Northrop Missile Delayed 9 Months

A new missile being designed by Northrop Corp. to loiter over a battlefield and destroy enemy radars when they are turned on has been delayed by nine months because of poor workmanship, the Air Force said Thursday.

Although a preliminary March 2 test by the Los Angeles-based company “went fine,” an Air Force spokesman said development has been delayed because of “workmanship problems.”

The spokesman said Northrop is scheduled to perform three flight tests in the next couple of months, after which the Air Force will begin its own test and evaluation series. A production decision probably will be made in 1989, he said.

A request in January for industry proposals for a company to be a second production source is unrelated to Northrop’s problems, the spokesman said. He said two producers had always been planned because of the volume and length of production projected for the missile program, called Tacit Rainbow.

He said no production costs were available because, until recently, Tacit Rainbow was a highly secret “black” weapons program.

Designed for launch from F-16 fighter, EF-111 electronic warfare and B-52 bomber aircraft, the Tacit Rainbow remotely piloted vehicle will have a range of more than 200 miles.