LARIS program. This will make a total of $425.9 million of operation and maintenance funds available for this program in fiscal year 1968. You state on page 10 that six POLARIS subs will be overhauled during 1968. Approximately how much of the $425.9 million will be used to overhaul the six subs? Admiral SMITH. $186.3 million. Mr. SIKES. Would you know the total cost for the alteration and improvement of these subs, that would include both prior year operation and maintenance and procurement funds and the amount included in this estimate to complete the overhaul work? Admiral SMITH. The grand total of these costs is $241.4 million. Mr. SIKES. How much preplanning money is in this budget for the overhaul of the three subs in 1969 ? Also, how much is being requested for advanced procurement of equipment in "Other Procurement," Navy, for the three subs to be overhauled in 1969? Admiral SMITH. In fiscal year 1968, $7.9 million is included for preplanning and $6.4 million has been requested for advance procurement of equipment. Mr. SIKES. Admiral, on page 8, you state that funds are being requested for the conversion of three of the James Madison class submarines in fiscal year 1968. How much are these conversions going to cost? POSSIBLE CONVERSION RATHER THAN OVERHAUL IN FISCAL YEAR 1968 Mr. SIKES. Admiral, information provided the staff indicates that the six ships to be overhauled and repaired in the 1967 program will also be converted under the POSEIDON program in fiscal years Instead of overhauling these subs in 1968, would it be feasible to substitute them for those scheduled for conversion? This would mean, in effect, deleting the overhaul schedule for 1968 with a savings of approximately $186.3 million in 1968 and further substantial savings in fiscal year 1969? Admiral SMITH. We have concluded that it is not feasible to do a conversion to POSEIDON instead of an overhaul to the six ships in the fiscal year 1968 overhaul program. The time required for development of the POSEIDON weapon system, including the missile, will not be short enough to support meeting the earlier conversion dates of the six ships on the current schedule. Slipping of the start of the overhauls into the schedule C-3 deployment period does not appear attractive because of gaps in target coverage due to six additional submarines being off line and added costs to expand production lines and assembly facilities to handle the resulting peak out load. Slipping of all submarine conversions a year thus starting C-3 conversions with the 616 class is not feasible because of considerations of nuclear core life and absence of conversion planning for the 616 class. To date conversion planning during contract definition phase and initial operational systems development has been pointed toward the 627 class as required by the present schedule. This was determined to be the most cost effective plan for introduction of POSEIDON. SHIPBUILDING AND CONVERSION, NAVY Mr. SIKES. You are requesting $325.6 million for shipbuilding and conversion, Navy, for the fleet ballistic missile program. This is basically for the POSEIDON conversion program. What is your present estimated cost of the total conversion program? Admiral SMITH. Approximately $2.2 billion. Mr. SIKES. What is your long-range schedule for this conversion program? Admiral SMITH. I will supply that information. (Classified information was submitted.) Mr. SIKES. What is the status of the POSEIDON navigation subsystem with regard to accuracy improvement and the retention of a high level of reliability? Admiral SMITH. (Discussion off the record.) PROCUREMENT OF AIRCRAFT AND MISSILES, NAVY Mr. SIKES. You have encountered some difficulty with reliability problems in your navigation satellite system as well as the inability of the production facilities to meet delivery schedules. What is the status of this system in these respects at the present time? Admiral SMITH. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. SIKES. Would you break out for the committee the tooling and test equipment you are proposing in the amount of $53.6 million? Admiral SMITH. Special tooling and test equipment are required for the production of inertial components to be procured competitively from two of three contractors, Bendix, Honeywell, and Nortronics in the amount of $1.2 million, a MK-492 Auto Tester for General Electric for $0.7 million and $51.7 million for Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., including major subcontractors such as Hercules, Thiokol, and others. There are approximately 3,500 different items in varying quantities of tooling and test equipment to be procured. These include items such as missile system tests consoles, reentry system substitute units, telemetry/beacon calibration consoles, radio frequency test consoles, short-short missile substitute units, first-stage insulator cylindrical section wrapping mandrels, second-stage chamber skirt wrapping mandrels; special design handling dollies, drills, jigs, and fixtures. Mr. SIKES. Does your POSEIDON procurement program contemplate the duplication of existing FBM production lines? Admiral SMITH. There will be no duplication of existing FBM production lines at factory facilities. However, some duplication will exist at the POLARIS Missile Facility, Charleston, S.C., where the A-3 and C-3 lines will have to run simultaneously. Mr. SIKES. Would you discuss with the committee the facilities you are requesting in the amount of $15,580,000? Admiral SMITH. The $15,580,000 for facilities is required to meet rate production for the POSEIDON program primarily at the Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant at Sunnyvale, Calif., operated by Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. Some items will be provided to LMSC subcontractors and vendors. The following list of items is provided for the record: Production equipment, machine tools, and electronic equipment under Total 80 12 20 120 900 20 15 25 20 15 2, 890 20 56 235 72 45 15 30 360 750 160 500 1,080 127 165 4 145 18 4, 100 300 1,320 13, 668 Mr. SIKES. To what extent will you be able to adapt existing training and support equipment procured as a part of the fleet ballistic missile program to the POSEIDON program? Admiral SMITH. To accommodate the POSEIDON conversion and carry on concurrent POLARIS training approximately 55 percent of the items required for POSEIDON are new equipments, 40 percent are modified POLARIS items, and 5 percent are POLARIS equipments that require no change. New procurement is limited to new items and to equipments required because of the need to maintain concurrent capabilities at a training activity. Mr. SIKES. Is any of the training equipment for which you are requesting $43,910,000 still in the research and development stage? Admiral SMITH. Yes, the training equipment for which the $43,910,000 is requested is still in the development stage. The training equipments will be bought in the same contracts as the tactical equipments planned for procurement in fiscal year 1968. RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, TEST, AND EVALUATION Mr. SIKES. Under R.D.T. & E., to your knowledge Admiral Smith, have Soviet or other foreign surface ships or submarines attempted to track or locate our patrolling U.S. POLARIS submarines? Admiral SMITH. Mr. SIKES. Is there anything in our intelligence reports to indicate that the relative security of the POLARIS submarine is threatened? Admiral SMITH. Mr. SIKES. Based on a study of our own technology and assuming the Russians must be in the same ballpark, is there anything to indicate that the relative security of the POLARIS submarine can be threatened within the 1970 time period, for instance? Admiral SMITH. Mr. SIKES. Being fully realistic, is it not logical to assume that the Russians will have developed a capability for detecting and fighting POLARIS submarines that would downgrade their effectiveness by the time the POSEIDON becomes operational? Admiral SMITH. Mr. SIKES. Are we projecting improvements in our subsystem, POLARIS/POSEIDON system, which would help to offset any advances in Soviet technology against these vessels? Admiral SMITH. Mr. SIKES. Could a satellite be profitably utilized with optical, electrical or other sensors in the location of an FBM submarine? Admiral SMITH. Mr. SIKES. Why not? Admiral SMITH. Mr. SIKES. Could a satellite be used to detect a submarine? Admiral SMITH. (Discussing off the record.) Admiral SMITH. That is the story. Mr. SIKES. Could a ship or a satellite detect communications to and from a patrolling submarine and determine the submarine's location in this way? Admiral SMITH. (Discussion off the Record.) Mr. SIKES. What were the major development milestones for the POSEIDON in fiscal year 1967? Will you tell the committee at what date these various objectives were programed to be met and on what dates they were actually met? Admiral SMITH. The major development milestones for the POSEIDON in fiscal year 1967 will be provided for the record. The milestone dates were met as programed unless otherwise indicated. (Classified information was submitted.) DEVELOPMENT FUNDING REQUIREMENTS Mr. SIKES. What are the principal POSEIDON development milestones in fiscal year 1968? Admiral SITH. The principal POSEIDON development milestones in fiscal year 1968 will be provided for the record. (Classified information was submitted to the committee.) Mr. SIKES. Information supplied to the committee, which gives a more detailed breakdown of the Special Projects Office fund requirements, indicates that for the POSEIDON $17.8 million is programed for systems integration. Is the systems integration performed by the prime contractor or by some other organization? Admiral SMITH. The systems integration you are referring to concerns only the missile subsystem, which is done by the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, the primary missile subsystem contractor. Mr. SIKES. What work is to performed under item C in which $71.1 million is programed for C3X development? Admiral SMITH. The fiscal year 1968 funding provides an increment of the cost of the design, development, manufacture and assembly of the C3X (development flight test) missiles excluding rocket motors and gas generators. This effort includes the design, development and manufacture of C3X missile body, first-stage actuation and controls, interstage between first- and second-stage motors, second-stage actuation and controls, forward skirt adapter, equipment section, nose fairing, and first- and second-stage conduits. Missile hardware for test specimens and all necessary instrumentation, documentation and test support will also be funded under this item. |