Northrop Ousts 2 Officers Amid Missile Probe : In Separate Action, FBI, Air Force Begin Inquiry Into Testing at Pomona

Northrop removed two key executives Thursday at its division producing MX missile guidance equipment, the result of serious management problems at the Hawthorne operation that have led to two congressional investigations and a suspension of MX payments to the company by the Air Force.

The aerospace company identified the two executives as General Manager Gene Hauser and John Roehrig, the division’s vice president for finance. They reportedly will be demoted, but a company statement said only that their “future assignments . . . have not yet been announced.”

Separately, the FBI and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations have begun an inquiry into allegations that Northrop improperly tested guidance devices for the air-launched cruise missile at the company’s Western Services Department in Pomona, congressional sources said Thursday.

Northrop issued a statement Thursday, saying it was removing the Pomona plant manager and three other employees there, “pending the outcome of an investigation begun last week into possible irregularities in the testing of electronic components at the Pomona facility.” The names of the four were not made public.

‘Questions of Confidence’

A device called an “attitude-stabilization unit” for the cruise missile is the equipment that has been called into question. Four of the devices have failed in recent tests and hundreds of them may have never been fully tested, one source said.

Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a hand-delivered letter Thursday to Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge Jr., saying: “the allegations raise questions of confidence in the ALCM system in particular and Northrop in general.”

The FBI and Air Force probes were apparently started when an employee contacted investigators in February. A Northrop spokesman said the company disclosed its knowledge of the problem to the Air Force after an internal investigation that it started last week.

The ALCM is a key part of the U.S. nuclear force, providing B-52 and B-1 bombers with the capability of delivering nuclear weapons to targets from hundreds of miles away. Armed Services Committee sources suggested that the problems with the Northrop equipment could compromise the ability of the missiles to hit their targets.

‘Management Lapses’

Meanwhile, in the MX controversy, the removal of Hauser and Roehrig came amid increasing pressure from the investigations and from Air Force officials seeking to improve Northrop’s performance. The company is about four months behind schedule delivering a key guidance device, called an inertial measurement unit, for the MX missile.

Northrop Chairman Thomas V. Jones issued a statement Thursday saying: “The (electronics) division has experienced management lapses and errors in judgment in the administration of its practices and procedures.”

Roehrig was involved in the use of fictitious companies to purchase parts with petty cash for the MX missile test equipment, Northrop internal documents show. For example, in a May 30, 1985, internal memo obtained by The Times, Roehrig instructed a Northrop subordinate manager to “credit any interest gained on subject petty cash account to Northrop Corporation.”

The activities of the fictitious companies have proven highly embarrassing to Northrop and were labeled as “dumb” by Air Force Gen. Lawrence A. Skantze at a congressional hearing earlier this week.

Jones said Thursday that he is “changing the division’s management procedures and practices wherever necessary to make sure they comply with the operating standards set by our customers.”

Problems at Northrop regarding the MX guidance system were disclosed in a Times story in October, 1986, when it was reported that the company was far behind schedule, was under a partial suspension of contract payments and was allegedly turning out defective guidance systems.

Vigorous Denials

Allegations about rampant problems were made by three former Northrop employees, who were called to testify in hearings last month before the House Armed Services Committee.

Through it all, Northrop has vigorously denied that its MX guidance systems are flawed but it continues to be dogged by reports of problems, and congressional investigators are continuing to accumulate evidence.

A Northrop spokesman denied a report Thursday that the company had shut down its hybrid electronics laboratory in Hawthorne and would make no comment on another report that engineers inside the company had disputed the reliability of the company’s test procedures.

Claim of Accuracy

The company says it is exceeding the Air Force’s reliability requirements for the inertial measurement units and that its guidance equipment is providing greater-than-expected accuracy in MX tests.

But an attorney representing the three former employees, who are suing Northrop on behalf of the government, said Thursday that he will disprove those statements in his lawsuits. The three are all engineers.

“Northrop is so proud of the MX equipment and its reliability that it’s ousted the managers responsible for it,” Robert Kilborne, the attorney representing the three, said ironically. “Who cares what management changes they make? The faulty guidance systems are still in the missiles.”