Southland Jobs on the Line in Bush Defense Plan : * Military: Several Southern California companies are working on systems the President singled out. But the B-2 Stealth bomber and “Star Wars” get renewed support.
President Bush’s sweeping proposal Friday to reduce sharply the nation’s nuclear arms arsenal could send tremors through Southern California’s beleaguered defense industry, though some major Southland projects--notably the B-2 stealth bomber and “Star Wars” strategic defense systems--won the President’s continuing support.
The major proposed policy change--cutting short-range land- and sea-based nuclear weapons, land-based ballistic nuclear missiles and the rail-borne MX missile--could have the greatest effect on these Southland defense companies:
* General Dynamics’ San Diego-based Convair Division, which employs about 2,000 workers in the manufacture of Tomahawk cruise missiles, some of which carry nuclear warheads. Bush singled out nuclear Tomahawks for reductions.
General Dynamics spokeswoman Julie Andrews declined to detail what percentage of Tomahawks are nuclear-capable or to comment on Bush’s proposal. General Dynamics has already delivered 1,200 of the missiles to the Navy.
Defense Department officials earlier had said that the Navy intended to purchase 4,000 Tomahawks from General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas, which have shared the annual Navy Allotment of Tomahawks since 1984. The missiles are deployed on U.S. Navy surface ships and submarines.
* Rockwell International Corp.’s Autonetics Strategic Systems Division in Anaheim. The operation provides systems integration, logistical support and electronic components for three intercontinental ballistic missiles systems: the Minuteman III, the Midgetman and the fixed MX, said Rockwell spokeswoman Christine Rodriguez.
The company’s Command and Control Systems Center in San Bernardino provides the launch control system for the rail-borne mobile MX missile system.
Bush’s proposal specifically called for an end to development of the rail-based MX, a program rejected by the Senate the day before. Bush also called for eventual elimination of all U.S. ground-based ballistic missiles with multiple warheads, which would include the Minuteman III. Bush’s proposal would apparently spare the single-warhead Midgetman.
Rodriguez declined to comment on how Bush’s proposals may affect Rockwell’s work. Rockwell’s ties to the Pentagon have already been slashed in half with the end of the B-1 bomber program. Rockwell officials also declined to comment on Bush’s speech Friday night.
* TRW’s Space and Defense Sector, which does some work in San Bernardino on the fixed MX missile system. “It’s too early to make any predictions. We’re going to have to wait to see how this works,” said TRW spokesman John Booth after the President’s speech.
Likely unaffected would be TRW’s Redondo Beach operation, which is the prime contractor on the Star Wars “brilliant pebbles” anti-ballistic missile system and also does some work on the B-2 bomber.
The President’s proposals would apparently spare Lockheed Corp., whose Sunnyvale aerospace unit is the prime contractor for the Navy’s submarine-launched Trident II ballistic missile program, which is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
About 4,200 employees work in Sunnyvale on fleet ballistic missile programs, including the Trident II. This year, the company won a $757-million contract to build 52 of the missiles, with three-quarters of that money to be spent in Sunnyvale, a spokesman said.
A proposal from the White House for major cuts in defense spending couldn’t come at a worse time for the region’s defense industry, hard-hit by earlier reductions and corporate defections to neighboring states. Employment has been falling steadily in the defense industry here, and another 38,000 jobs may disappear by the end of 1993, according to a forecast by UCLA.
But the President’s proposals mentioned no cuts in either the controversial B-2 stealth bomber program or the strategic defense initiative, better known as Star Wars, and that comes as good news for the region’s industry.
The details of the Administration plan should offer particular relief for Northrop Corp., which is developing the B-2 stealth bomber as well as a stealth air-launched cruise missile . The so-called called tri-service standoff attack missile, or TSSAM, is intended to carry a conventional warhead. Congress continues to mull the future of the B-2.
Bush’s speech “tells me he’s a strong supporter of SDI,” said Alan Kolb, chairman of Maxwell Laboratories, a San Diego-based company that is developing technology for “hypervelocity electric guns” that could be used to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.
“He’s saying we have to make conventional weapons smarter,” Kolb said. “He’s saying we have to develop a non-nuclear defense” against ballistic missiles. As for Star Wars, virtually all major defense contractors in Southern California have a piece of the multifaceted program, analysts said. Robert Paulson, head of aerospace consulting for McKinsey & Co. in Los Angeles, estimated that the various SDI programs, as well as the B-2 stealth bomber program, account for as many as 40,000 jobs in the state.
“And there’s a multiplier effect,” he added, referring to the number of jobs created in the general economy by defense industry activity. “About 1.5 people are supporting every aerospace prime contractor worker: subcontractors, bankers, the local druggist.”
Science Applications International Corp., a San Diego-based high-technology company, is a “major subcontractor” to General Electric for an SDI program. The company is paired with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan. Other U.S. subcontractors on the project include McDonnell Douglas, Raytheon, Boeing Aerospace and Lockheed.
The firm also is involved with research into an “electromagnetic gun” intended to replace a ballistic missile defense system. And SAIC is developing technology to help distinguish incoming re-entry vehicles.
SAIC has about 400 employees, largely at East Coast facilities, at work on SDI-related work, according to SAIC Vice President Stephen Lockwood.
San Diego-based Titan Corp. has about 30 employees involved in SDI research at a government facility in Huntsville, Ala.
Bush’s support for SDI projects could be beneficial to Titan, which is “competing for an add-on to that (Huntsville) contract right now,” said Titan Corp. President Gene Ray. “We need a limited defense system . . . not the impenetrable shield that Reagan wanted. . . . We do need to worry about small nuclear attacks, whether accidental or otherwise.”
Ray maintains that a limited defense system is needed “because we saw how effective it was in Iran.”
“SDI is something that all the companies in the industry have pursued with great vigor, and (cuts) would affect everybody,” said John N. Simon, senior vice president and industry analyst, with Seidler Amdec Securities in Los Angeles.
The companies with perhaps the biggest stake in Star Wars programs include Rockwell, Lockheed, TRW and Hughes Aircraft.
Rockwell is involved in support for several SDI programs, primarily space-based interceptor systems, a spokesman said.
At Lockheed, technicians successfully completed tests of the ERIS missile, a Patriot-type interceptor designed to blow up incoming missiles in space. Study also is under way on the so-called THAAD missile, another interceptor that would target incoming air-borne cruise missiles or aircraft.
Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo is building the prototype LEAP, or lightweight exoatmospheric projectile. In addition, the company acts as an electronics subcontractor on other SDI systems.
Whatever the President’s policy dictates, “We anticipate a continual reduction in the amount of defense money available, at least by 5% a year,” said Hughes spokesman Richard Dore.
Times staff writer Greg Johnson in San Diego contributed to this story.
How Southland Aerospace Firms Would Fare
President Bush’s outline of a global revamping of American defenses appears to spell cutbacks for a handful of Southern California’s major aerospace programs, but sustained activity for most others. Here is a first impression of the likely impact of the President’s plan:
Company Project Status General Dynamics Convair Division Tomahawk nuclear cruise missile Cutbacks Hughes Aircraft B-2 Stealth bomber radar Survives Air defense systems Survives Military satellites Survives Lockheed Trident II ballistic missile Survives Theater High-Altitude Defense system Survives Northrop B-2 Stealth bomber Survives Stealth cruise missile Survives Rockwell Rail-based MX missile systems Canceled International SDI-related systems Survives Minuteman III missile systems Cutbacks Science Applications International SDI-related systems Survives TRW SDI-related systems Survives
