Point Mugu May Again Face Scrutiny Next Year : Military: Despite a possible ’96 threat, experts believe the facility emerged stronger for surviving the tough inspection by the base-closing commission.

Although Point Mugu survived the final cut before the base-closing commission last week, the Navy base will very likely face scrutiny again next year if the Pentagon is forced to consolidate its weapons-testing centers.

Legislation is halfway through Congress that would order the Pentagon to come up with a five-year plan to merge its laboratories and testing facilities.

The threat this time would come from Air Force generals, not independent commissioners, as Point Mugu and its sister base at China Lake in the Mojave Desert are pitted against Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. These three bases are the Pentagon’s leading test centers for air-launched missiles and other weaponry.

“Congress feels there is a need for us to get smaller,” said Adm. Dana B. McKinney, commanding officer of Point Mugu and China Lake. “This round is over, but we have not seen the end of these conflicts.”

Yet McKinney and other military experts believe that Point Mugu emerged stronger for enduring--and even shining--through the tough, wire-brush inspection by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

After six weeks of close financial scrutiny and long inspection tours, the commissioners heaped praise on Point Mugu and its work force. The commission’s chairman even admitted “we goofed” by targeting the base in the first place.

“There is no doubt in my mind that as painful and stressful as this process was, Point Mugu would have been much more vulnerable inside the Pentagon than if we hadn’t gone through this,” said Lynn Jacquez, a Washington lobbyist for a Ventura County task force of Point Mugu supporters.

Before commissioners put the base on its closure list, she said, “Half of the world hadn’t heard of Point Mugu. But, by God, they know how to spell it now. It has been turned into a national treasure.”

Furthermore, the commission put to rest a controversial Pentagon inspector general report that has haunted the base with its conclusion that taxpayers could save $1.7 billion by shutting down most of Point Mugu and moving its operations to China Lake.

Commissioner Benjamin F. Montoya said he added Point Mugu to the hit list so he could nail down the inspector general’s claims. In the end, the commission’s staff members concluded that the year-old report was obsolete because of streamlining between the two bases.

“The commission did us a favor,” McKinney said, “by repudiating that document.”

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In targeting Point Mugu, the commission also brought together a strong contingent of defenders from the community, Congress and ultimately the military.

“It was a coordinated team effort like none I’ve ever seen before,” said Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn. “To have two U.S. senators, two congressmen and all of these community supporters, it was very impressive. And the Navy coming in at the 11th hour was liking putting Magic Johnson on the team.”

Navy Secretary John H. Dalton told commissioners that Point Mugu is “a critical national asset,” and top Navy brass rushed to the base’s defense.

Commission staff member Les Farrington, who brought the inspector general report to the attention of the commissioners, said the Navy’s message was abundantly clear.

“The Navy feels strongly about keeping Point Mugu,” Farrington said. “If I didn’t get any other message, I got that one.”

Within Ventura County, the threat of Point Mugu’s closure cemented a relationship between base officials and business leaders. Both Navy and civilian leaders say they want to build on their new partnership.

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“The base gates used to be locked and that was that,” said Carolyn Leavens, chairwoman of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn. “Now the whole process is wide open. We have wonderful relations; we’re on a first-name basis with the people who make a difference over there.”

Leavens has been co-leader of the pro-base lobby called the BRAC ’95 Task Force. She said the group is going to change its name and its emphasis. In addition to helping Point Mugu line up defense work from bases that are slated to close, the group also wants to tap into the base’s wealth of expertise and technology.

Leavens said business leaders will work with the Navy and Cal State University leaders to set up a curriculum at the planned campus in Camarillo to create high-tech courses needed to train workers in the 21st Century.

Capt. Roger Hull, vice commander of Point Mugu, said he welcomes a close relationship with business and civil leaders. “It is in everybody’s interest to bring more work to the base or sharing technology.”

But he cautioned that there are limits. “We just can’t work together on political issues,” Hull said. “We cannot take positions that could run counter to the senior leadership of the Navy.”

The community task force was initially suspicious of Point Mugu’s leaders because they did not join in the lobbying campaign to protect Ventura County’s bases from being targeted for closure.

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Adding to the concern was China Lake’s history of locking onto programs and jobs from Point Mugu in recent years as the two bases have merged into one organization: the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division.

“We have been concerned about the continual migration of jobs to China Lake,” said Bill Simmons, executive director of the BRAC ’95 Task Force.

In a written victory speech last week, Adm. McKinney thanked community boosters for working hard to protect the base and explained the constraints that prevented his early participation.

“I’m sorry that I was not permitted to demonstrate my support of Point Mugu earlier in the process,” McKinney wrote, “but once the commission proposed a scenario which was contradictory to the position of the [Defense Department], the wraps came off.”

McKinney said he was pleased that employees at both bases under his command pulled together to support Point Mugu. “It had a lot to do with the final outcome.”

Even though Point Mugu was spared, Ventura County’s largest employer will continue to lose jobs under the 4% across-the-board budget reductions required through 1999.

Base officials hope that Navy leaders will infuse the base with new programs and jobs from other bases ordered to close. Privately, they express concern about Point Mugu’s workload that consists mostly of modifying missiles and other weaponry for older planes, such as the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet that is scheduled to go out of service in 15 to 20 years.

Once the F-14 is retired, it would cut deeply into Point Mugu’s work force, leaving the base with less to do and more vulnerable to consolidation with other bases.

Military experts generally agree there are too many missile-testing ranges and too many test and evaluation centers among the armed services. And most acknowledge that further consolidation may have to blur those traditional lines that separate the Army, Navy and Air Force.

So far, the Defense Department has been unwilling to venture into these cross-service mergers.

But legislation passed by the House of Representatives and now being weighed by the U.S. Senate could force the first such consolidation. If the Pentagon fails to come up with a plan to consolidate laboratories and test centers, the legislation would withhold a portion of the Defense Department budget.

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Navy officials are closely following the legislation’s progress and gearing up for an internal Pentagon skirmish that would pit Point Mugu and its missile-testing range over the Pacific Ocean against Eglin Air Force Base and its test range in the Gulf of Mexico.

McKinney said Point Mugu and other Navy test centers would do well in the competition if Defense Department officials weigh the total costs.

The Navy regularly shrinks its work force if the workload drops, but the Air Force props up its ranges with subsidies, he said.

“The big story that has not been touched on is the huge amount of subsidies that the Air Force plows into its test and evaluation sites and the staggering cost to the taxpayers,” McKinney said. “I feel very confident we would be able to beat them big time.”