TRW to Lay Off Up to 300 at Space Sector : Aerospace: Until now, experts presumed that secret programs would be less affected by Pentagon budget cuts.
TRW said Wednesday that a substantial reduction in funding on some of its classified military programs will force it to lay off about 200 to 300 workers at its Space & Defense Sector in Redondo Beach, a signal that the Pentagon’s “black” programs may be under increasing budget pressure.
Until now, many analysts and industry experts had presumed that secret programs would be less affected than conventional weapons programs by defense budget cuts, since secret programs typically support special military needs or intelligence.
But that upbeat assessment is changing.
“Clearly, the tide has shifted and these intelligence and special access programs are going to be looked at more closely than they have been in the past,” said John Pike, director of the space policy project at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, “has been hollering that we spend too much on satellites,” said Pike, who estimates that the United States spends about $5 billion annually on intelligence satellites. That is more than is spent on tanks, strategic bombers or Star Wars.
“The most expensive satellite, a Keyhole, costs about $2 billion, including launch costs--and that’s as much as an aircraft carrier,” Pike said. “But it is a really good satellite.”
Lockheed, rather than TRW, produces the Keyhole satellite.
Calabasas-based Lockheed recently consolidated its Sunnyvale operations, which does a substantial amount of classified military work. Although the overall unit has posted higher sales and profits so far this year, it has had declines in “certain space system and defensive missile activities,” according to Lockheed’s third-quarter report. The operation anticipates making some moderate job reductions next year, a spokeswoman said.
Sen. David Boren (D-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been a strong champion of satellite programs and fought efforts to cut the nation’s commitment to them, Pike said. But in a highly charged political environment to contain defense spending and with a conflict looming in the Middle East, spending on secret programs could be vulnerable.
Robert Costello, former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, said in an interview that the current Middle East crisis has forced Pentagon officials to look closely at expenditures in an effort to increase the direct support of U.S. combat forces.
“If they are not going to cut the visible programs like the B-2 bomber, then somebody is going to take the (politically) easy route and cut the programs nobody can see,” Costello, a senior researcher at the Hudson Institute, said. “With a constrained budget, it is the logical thing to do, but I think it is wrong.”
Indeed, Costello argues that a conventional arms treaty with the Soviet Union will increase rather than reduce the need for strategic reconnaissance systems, despite their high cost. “Surveillance activities have to be supported,” he said.
Cleveland-based TRW said the greatest impact of its layoffs would fall on its Space & Technology group, which produces satellites and other advanced technology products. The firm said it could give no indication of the type or scope of the work being reduced, but that it does not involve any of the firm’s major unclassified satellite programs, such as the Milstar, Defense Support Program or Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System.
Among the firm’s classified programs are believed to be a number of electronic surveillance and infrared spying satellites, as well as payloads for satellites produced by other contractors.
TRW spokeswoman Julie Meier Wright said the company would attempt to find new jobs for some of the workers and that the actual layoffs might be somewhat smaller than currently estimated. The layoffs will not begin until early next year.
TRW’s Space & Defense Sector has eliminated 1,600 jobs nationally this year, including 950 in the Los Angeles area. The firm laid off about 500 of those workers; the balance of the jobs were eliminated through attrition.
As recently as 1987, TRW employed 20,000 workers at its facilities in Redondo Beach and San Bernardino. The firm was forced to lay off 1,000 workers in 1987 when a major secret program was cancelled. It currently employs 15,600 workers in the two locations.
