L.A. Air Base Could Wind Up on Pentagon’s Target List

Sequestered behind warehouses and office parks in El Segundo is the 110-acre Los Angeles Air Force Base. But you won’t find any runways, aircraft or barracks there.

The complex, which resembles a nondescript college campus, is one of the Pentagon’s most prized research and development centers. Scientists and engineers at the Space and Missile Systems Center, the base’s main unit, oversee development of the next-generation ballistic missiles, rockets and satellites being built by major defense contractors .

Overall, the base manages $60 billion worth of military space hardware programs, including the ubiquitous Global Positioning System satellite navigation system, the latest space-based radars, infrared satellites used to track enemy missiles and some of the nation’s most secretive space weapons. About $8.5 billion in contracts are handed out each year, with about 70% going to aerospace companies and suppliers nearby.

The base is “a hidden but huge component of the region’s economy,” said Lee Harrington, president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “Other than some of our key infrastructures like LAX, it’s one of the biggest economic engines we have.”

Now the stealth unit is in the cross hairs of a high-stakes political battle. Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska and several other states are campaigning to host the space and missile center. If the L.A. Air Force Base was closed, the right to host the facility would be up for grabs.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants to cut U.S. military base capacity by 25%, which could mean closing as many as 100 of the nation’s 425 remaining military facilities, beginning in 2005. Many states are drawing up plans to protect their bases and scrambling to raid high-profile military operations elsewhere.

Los Angeles Air Base is considered in a weak position because it’s not part of a larger military facility. The base also has only one primary job: overseeing space hardware contracts. What’s more, it needs major earthquake renovations that could cost more than $100 million.

The base, located along Aviation Boulevard about a mile south of Los Angeles International Airport, opened in 1954 as a focal point for the development of the nation’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles. El Segundo was picked as the site because most of the engineers working on the missile program were based in the area.

“It’s never been more vulnerable,” said David Herbst, president-elect of the El Segundo Chamber of Commerce, who was involved in previous efforts to keep the base off the closure list. Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) “has wanted this base as long as I can remember,” Herbst added. “Now he’s more intent than ever.”

Two years ago, Domenici urged the Pentagon to close the base and move space and missile center operations to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, arguing that would be more cost-effective. California’s congressional delegation was able to thwart that effort.

Now the Air Force and officials in Colorado Springs, Colo., home of the Air Force Space Command, are financing a $200,000 study on the feasibility of moving the L.A. Air Force Base’s space division to that area’s Peterson Air Force Base.

“We’re not advocating closure of anything,” said Robert “Rocky” Scott, president of the Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp. “But in the event of a closure” of L.A. Air Force Base, “we think Colorado ought to be considered” as a new home for the division.

Its loss would be a major blow to the Southland’s aerospace industry, local politicians and business leaders say. “It would decimate our aerospace community,” said John Parsons, chairman of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments, which represents 16 communities along the coast from El Segundo to San Pedro. “If the base leaves, our main anchor is gone.”

In the upcoming round of base closings, those that are operated by a single military service with a single function could face the greatest risk of being consolidated.

A number of states have created special economic development groups and base closure panels. Bills have been introduced in Oklahoma and Texas to create funds to help communities beef up their bases.

State officials are “getting more savvy and trying to be pre-emptive,” said Andrew Bunnell, project manager for the National Assn. of Installation Developers, an organization that assists communities with base closures.

In California, seven local governments have received $50,000 state grants to develop programs to protect potentially vulnerable bases.

Officials in Kern County, home of Edwards Air Force Base, used the grant to prepare a report that advocates consolidating research, development, testing and evaluation of aircraft and weapons taking place elsewhere with Edwards. The report touts Edwards’ 360 days a year of flying weather, the fact that it boasts the nation’s longest runway and its highly skilled workforce.

Although most analysts don’t expect Edwards to be shuttered, some of its functions could be moved. In recent years, Edwards has battled with Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland for testing work.

For the fight over the L.A. Air Force Base, advocates are armed with statistics.

Economic development officials estimate that more than 65,000 high-paying jobs, mostly engineering and research positions in Southern California, are linked to contracts supervised by the base. About 1,400 military and 3,200 civilian personnel now work at the base itself.

If it were shuttered and its space division moved, many smaller suppliers would be likely to follow, dealing a major economic blow to the region, according to Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “It’s a scary prospect.”

Robert Conger, executive vice president for Microcosm Inc., a 40-employee rocket developer in El Segundo, said about 80% of annual revenue came from Air Force contracts overseen by the local base.

Any relocation of the base’s operations “would be very tough for us,” Conger said. The company probably would establish a second operation wherever the base were to be moved. “Many of our people won’t want to move. But then we have to have people close to the base. The bottom line is it’s going to run up costs for us.”

The South Bay is the nation’s leading center for space and intelligence research and development, and local leaders credit the air base. They say it’s no accident that Boeing Co. develops satellites in El Segundo, rockets in Huntington Beach and space systems in Anaheim. Or that more than 9,000 Northrop Grumman Corp. engineers work on lasers and spy satellites in Redondo Beach.

Recently, aerospace officials have begun citing national security concerns when making their case for the base, which has close ties with the Aerospace Corp., a quasi-government entity located across the street. About 4,000 engineers and scientists work at Aerospace, providing expertise and support for development of new rockets and space systems.

“Buying military space systems is really rocket science and it requires highly trained and experienced workers,” said Wes Bush, president of Northrop’s space technology unit in Redondo Beach. Moving the base or its operations would be “shortsighted.”