MX Reported Delayed by Late Northrop Deliveries

The Air Force has slowed down its MX program, leaving it with fewer operational missiles, because of late deliveries and shortages of a key guidance mechanism built by Northrop Corp., congressional sources said Tuesday.

In a letter to Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, the Air Force said it has “decided to put only a portion of the missiles being turned over to SAC (the Strategic Air Command) on alert status.”

The letter is the first indication that Northrop’s problems in building the complex guidance system are having an impact on the MX program, which is expected to come under renewed congressional attack in the current round of defense budget cuts.

The Pentagon suspended contract payments to the Los Angeles aerospace firm on the MX contract last February because it had not met delivery schedules. So far, $40 million has been withheld.

By the end of March, Northrop was supposed to have delivered 52 guidance devices, called inertial measuring units or IMUs. However, it had delivered only 31 of the basketball-sized instruments that guide the MX by that time, according to the Air Force’s Ballistic Missile Office in San Bernardino.

The new disclosure that the operational status of the MX system has been slowed increases the gravity of the schedule problem, the congressional sources said. The Air Force letter said the slowdown in MX implementation was undertaken so there will be adequate numbers of spare guidance units “in times of national need”--language that raises national security issues.

So far, the Air Force has 17 MX missiles deployed in silos at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, according to Air Force spokesmen at the Strategic Air Command. Congress has approved the deployment of 50 of the missiles, half the number originally sought by President Reagan.

The Air Force letter to Aspin, dated April 22 and signed by Maj. Gen. Michael C. Kerby, the Air Force director of legislative liaison, does not say how much plans for the MX have been slowed. But the letter said that by December, 1988, the Air Force would be back on schedule with all 50 missiles deployed.

The number of missiles on so-called “alert status,” which means that they are ready to fly at a moment’s notice, is held secret. However, not all of the 17 missiles in silos are always on alert. Kerby said in the letter that the delay in putting MX missiles on alert will continue “until IMU delivery rates are recovered.”

Behind Schedule

Predicting when those delivery rates will be back on schedule has proven to be difficult for the Air Force. Northrop has been behind schedule since early last year and has raised the ire of Air Force officials more than once because of its persistent problems. The firm had overrun its cost-plus-type contract to develop the IMU by $65 million as of last year.

A Northrop spokesman said Tuesday that he could not comment on the Air Force’s letter to Aspin. “I don’t have any information on their deployment schedule,” he said. An Air Force spokesman added that he had no information on the letter.

Northrop has said that deliveries of IMUs have fallen behind schedule because suppliers of some key components have not met their delivery schedules. The company has also assigned additional senior management to the program.

Civil Suit Filed

A former Northrop engineer, Brian Hyatt, who filed a civil suit against the firm last year under the federal False Claims Act, has alleged that Northrop’s manufacturing processes are flawed. Northrop has disputed Hyatt’s allegations, saying that the IMU units delivered to the Air Force have met or exceeded all contract specifications. Those specifications, as well as Northrop’s performance, are classified.

The MX is one of the nation’s most lethal weapons, carrying 10 nuclear warheads, and has been the most controversial strategic weapon deployed during the Reagan Administration.

Critics have held that it is vulnerable to a first-strike Soviet attack because it is deployed in Minuteman missile silos that are easy targets. An earlier plan for mobile basing of the MX was abandoned and newer plans for a railroad-type basing system are encountering opposition.

Reduction Sought

House Armed Services Committee members are known to be looking into Northrop’s production problems. Rep. Nicholas Mavroules (D-Mass.), a longstanding opponent of the MX, tried unsuccessfully in the committee to reduce MX funding for fiscal 1988 from the 21 missiles requested by the Reagan Administration to 12. (Some of the missiles would be used in test flights and some would be part of the 50 missiles to be eventually deployed.)