Air Force’s Plant 42 May Face Closure : Military: The only California facility is among eight nationwide to be studied.

In a move that sent shivers throughout the Antelope Valley, Air Force officials confirmed Wednesday that they have begun a review of the prospects of closing the service’s eight remaining government-owned production plants across the country, including Plant 42 in Palmdale.

Air Force officials, stressing that no additional plant closures are imminent, called the review the latest in a series of “what-if” studies spurred by post-Cold War defense cutbacks. And an Air Force spokesman said he knew of no timeline for any recommendations from the review.

But the news of the Air Force study still was enough to make some Antelope Valley officials jittery. Plant 42, the 5,700-acre test and production facility where aircraft such as the B-2 bomber are built, is the region’s second largest employer with about 8,000 people, behind Edwards Air Force Base.

“I don’t think we can take it as just one of those things. It’s a flag that’s now out there,” said Lancaster Mayor Arnie Rodio, adding that local leaders once again need to stress Plant 42’s importance to the Air Force and Congress.

But Howard Brooks, executive director of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, took a less worried stance, noting that Plant 42 has survived Air Force reviews in the past. “It sounds to me like they’re just doing their homework, that’s all,” Brooks said.

The Air Force confirmed the review after news media in the Antelope Valley were leaked a copy of the service’s Sept. 15 memo, which cast an ominous tone. It asked program managers at the eight government-owned, contractor-operated plants (GOCOs) for impacts and cost estimates associated with closures.

A separate Air Force statement said the service “has initiated a divestiture program” that seeks to either 1) sell the plants to their current operators; 2) transfer them to other federal agencies; 3) lease them to contractors; 4) declare them excess, or 5) close them.

Plant 42 is the only California plant on the list. The other facilities are Plant 3 in Tulsa, Okla.; Plant 4 in Fort Worth; Plant 6 in Marietta, Ga.; Plant 44 in Tucson; Plant 59 in Binghamton, N.Y.; a plant in Denver; and Plant 78 in Brigham City, Utah.

Unlike traditional Air Force bases where active military units are housed, the Air Force plants are government-owned installations where private contractors--such as Northrop Corp., Rockwell International and Lockheed’s Skunk Works in Palmdale--do government work.

Saying declining defense budgets in recent years have left the Air Force short of money to maintain the plants, the memo states, “Our efforts to sell or lease the plants have thus far not been successful. Therefore, as a contingency, we must plan for closure of the GOCO facilities.”

The memo asked program managers to “assume plant closure in the shortest time possible and define the time required to accomplish program relocation or termination.” The memo set a Sept. 28 deadline for responses from officials at the various plants, but that has since been extended to Oct. 29.

Col. Patrick Mullaney, a spokesman for the Air Force’s Aeronautical Systems Center in Ohio, which oversees the plants, said the Air Force “ultimately would like to be out of the plant business” for cost reasons. But he added, “There are probably some places where we won’t be able to do that.”

Brooks, for instance, said many of the Air Force plants have only one program and one contractor, and many lack their own airfields. In contrast, Plant 42 has three major contractors, half a dozen programs, and its own airfield that also is used by commercial airlines serving Palmdale.

The Air Force had a vast number of plants across the country developed during the World War II era. Since then, Air Force officials said, about 100 of those have been sold off. Only 11 now remain--the eight being reviewed, plus three others already due to close or be transferred to other services.

Under current projections, Mullaney said the Air Force by the end of the decade will be only about 60% of its size during the late 1980s. “As we draw down, we have to look if it’s cost-effective to keep government-owned plants,” he said. “This is not a new issue. We have explored it before.”

A Look at Plant 42 * Plant 42 is the Air Force’s 5,700-acre test and production facility in Palmdale. About 8,000 people work there, mostly for private aircraft contractors, making the plant the second largest employer in the Antelope Valley behind Edwards Air Force Base.

* Major programs and tenants include Northrop Corp.’s B-2 assembly operation, Lockheed Advanced Development Co.’s work modifying the F-117A stealth fighter and U-2 spy plane, and Rockwell International’s space shuttle modification site.

* Located east of Sierra Highway between Avenues M and P, the plant was a military airfield during World War II, later was mostly abandoned, and finally became an Air Force installation for contractors in the early 1950s, a role it has served ever since.