KILLER apps.

The U.S. military's next generation of defense technologies is hatching in L.A.

It's highly unlikely that Los Angeles will ever again be an aerospace/defense hub like it was prior to the early-1990's cutbacks. But there's still plenty of fascinating military action going on around town, and the pace of that action could pick up with President Bush at the helm.

Here's a look at some of the major projects in the works:

Palmdale

Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. are coming down the home stretch on developing their competing prototypes for the Joint Strike Fighter.

Next year, the two teams are scheduled to engage in a bidding war for the estimated $300 billion contract to build and maintain roughly 3,000 of the next-generation fighters. The winner-take-all contract could be the largest in military history. Each team received $660 million in late 1996 to design and build prototypes at their respective Palmdale plants. The jets, slated to cost $28 million to $38 million each in mass production beginning in 2008, would be able to soar faster than the speed of sound with missiles, bombs and an internal gun. President Bush could play the spoiler, however, if he decides to eliminate the program under his restructuring of Pentagon priorities.

Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co. are each in the midst of initial concept design studies for the Naval Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UVAC). The plane is to be the latest post-Persian Gulf War technology designed to blow up enemy surface-to-air missiles and radar complexes without risking the lives of pilots. It is to be equipped with bombs or missiles and surveillance technology, and will be able to travel just under the speed of sound.

Northrop Grumman Corp. is in the final testing stages on its RQ-4A Global Hawk, an unmanned reconnaissance plane capable of flying long distances at elevations of up to 65,000 feet. So far, five Global Hawks have been built at Northrop's Palmdale plant, with plans for two more. One of the planes is scheduled to take off April 23 from San Diego for a 13,000-mile, nonstop flight to Australia as part of a joint-country evaluation of the vehicle's radar, electro-optical and infrared sensor devices. The primary use of the plane would be to obtain infrared and radar images, as well as photographs, of enemy positions and installations.

But military authorities are also considering using it to chart the course of drug smugglers. With a target price of $16 million each, the planes could go into full production as early as 2005.

Canoga Park

This should give you some peace of mind. Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne division is busy building 60 engines to power the Army's Theater High-Altitude Control System (THAAD) missiles, the gadgets designed to intercept enemy launchings before they can strike friendly targets. Last year, Rocketdyne signed a $177.7 million to deliver the 60 engines to the Army beginning in 2003, with the final ones being delivered in 2007.

Redondo Beach

TRW Space & Electronics Group is also busy on protecting us from enemy missiles. It is part of a team working on the Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment -- a system that would blow airborne enemy missiles out of the sky with a high-energy laser beam shot from space. The TRW group is also in the research and planning phase of the Space-Based Infrared System Low operation. That system calls for a "constellation" of 18 to 32 low-orbiting satellites that would detect and track enemy missiles from their launch through mid course. It would relay the information to the Pentagon and other ground military commands. TRW received $275 million for this phase of the program in 1999, and will be competing for the construction contract to be awarded by the Pentagon next year.