Missing Stealth Data Believed Not in Soviet Hands

The Pentagon today told Congress that it does not believe any secret documents missing from an aircraft plant have fallen into Soviet hands but that it still can’t account for the 1,400 papers.

The documents from a Lockheed Aircraft Corp. plant in Burbank, Calif., reportedly relate to the stealth fighter plane, a project supposedly so secret the Pentagon does not acknowledge its existence.

“We have no information to suggest that the information has been compromised in the sense of being lost to someone on the outside,” Donald Hicks, undersecretary of defense, told a House investigating committee.

At the same time, Hicks admitted that he cannot rule out that possibility.

Hicks said the Pentagon was trying to correct the problem but admitted that there is only one Defense Department employee to oversee security for the 10,000 to 12,000 people who work at the Burbank plant, which also developed the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes.