Northrop chairman said he would build ATF in Pico-Rivera.

Northrop chairman said he would build ATF in Pico-Rivera

CENTURY CITY -- The dogfight between two Southland aerospace giants to win the $64 billion federal contract for the Advanced Tactical Fighter program started to take shape last week when the Air Force released artists conceptions of the proposed jets.

Calabasas-based Lockheed Corp. and Century City-based Northrop Corp. are vying for the role of chief contractor for the program. Lockheed is developing its rendition of the jet fighter, the YF-22A, in conjunction with Seattle-based Boeing Co. and St. Louis-based General Dynamics. Northrop is working on the YF-23A with St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas.

Although the federal government is not expected to award the contract until April 1991, the shroud of secrecy surrounding development of the two companies' prototypes has been lifted because engine testing and trial flights may begin within weeks. Thus far, the Air Force has spent $2.8 billion on the ATF program. The Air Force and Navy combined are expected to contract for the manufacture of about 1,300 ATFs at an estimated cost of $84.6 million per copy.

Northrop Chairman Kent Kresa said at the company's annual stockholders' meeting May 16 that if the company wins the ATF contract it will manufacture the jet at its Pico-Rivera plant. Lockheed, meanwhile, is in the process of moving its Burbank manufacturing operation to Marietta, Ga., where it plans to develop the ATF.

Aerospace observers have speculated that Lockheed's decision was a politically motivated effort to win the valuable ATF contract. The move to Marietta, they say, may have been undertaken to ingratiate powerful Sen. Sam Nunn, the Georgia Democrat.

Nunn, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, can exercise great influence over the awarding of defense contracts. Should Lockheed win the ATF contract it will mean thousands of new jobs for Nunn constituents.

Northrop is not without compelling reasons to win the contract, Kresa told his stockholders.

"In Pico-Rivera, the Air Force YF-23A development program will be able to take maximum advantage of the extraordinary capability in computer-aided design and manufacturing . . . and the other development tools that led to the B-2 (`stealth bomber') and now provide a state-of-the-art center for the YF-23A in facilities that already exist," Kresa said.