House Backs C-17 Project, in Boost for Southland

In a decision crucial to the future of the C-17 cargo jet program, the House voted, 330 to 100, Tuesday to authorize production of six McDonnell Douglas C-17 planes, restoring production of two aircraft that had been deleted in a previous committee action.

An estimated 6,000 jobs in Southern California would have been lost if the two additional aircraft were not restored. In addition, the House action blunted efforts to force the Pentagon to buy existing commercial jets as an alternative to the C-17, which would have seriously undercut the future of the program.

Air Force Undersecretary Rudy de Leon said in an interview that the House vote was an important endorsement of the Pentagon’s plan to put McDonnell Douglas on probation and measure over the next two years whether the company can correct longstanding problems at its Long Beach plant.

“We really want to put the C-17 on a solid profile so we can judge whether McDonnell Douglas can produce at cost and on schedule,” de Leon said.

The orders for the extra aircraft came on an amendment offered by a California congressman, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey). A member of the House Armed Services Committee, she has lobbied for the planes this week with help from McDonnell Douglas, organized labor, defense officials and the White House.

The House vote also marked one of the first times that the California congressional delegation formed a voting bloc to support a defense program in the state, a major departure from past years when weapons programs attracted weak support from California Democrats.

The C-17 is assembled at McDonnell Douglas’ massive complex in Long Beach, supporting 10,000 jobs at the plant and another 8,000 at subcontractors around Southern California. Nationally, about 30,000 jobs are tied to the aircraft’s production, now the Pentagon’s largest program.

Harman, who overcame opposition to the C-17 from Armed Services Chairman Ronald V. Dellums (D-Oakland), said that the House vote represents an important victory for California’s tattered defense industry and makes sense for national security.

The C-17 has long been controversial. McDonnell is an estimated $1.6 billion over budget on the aircraft program and has experienced a long series of embarrassing technical problems, including the failure of C-17 wings to meet strength requirements.

Under a complex settlement dealing with those problems, the Pentagon said it would put McDonnell Douglas on probation for two years but agreed to increase production of the C-17 aircraft so the company could prove that it had improved its efficiency.

With Dellums support, the Armed Services Committee voted earlier this month to cut the Pentagon’s request for six aircraft to four and ordered that the money be used to begin purchases of an existing cargo jet, such as the Boeing 747, the Lockheed C-5B or the McDonnell Douglas MD-11.

The decision would have derailed the settlement and possibly plunged the Defense Department and McDonnell Douglas into a protracted legal dispute.

The Harman amendment Tuesday, however, did not include $348 million needed under the settlement to pay McDonnell for its claims against the government. It also did not include legislative language approving the settlement. De Leon said that those issues will be dealt with in Senate legislation and in conference later this year.

Separately, the House rejected an amendment that would have delayed the next round of military base closings by two years.