CONSULTANT TO HELP STATE LOBBY FOR JET PROGRAM.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - State economic development officials have hired a consultant on a $250,000, 18-month contract to help coordinate efforts to bring work on the joint strike fighter program to California.

Virginia-based SDS International will help the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency coordinate statewide efforts to attract what is being called the richest military aviation program in history - a program potentially worth more than $750 billion over the next 25 years.

``From in-place infrastructure to an available, high-quality, educated work force, California clearly offers a compelling case for production of the joint strike fighter,'' said Lon Hatamiya, secretary of the agency. ``The savings alone are the equivalent to providing taxpayers over 55 free aircraft. Other states just cannot offer California's real advantages.''

SDS is familiar with the JSF program, having worked on a 1999 report for the state and the city of Palmdale that calculated more than $2 billion in cost savings if the jets were built at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale.

In other developments for the program, the Rand Corp. think tank concurred with the Defense Department's decision to keep the program on a winner-take-all basis, rather than splitting the contract between competitors Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Pentagon officials had considered the idea of splitting the program between the two competing teams as a possible way to keep program costs down. Military officials abandoned that idea, however, concluding that two production lines offered little payoff.

The federal government is expected late this summer to award either Lockheed Martin or Boeing the rights to build the fighters.

Both companies have indicated they plan to produce the fighters outside California - Boeing plans to build them at St. Louis and Lockheed Martin plans to use its Fort Worth, Texas, plant.

State and Antelope Valley officials are hoping they can convince the companies that Palmdale would be the most cost-effective place to assemble the jets.

The program picked up a major boost with the British government's commitment to contribute $2 billion to the next phase of the program, in which the aircraft's design is refined and the initial aircraft are produced. The British have already spent $200 million on the program.

The U.S. and British military services are planning to buy more than 3,000 of the jets.

The news is coming just before the Bush administration takes on a review of all the proposed tactical aircraft programs. The international support for the joint strike fighter is expected to bolster the program's chances for survival.

``We view it as great news,'' said Lockheed Martin spokesman John Kent. ``We're elated about it. We do think it strengthens the program.''

Boeing hailed the commitment as ``the single most significant demonstration of confidence to date.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Lockheed Martin's plans call for building its version of the joint strike fighter prototype, tested in Palmdale, in Fort Worth, Texas.

(2) Boeing's joint strike fighter prototype, left, is competing with Lockheed Martin's, right, for a contract potentially worth more than $750 billion. Both planes are being developed in Palmdale, but production could occur elsewhere.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer