Valley officials look to undo damage caused by aerospace downsizing.

The San Fernando Valley, long home to several large defense contractors as well as dozens of subcontractors, has been hard hit by defense downsizing. Many died or moved and the survivors have trimmed back, leaving thousands of aerospace workers unemployed.

Most companies think the worst is over, but the question remains: What can be done to repair the damage defense downsizing has done to the San Fernando Valley economy?

A total of 125,700 jobs have been lost in the aerospace and high technology sectors (including computers and communications equipment) in Los Angeles County between February 1988 and May 1994, with employment dropping from 277,700 to 152,000, according to the California Employment Development Department. Of that figure, John Rooney, president of the Valley Economic Development Center, estimated that about 40 percent were in the San Fernando Valley.

The following is a list of some of the major blows to the San Fernando Valley's aerospace industry:

* Hughes Aircraft Co. was at a time one of the largest employers in the valley. Its Canoga Park facility alone employed 3,500 engineers and support staff. Now it has 857 workers on a daily basis until Oct. 7 -- when Hughes will shut down in Canoga Park as the final stage of the consolidation of its missile division in Tucson.

* Lockheed Corp. also moved yet another part of its operations out of the San Fernando Valley recently. Lockheed Advanced Development Co., also known as the Skunk Works, where super-secret planes were developed for many years, moved from Burbank to sites in Palmdale and Marietta, Ga. That move was completed this summer. About 4,000 jobs left the Burbank area when the Skunk Works left. Nearly 3,000 employees relocated to Palmdale and 1,000 went to Marietta.

Lockheed now has only two small divisions, which remain in Burbank. Lockheed Air Terminal Co., an airports operator, employs about 150 people. Lockheed Finance Co., which arranges financing for Lockheed customers, employs about 25 people.

* Rocketdyne, a division of Seal Beach-based Rockwell International Corp. and another major valley employer, also has enacted major cutbacks in recent years and sources said that more are on the way. Rocketdyne's employment in the valley peaked in 1989 with 8,546 employees. Today, 5,425 people are employed at Rocketdyne's operations in Canoga Park and Westlake Village.

According to Rohit Shukla, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance of the county's Economic Development Corp., Rocketdyne is "sliding down a slippery slope" and -- even with restoration of funding for space systems -- it is likely to shut down more facilities, including some in the valley.

* Litton Industries, based in Beverly Hills, has consolidated some operations in the valley, which resulted in layoffs and moved some divisions out to nearby areas. Litton's Data Systems division moved from Van Nuys to sites in Agoura Hills and Moorpark. Approximately 1,000 employees moved to Agoura Hills and about 300 engineers moved to Moorpark.

According to company spokesman Bob Knapp, total employment at Litton has decreased in the past four years from about 5,000 employees in 1990 to its present size of about 3,700. Those figures include employees in the Los Angeles and Ventura County areas.

Also upcoming for Litton is the move of its corporate headquarters in Beverly Hills. Corporate staff, totaling about 200 employees, will be housed with employees of other divisions out in Woodland Hills.

In addition to these well-known companies, several sources pointed out, the San Fernando Valley, and particularly Chatsworth, has long been a base for aerospace/defense suppliers and subcontractors. "The subcontractors in Chatsworth have been devastated," said Shukla.

Several groups are coming forward to help get aerospace back on its feet.

Rooney has been appointed project manager of the Economic Development Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. Though conceived in the wake of the Northridge earthquake and developed with funding from L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan's office, the alliance has as one of its primary missions minimizing the pain of any further defense cutbacks.

No concrete plans have been worked up yet, according to Rooney, but he said the alliance will work closely with defense companies to assess their needs and develop possible solutions to future problems these companies face.

U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D- Mission Hills, has plans of his own for the defense contractors. His special assistant for technology policy, John Slifko, explained that Berman organized a consortium of commercial and aerospace companies to study the possibility of bringing advanced manufacturing to Southern California.

That group, called the Manufacturing Technology Initiative, was awarded a grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division of the Department of Defense, to study transportation projects that employ advanced manufacturing technology.

Doug Campbell, legislative aide to Congressman Berman, explained that there is a natural mix between aerospace and transportation. Both develop similar components and the same labor force can be used, said Campbell.

Such a concept would represent a course change for defense contractors which have had research and development centers in the San Fernando Valley, with manufacturing being done elsewhere.

New developments in manufacturing, which are cleaner and more flexible, should be introduced into the area, said Slifko. He insisted there are manufacturers that would like to move back to the valley but that it must be on new terms.

Finally, also getting involved in the business of defense business retention is the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. VICA is known as a lobbying group for industry in the San Fernando Valley, but is moving into a new area with its most recent venture.

It has formed a Community Reuse Operation to work with Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Lab. VICA's plans to introducing the lab's brainy scientists to captains of industry involved with environmental engineering, energy, transportation, propulsion and seismic testing. The hope is to introduce high tech companies to the type of research being conducted at the lab -- and ultimately get more civilian projects for the scientists.