Brunswick Protests Award of Pact to Israel : Defense: Firm’s Costa Mesa division complains that Navy decision to give Israeli group a $21.9-million contract to build aircraft decoys may cost 200 local jobs.

Brunswick Defense Corp.’s division here has filed a protest against the Navy’s decision to award an Israeli defense company a $21.9-million contract to build aircraft decoys.

The loss of the contract could mean 200 layoffs for Brunswick, a subsidiary of Brunswick Defense in Skokie, Ill., and at 31 other, smaller subcontractors across Southern California, company officials said.

Brunswick filed a protest this month after it learned that the Navy chose to award the contract for the Tactical Air-Launched Decoy to Israel Military Industries, the largest contractor in Israel. The decoys were used successfully in the Persian Gulf War last year.

The contract, which the two companies had shared since 1986, has been suspended until the protest is reviewed by the Naval Air Systems Command. Navy officials would not comment.

A loss could further shrink Brunswick’s payroll, which in the past two years has decreased from about 300 employees to 170.

“This hurts because a significant amount of our base is dependent on this contract,” Pat Walsh, an administrative officer at Brunswick, said. “It means local jobs.”

Brunswick management has also complained about the award to elected officials, including Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), and the General Accounting Office, Congress’ watchdog. Walsh said the company is asking why the Navy is propping up a foreign company.

Brunswick won an award to design the decoys in 1986 and was asked by the Navy to teach IMI, as a second source, how to make the devices. The companies thereafter shared several other Navy contracts. In the previous decoy pact, Brunswick manufactured 80% of the order.

Brunswick said the Navy failed to consider that costs to the U.S. government and taxpayers will amount to $7 million because of IMI’s higher operating and transportation costs.

IMI will manufacture about 1,480 of the decoys, which are dropped from military aircraft such as the A-10 attack plane to fool enemy radar. IMI, a state-owned company, has laid off thousands of employees and suffered heavy losses in the past year.

Had Brunswick won the contract, Walsh said, it would have been worth more than $15 million to local subcontractors.

John Covert, president of J&D; Products, a small military contractor in Oceanside, said his nine-person company might have to lay off several employees because of the loss of the contract.

“It’s a shame to see jobs go overseas at this time,” he said.

Bernard Stickland, a subcontractor for Brunswick and owner of Stickland Industries in Riverside, was even more outspoken. He said he isn’t sure if he will have to close his four-person machine shop, which once employed 15.

“It just seems ridiculous,” he said. “I can understand if we want to help other countries, but shouldn’t we try to help Americans as well with our own tax dollars?”