Congress Greets Northrop CEO With Anger
Northrop Chairman Kent Kresa was met with contempt Friday in his first appearance before Congress since becoming the embattled firm’s chief executive.
Kresa announced that Northrop would provide free of charge 110 badly needed gyroscopes for Marine Corps jet fighters. But the gesture, worth about $300,000, did little to placate members of the House Government Operations Committee, which is investigating Northrop.
Kresa said he accepts “responsibility for past failures of individuals and of management oversight” but portrayed the company as striving “to correct our weaknesses” and asked that the company’s contributions “on behalf of the defense of this country” be considered.
For the next several hours, however, committee members attacked the firm as a “corporate criminal” and for having a “culture of deceit.”
“We keep hearing about the new Northrop, but I keep seeing the old Northrop,” committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said.
Meanwhile, witnesses from the Air Force and Boeing told the committee that 1,700 nuclear-armed cruise missiles are still using Northrop gyroscopes that could freeze in operational use because they don’t meet a cold-temperature requirement.
The gyroscopes, which are used in a stabilization device called a flight data transmitter, are filled with a fluid that freezes at between minus-40 degrees and minus-55 degrees Fahrenheit. The flight data transmitter is supposed to operate at high altitude at minus-65 degrees.
The potential for the fluid--known as DC-200--to freeze was first identified by Northrop in 1983 in a report written by a vice president, but the report was not provided to Boeing, the missile’s prime contractor, or to the Air Force.
Two top Northrop executives, Joseph Yamron and Leopold Engler, were indicted on criminal charges in the matter, but the Justice Department dropped the charges earlier this year when Northrop pleaded guilty to 34 other felony counts.
Boeing Vice President Arlington Carter said, “It is shocking that (Northrop) would have a document in 1983 that showed the . . . fluid would not meet the specification.”
Asked why Northrop failed to give the report to Boeing, Kresa said his efforts to get answers have turned up “various and sundry reasons.” The matter was not viewed as a problem, he added.
It finally became public only after the start of a federal investigation; in early 1988 Northrop belatedly notified Boeing of the problem.
Jack Jones, the Air Force’s civilian supervisor for engineering on the cruise missile, testified that Northrop’s stabilization device for the missile still does not meet specifications and must be fixed.
Nonetheless, Jones said the Air Force is seeking to buy more of the Northrop gyroscopes, because the Los Angeles-based company is the sole producer and the Air Force needs about 48 a year for spare parts. Even though the Northrop division that produces the gyroscopes is under a contract suspension, the Air Force has sought a waiver of the suspension, Jones said.
Justice Department officials blame Jones, however, for relaxing the cold temperature standards and undermining the prosecution of the two Northrop executives.
