Stung Hornet

New battle over a fighter

The Navy's troubled F/A-18 fighter-bomber is under fresh fire from Capitol Hill, flak so heavy that the fate of the program, expected to cost up to $40 billion, may now be in some doubt. The basic problem is a familiar one: cost overruns. But the powerful House Appropriations Committee, in a stinging letter of complaint to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, contends that the Navy has compounded its errors by trying to conceal the extent of the overruns, perhaps illegally. The charge comes at a bad time for the Pentagon, which has been maintaining that every bit of economizing has been done to squeeze its ever rising budget.

The Navy and the Marine Corps intend to buy 1,366 of the twin-engined supersonic planes by 1990; the contract price for 1983 is $22.5 million per plane. Known as the Hornet, the aircraft has been approved by the Navy in its fighter role, but it has not yet been accepted as suitable for bombing runs off carriers. Tests disclosed that it cannot, as promised, fly fully loaded off a carrier, reach targets 630 miles away and return without refueling. But production has been proceeding apace at the McDonnell Douglas Corp.

The House Appropriations Committee charges that the Navy has used "irresponsible funding manipulations" and has been guilty of "concealing some essential facts." It accuses the Navy of using funds left over from other aircraft programs to hide recurring cost overruns on the Hornet, of shifting money from testing equipment and other support facilities to meet the rising production bills, and of spreading the expenditures incurred in previous years over contracts that should apply only to current or future years. In addition, the committee asserts that the Navy has held down its ostensible costs by delaying the installation of essential combat equipment, such as electronic countermeasures, items that will have to be added later, increasing the final total.

The committee's eight-page letter gave Weinberger a virtual ultimatum: he must order an F/A-18 financial review and report back on whether the Navy has acted lawfully, or it will refuse to approve more spending for the plane. Weinberger, in a three-paragraph reply, promised to do both. Democrats on the Hill are searching for big-ticket items to knock out of the defense budget. The buzzing about the Hornet may be music to their ears. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.