Pentagon delays Lockheed missile decision again

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) The US Defense Department today said it put off a decision again on whether to keep or kill a troubled 5.8 billion dollars Lockheed Martin Corp. cruise missile program.

Members of the Defense Acquisition Board, the Pentagon's top weapons-buying panel, agreed that more work was needed before ruling on Lockheed's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

The Pentagon has been exploring potential alternatives including Raytheon Co.'s tactical Tomahawk missile and Boeing Co.'s Standoff Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response, officials told reporters on June 6.

A decision on the JASSM program had been due to be made at an acquisition board meeting yesterday chaired by Ken Krieg, the Pentagon's outgoing chief weapons buyer.

The program's future has been in doubt because it had topped its original per-unit costs by more than 50 per cent, sparking a mandatory review to certify that it is vital to national security, among other things.

Pentagon officials are also concerned by the missile's performance shortfalls, yielding a 58 per cent reliability rate compared with a pinpoint accuracy goal of 75 per cent.

''I can't stress that enough,'' Sue Payton, the Air Force's assistant secretary for acquisition, told reporters on June 6.

''We don't know if we're going to be able to certify this program.'' Krieg told Congress on June 5 he was deferring a decision on the program's fate for 30 days while Lockheed and Pentagon officials sought to come up with a mutually satisfactory overhaul plan.

A spokeswoman for Lockheed's Missile and Fire Control business unit had no immediate comment.

Acquisition board members, at their yesterday meeting, ''engaged in a productive discussion, but more work needs to be done,'' said Irwin, the Pentagon spokeswoman, in a three-sentence statement.

''The department is continuing to work the issues,'' she said.

Nearly 4,000 missiles remain to be delivered under the program.

For a program in its straits to be continued, the Pentagon also would have to certify that there was no alternative that would give equal or greater military capability at a lesser cost; that new estimates of costs were reasonable; and that new management structures were adequate to control costs.

Lockheed, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by prime contract value, has said in the past that the cost increases were tied to procurement of an extended-range variant, previous budget cuts by Congress and implementation of reliability improvements.

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