Dogfight Over ATF Deal Pits Differing Styles

In a windowless, high-security office in Hawthorne with all the ambience of a bank vault, Northrop Vice President Thomas R. Rooney is spending countless hours secretly scribbling numbers on a chalkboard, trying to settle on his final bid for the biggest jet fighter program in history.

The same frenzy of activity is occurring across the basin in Burbank, where Lockheed officials are making preparations to submit their proposal by a Jan. 2 deadline for the full-scale development portion of the Air Force’s advanced tactical fighter program.

With more than $75 billion in future business at stake, the roll of the dice doesn’t get any more grand in the aerospace industry.

The two Southern California firms and their teams have collectively invested $2 billion of stockholders’ funds in the aircraft competition since it began in October, 1986. Lockheed is teamed with General Dynamics and Boeing, while Northrop is teamed with McDonnell Douglas.

The losing team will end up with nothing. So will Southern California, if Lockheed wins, for it will take the project’s thousands of jobs to Marietta, Ga. If Northrop wins, the project will create thousands of jobs in the Southland into the next century.

The rules of the contest were laid out by the Air Force in a massive, five-volume book, issued Nov. 2, asking the firms to submit their final proposals for building the new weapon.

Now, with a climax only a month away, hundreds of aerospace engineers, mechanics and pilots are working long hours, trying to gain a final edge.

Rooney has chucked his suit and tie, appearing for an interview late Monday afternoon in a flannel shirt, clearly fatigued. But he was nonetheless upbeat. “On the technical side, we are very confident,” Rooney said.

Lockheed Vice President Sherman Mullin appeared before a crowded news conference at a fancy hotel the next day in a pin-stripe suit and button-down shirt, extolling the virtues of his firm’s entry in the fighter competition.

The styles of the two vice presidents mirror the differences in external style between the two firms during the past four years. Lockheed has been forward, formal and public relations-oriented about its program. Northrop has been informal, often reticent and extremely cautious about its statements.

Recently, Calabasas-based Lockheed has deluged news organizations with photo packages of its advanced tactical fighter entry, dubbed the YF-22. During a single day this week, the company mailed half a dozen packages of photographs to The Times.

Northrop has made available photos of its aircraft, the YF-23, but has chosen a more modest approach.

Similarly, Lockheed has made frequent lobbying visits to Capitol Hill this year, while Northrop has been virtually silent on the ATF program in Washington, apparently expending its political energy on protecting its B-2 Stealth bomber from congressional budget cutters.

“We are concentrating on our program and letting our airplane doing the talking,” a Northrop spokesman said.

What is known about the two firms’ competing airplanes is a carefully concocted, often confusing set of facts released by the Air Force’s ATF program manager, Brig. Gen. James Fain Jr., who has gained a solid reputation as a news media adversary.

The Northrop aircraft is believed to be somewhat lighter and faster than the Lockheed aircraft. Northrop has said its plane has flown at a maximum speed of Mach 1.8--almost twice the speed of sound--while Lockheed’s plane has flown up to Mach 1.7. Both have flown at an altitude of 50,000 feet.

The ATF will have the capability of cruising supersonically without engine afterburners, devices that devour fuel for extra power. Lockheed has flown its YF-22 equipped with a General Electric jet engine at Mach 1.56 without afterburners but has not yet “supercruised” another model with a Pratt & Whitney engine.

Northrop has supercruised its Pratt & Whitney aircraft at Mach 1.43, but the Air Force has not authorized the company to say how fast its GE-equipped aircraft flew. Many observers believe that Northrop has the fastest supercruise speed of all with its GE engine.

Virtually nothing is known about the comparative capabilities of the aircraft in such key areas as range, turning rate, roll rate, turning radius, radar function, avionics function or weapons systems. And the aircraft’s ability to avoid detection by enemy radar--its stealth quality--is an even bigger unknown.

Northrop has completed testing one of its two YF-23s and will complete testing of the other in a week or so, according to Paul Metz, the company’s chief test pilot. Many observers also credit Northrop with having a better-looking aircraft--a seemingly trivial factor, but one that goes to the heart of an old aircraft-design maxim: “Looks good, flies good.”

“There is no question in my mind that ours is the better-looking airplane,” Metz said.

Lockheed, meanwhile, is emphasizing certain capabilities that Northrop does not plan to demonstrate. For example, the company has test-fired a Sidewinder missile from its YF-22, ejecting the missile from an internal weapons bay. Carrying the bulky missile internally keeps the plane stealthy.

Northrop’s fighter also has internal bays but will not test-fire a missile. Although the Air Force has not required such a demonstration, Lockheed’s Mullin said uncertainties about whether such internal bays will work convinced Lockheed that it should put to rest any worries.

Lockheed Chief Test Pilot David L. Ferguson said the company will continue to fly both of its aircraft through much of December, right up to the cutoff date for submission of data to the Air Force. Lockheed started flying several weeks after Northrop, so it isn’t clear which firm will have more test flights to show.

The Air Force is scheduled to select a winner of the full-scale development contract for the ATF by the end of April, basing its decision on technical merits, cost and management.

Development of the ATF will cost an estimated $10 billion. The development contract will be a cost-plus type of contract, meaning that the firms will be reimbursed for their costs and do not risk losing money.

It remains unclear just which safeguards the Air Force has in place to prevent either Northrop or Lockheed from submitting a “low-ball” cost estimate, because future costs are fully reimbursable.

In interviews, Rooney and Mullin said that the Air Force is knowledgeable about their costs and that they trust the service to make a fair evaluation. But past aircraft programs have demonstrated that the Air Force often doesn’t have a clue as to what aircraft development programs will end up costing.

“We believe the chance of succeeding with a low ball is just not there,” Mullin said. The Air Force had no comment Wednesday.

The other major criterion the Air Force will use in selecting a winner is each firm’s proposals for managing the program.

A leading aerospace industry consultant observed recently that “Northrop has to be realistic” about the likelihood that many of its past problems will be held against it by the Air Force and that some members of Congress could protest if Northrop is selected.

But Rooney observed in an interview that no aerospace firm has been without problems in recent years. Northrop and McDonnell, he added, have more experience in recent aircraft programs than their rivals.

Rooney acknowledged, for example, that Northrop had problems developing its B-2 Stealth bomber. For its part, Lockheed was terminated for cause by the Navy on the massive P-7A patrol aircraft program earlier this year, a far worse consequence than other firms have faced.

“Everybody has their problems,” Rooney said. “There are some people in Congress who would howl if you did anything. You can’t change that. We will do absolutely the best we can.”

Northrop YF-23 1. Composite plastics in prototype air frame: 30% 2. Fastest demonstrated speed to date: Mach 18 3. Wingspan: 43 feet 6 inches 4. Overall length: 67 feet 4 inches 5. Height: 13.9 feet 6. Weight: classified 7. Range: classified 8. Rollrate, turning altitude to date: classified 9. Maximum demonstrated altitude to date: 50,000 feet Total spending by teams and subcons; $1.2 billion The YF-23’s sharply angled tails provide both pitch and directional control. The aircraft has engine exhaust outlets that closely resemble those on the B-2 bomber, apparently to help reduce the so-called thermal signature of the aircraft and to reduce vulnerability to heat-seeking missiles. Lockheed YF-22 1. Composite plastics in prototype air frame: 23% 2. Fastest demonstrated speed to date: Mach 1.7 3. Wingspan: 43 feet 4. Overall length: 64 feet 2 inches 5. Height: 17 feet 9 inches 6. Weight: classified 7. Range: classified 8. Rollrate, turning altitude to date: classified 9. Maximum demonstrated altitude to date: 50,000 feet Total spending by teams and subcons; $1.075 billion The YF-22 features standard vertical and horizontal tail structures and vectored thrust exhaust nozzles on its engines. These provide enhanced pitch control at low speeds, which theoreticallyhelps the aircraft to quickly point its nose and weapons at adversaries.