Missile Base Is on an Upward Trajectory
As a 36-year Air Force veteran, Lt. Gen. Eugene L. Tattini knows adversity, but there was nothing quite like the first day on the job as commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo.
Even before he could sit down in his office, a Titan IV rocket exploded during liftoff scattering a $1-billion spy satellite over the Atlantic Ocean in one of the costliest failures in space history. And that was only the beginning.
Over the next year between 1998 and 1999, the rocket industry was rocked by five more spectacular failures, placing Tattini and the nation’s largest developer and buyer of rockets and satellites under intense congressional and Pentagon scrutiny.
But on Friday there was little reminder of those tumultuous times as Tattini handed off command to a new leader, leaving behind nearly 5,000 military and civilian employees emboldened by a recovery that has included 20 consecutive launches without a hitch.
“They’re back on their feet and a lot of the credit can go to Tattini and his team,” said Charles Vick, a senior space policy analyst with the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists.
Moreover, Tattini is departing as a major Air Force reorganization in recent weeks left the base with increased purchasing clout, a move that was seen as a vote of confidence by the Pentagon’s top brass.
Under the plan, purchasing authority is being transferred from Washington to the base commander, which local aerospace industry officials believe will help bring more military dollars to Southern California, already one of the largest recipients.
“We will in fact become more prominent, a lot more responsible,” Tattini said in an interview before his departure last week to become deputy director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Since it was established in 1954, initially to develop the nation’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles, the little known base has become one of the more important economic engines for the state, pumping nearly $3 billion in military contracts to local aerospace firms annually.
It has escaped public attention mainly because it doesn’t look much like a military installation. Nestled among rows of nondescript office buildings in El Segundo, the base has no airplanes, hangars or barracks.
But it is where the nation’s military space projects are developed and overseen. It is in charge of developing military communication satellites and is responsible for the global positioning system. It is also where scientists and engineers are working on the most advanced elements of missile defense.
As such, local government and civic leaders cheered last month when the Pentagon backed a proposal for a complicated land deal that effectively killed an attempt by a New Mexico congressman to move the base to his Southwestern state.
Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) had urged Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to close Los Angeles Air Force Base and move the space and missile command located there to Kirtland Air Force Base in his state, arguing that his plan was more cost effective.
But a congressional delegation from California vehemently objected to the Domenici proposal, saying it would not only be more costly but there were synergies between the base and the Southland aerospace industry that could not be duplicated elsewhere.
“This collection of intellectual capital provides a critical economic, industrial and military asset to the nation that could not be easily replicated,” a letter sent to Rumsfeld said. “Prior studies have shown that many of the engineers and scientists associated with SMC would not move, thus dismantling the Air Force’s ability to direct and manage key aerospace research.”
The Pentagon agreed, providing a boost to the proposed land deal spearheaded by Tattini. Under the plan, the sprawling 54-acre complex, which needs earthquake-related renovations, would be transferred to a private developer who would in turn agree to build a single large office tower in a nearby property owned by the Air Force. The proposal is expected to save the Air Force between $50 million and $100 million.
The attention it is receiving these days is a far cry from just two years ago when dozens of Washington officials descended on the base to scrutinize operations after a series of rocket launch failures.
In what some analysts called one of the more inauspicious beginnings for a military commander, Tattini was immediately thrust into solving a series of costly failures some of which were blamed on a breakdown in communications and faulty design.
“You have to realize that in the first year I was here, we went through a series of accidents . . . “ Tattini said in an interview. “That has colored my career.”
Tattini said that many of the reviews and assessments, such as rigorous prelaunch checks, had been eliminated over the years as the industry moved to the faster, cheaper, better mantra of designers and engineers.
“I have spent a lot of time putting back in place a number of engineering reviews and a number of mission and quality assurance reviews that we had streamlined out of the process,” Tattini said. “We’re putting some of that rigor back into our review process.”
It appears to be working. Since the last rocket failure in 1999, there have been 20 consecutive successful launches.
“Whenever you go through a series of failures, it takes a steady hand to bring things back into focus, and I think Tattini provided that,” said William Ballhaus, president of Aerospace Corp., a government-funded research center that works closely with the Air Force on developing military space systems. “I think morale has substantially improved since then.”
In an elaborate ceremony at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, Tattini handed off the base command to Lt. Gen. Brian A. Arnold, a former B-52 pilot who most recently was the director of space and nuclear deterrence at the Pentagon.
