Area takes major role in aerospace technology sector. (Missile Defense -- L.A.'s Work in Progress).

L.A. County has emerged from the devastating aerospace cuts during the early 1990s as one of the hubs of research and development for the missile defense initiative.

Hard numbers are difficult to come by - much of the work is top secret, subcontracted out of the region or tucked vaguely under the broad "missile defense" umbrella. The consensus among contractors and industry analysts, however, is that thousands across the region are employed in missile defense-related projects and that local operations are in line for a substantial portion of the $7.4 billion allocated in the fiscal 2003 budget alone.

"It's a program that at least in the near term has become fashionable," said John Kutler, president of Quarterdeck Investment Partners Inc., a Los Angeles investment firm specializing in the defense sector. "It received a big tailwind after 9/11. When you have smaller technologies you want funded and they get lost on their own, one way to move them forward is to throw them under the guise of something that is politically attractive."

The handful of initiatives that fall under the broad missile defense rubric are offshoots of the Strategic Defense Initiative - or "Star Wars" - of the Reagan Administration, although the space-based aspect appears to have fallen by the wayside over the last 20 years.

The efforts are led by TRW Inc., to be acquired by Northrop Grumman Corp. in December.

From the Redondo Beach headquarters of its Space and Electronics Group, TRW is developing the Space-Based Infrared System Low (SBIRS Low), a satellite-based tracking system; the Airborne Laser (ABL), which would track and destroy incoming short-range missiles from an aircraft; and the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) program, a laser tracking and firing system that burns through the shell of short-range missiles and destroys the control system inside.

In addition, the delivery vehicles for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program, which launches non-explosive kill vehicles at missiles, are being built by Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne unit in Canoga Park.

Growth opportunity

While no one piece of the missile defense puzzle will be created entirely in L.A., the region has a hand in many of the major components, positioning units of Raytheon Co., Northrop and TRW, as well as hundreds of subcontractors and suppliers, to receive billions of dollars when or if the systems' components go into production in the next decade.

"The L.A. area is immersed in missile defense," said Paul Nisbet, a partner in JSA Research Inc., a Newport, R.I. defense consulting firm. "There is a lot of funded R&D activity in the area. They've got the companies that can do the work. They have the technology."

L.A.'s hand in missile defense has its roots in the aerospace boom of World War II.

L.A.-based Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. (later merged with Cleveland-based Thompson Products to form TRW) was the Air Force's first systems engineer in the development of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in 1955.

Aircraft, rocket propulsion and missile production ramped up during World War II and the Cold War, as aerospace employment continued to rise until 1986, when it peaked at 289,900. It now stands at 104,300.

The industry's missile defense segment employs mostly highly paid design, electrical and mechanical engineers, as well as technical support staff ranging from assembly line workers to machine shop personnel.

A large portion of the research and development work is being conducted in partnership with Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, where warheads from Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) are being removed so they may be turned into targets for missile defense testing, and with Aerospace Corp., a non-profit, government-funded operation also in El Segundo.

Different approaches

The idea behind missile defense, which has been proceeding along several paths concurrently, is to intercept and destroy enemy missiles in their boost, mid course or terminal (close to target) stages.

Technologies apply to both "theater" missiles, shorter-range weapons such as Iraq's SCUDs, and intercontinental missiles, such as those possessed by Russia and under development by North Korea.

TRW's SBIRS Low tracking system would enable U.S. missiles to shoot down incoming missiles shortly after they have been launched.

Its Airborne Laser (ABL) program - the only weapons system capable of destroying enemy missiles while they are still in the boost phase - will be integrated with Boeing's reconfigured jets and other components at Edwards Air Force Base.

"That's one of the key points," said Jack Prichett, TRW's media relations manager. "By destroying a missile in the boost phase, it falls back down on enemy territory."

The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL), a movable version of a static laser tracking and firing system, creates 1 million watts of chemical-based laser power that burns through the shell of short-range missiles. (TRW also is making a similarly powerful laser for the ABL system.)

Lasers are finding employment in other aspects of missile defense.

The speed, altitude and probable point of impact of incoming missiles would be determined by track illuminator lasers (TILL) created by Raytheon in El Segundo. As another component of the ABL system, the project entails bouncing rapid pulses of light off a small section of incoming missiles and into a highly sensitive data processing receptor

Most of the missile tracking information would be the responsibility of reconnaissance and surveillance satellites, such as those of the SBIRS Low program.

L.A.-based Northrop has 1,400 people making sensor and radar payloads, as well as data processing systems for SBIRS satellites at several locations nationwide. This included the former Aerojet operation in Azusa, which the company bought from GenCorp. last year.

Satellites could pick up and track launched enemy missiles by detecting heat or intercepting radio communications between ground control and the missile.

This information is either processed within the satellite or transmitted to U.S. military command and control centers, which then determine the trajectory of the kill vehicle.

Other companies have smaller roles in missile defense.

Boeing's Rocketdyne unit in Canoga Park will receive approximately 5 percent of the $912 million awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) kill vehicles, which destroy incoming enemy missiles flying above war zones, such as Iraq's SCUD missiles, by intercepting them and smashing them to bits. Rocketdyne is making the propulsion systems for the kill vehicles.

"It's a kinetic energy weapon," said Dan Beck, spokesman for Rocketdyne, of the THAAD missiles. "It doesn't have any explosives in it."