the supply system and said hearings probably would be held in September or October. Hunter said the hearings should evaluate the security of the supply system, explore modernization of the defense logistics computer network and examine “establishment of a local-level security program to monitor supplies more carefully.”

A House Armed Services investigations subcommittee headed by Rep. Bill Nichols (D-Ala.) already has been conducting a preliminary inquiry based in part on information supplied by Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego), who said Monday that he welcomes any congressional investigation into abuses in the supply system.

“I’m willing to work with Hunter if he wants to get into these things,” Bates said.

Earlier this year, Nichols’ and Bennett’s subcommittees conducted joint hearings on problems in military procurement, including questionable claims by contractors for such payments as country club fees and political contributions, but a Nichols aide said Monday that similar joint hearings on the supply system are unlikely.

Federal investigators last weekend received extensive details of disarray in the Kitty Hawk’s supply system from Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Jackson, who was an auditor on the carrier. In his 25-page statement and also 1,100 pages of documents, also obtained by The Times, Jackson cited wide-scale instances of fraud, theft and waste, including cases where sailors dumped equipment overboard so that they would not have to do the paper work necessary to return surplus supplies.