Opinion from Congresswoman Jane Harman

Congresswoman Jane Harman - Opinion

Cuts in bloated defense programs prove good news

By Congresswoman Jane Harman

As the fight over the timing and size of tax cuts rages in our nation’s capital, it fuels another initiative that will affect the South Bay in a major way.

That initiative is the long-overdue review of the defense budget, the largest piece of discretionary spending in the federal budget. The Bush Administration knows that bloated defense programs cannot be sustained as spending programs elsewhere in the budget are scrubbed.

This is good news. Not only will cuts in unnecessary defense funding free up funds for deficit reduction, a tax cut and other budget priorities, but the focus on technology to win future wars plays to the strength of South Bay companies.

Our new focus will likely be on threats from the Pacific Rim. Because our military bases overseas are increasingly vulnerable, it is likely that the U.S. forward presence will be reduced. The result is that our military will require long-power projection from bases in the continental United States — a move that makes the C-17 cargo plane and the B-2 bomber ever more critical.

The C-17 is manufactured in Long Beach. It is an important component in meeting the military’s airlift requirements and is capable of landing and taking off on the short and unpaved runways that are likely to be found in jungles and rough terrain.

Following a series of management and production problems, Congress should be credited with resuscitating the program, and implementing the multiyear procurement plane — a move that saved taxpayers millions of dollars. It is now seen as the Pentagon’s most successful procurement and a bi-partisan group recently urged the Air Force to buy 60 more C-17s.

The Defense Department is also expected to push the Air Force toward spending more on long-range bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. Southern California’s experience with the super long-range and stealthy B-2 bomber will give it an edge in building more B-2s. The South Bay had more B-2 subcontractors than any other region of the country. (The plane is assembled in Palmdale.) Northrop Grumman, the B-2’s contractor, is also a leader in UAV aircraft. I recently attended in El Segundo the rollout of the Pegasus, a pilotless reconnaissance aircraft being designed for the Navy. Another Northrop Grumman reconnaissance platform, the high-altitude, long-endurance Global Hawk, is being developed for the Air Force. Both programs meet future key war-fighting requirements and reduce, if not eliminate, the exposure of our airmen and women to enemy fire.

Second, the ever-growing threat from missile attacks, especially from short- and medium-range missiles targeted against American troops, means a greater investment in so-called theater missile defense and an effort to develop and deploy an appropriate national missile defense system.

Much of the technology for these systems is designed and manufactured by South Bay companies. Even the smaller and faster ships the Department is expected to call on the Navy to design and build in lieu of new aircraft-carrier flotillas will have to be protected by ship-based missile defenses made by these same scientists and engineers.

Lastly, improving our intelligence-gathering capabilities and learning about our adversaries will be key to our nation’s future defense. The nation has embarked on a major improvement to our constellation of space-based spy satellites. Much of this work is done in Southern California and potentially worth billions to the local economy.

Boeing Satellite Systems and Raytheon Electronic systems, both in El Segundo, are working for the National Reconnaissance Office to design a new generation of satellites that, according to analysts, will form the backbone for U.S. intelligence for several decades. The "future imagery architecture" program or "FIA", will produce smaller, more agile satellites that will allow us to know more about potential adversaries and, hopefully, to deter future wars.

For nearly all of these programs, the key role of the Space and Missile System Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base cannot be overlooked. The synergy between the SMC and local defense and aerospace companies is important not only to the region’s vitality, but to the success of these programs. As such, threats like that recently posed by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to close the base and move SMC to New Mexico have to be taken seriously. Otherwise, we may wake up and find the South Bay’s role is severely diminished.

The direction of the defense reforms is smart. In my view, it can produce not only the types of weapons systems we need to fight the next wars, but do so in a way that reduces risks to our fighting forces and the taxpayers’ wallets.

And added comfort is that the South Bay’s know-how will again lead the way in implementing them.