Pentagon decides to delay F-22 production decision pending more tests
     WASHINGTON - April 15, 1998 1:43 p.m. EDT -- The Pentagon an-
 nounced Wednesday it plans to delay by one year final approval for
 production of the F-22 fighter because there hasn't been enough
 flight testing to assure confidence in the Air Force's premier
 developing warplane.
     A top Defense official said the program isn't in trouble, but
 that Pentagon officials want to first conduct at least 200 hours of
 flight testing using two full production models that will be built
 as planned beginning in December of this year.
     The decision on whether to authorize production of the entire
 line of 339 F-22s won't be made until December 1999, when another
 six fighters are to be built, said Jacques Gansler, undersecretary
 of defense for acquisition and technology.
     "We're not delaying the program, we're delaying the management
 decision" to begin low-level production, Gansler said. "There are no
 problems with this program."
     So far, only one F-22 test flight of several hours has been
 conducted.
     Gansler said his recommendation to delay the production decision
 is under review, and a formal decision by Defense Secretary William
 Cohen will come by November.
     Earlier this spring, the General Accounting Office, the investi-
 gative arm of Congress, recommended the F-22 fighter program be de-
 layed entirely for a year in order to fix engineering problems that
 delayed initial production of several test planes. The GAO report
 also cited a lack of flight testing data in its recommendation.
     But Gansler said delaying the program entirely would not only
 hurt the Pentagon's contractors, but also would add an estimated $4
 billion to total production costs. Under his proposal, the cost of
 the program would not rise. The fixed production costs are capped at
 $43.5 billion for a total estimated cost of $62.1 billion for the
 program.
     That's $187 million per plane. The cost of the first two produc-
 tion models plus related expenditures is $595 million and is included
 in the administration's proposed budget.
     The F-22 fighter, which uses stealth or radar-evading technology,
 is needed to replace aging F-15s and F-16s in the coming century,
 according to the Pentagon. The plane is intended primarily to combat
 enemy fighter aircraft.
      The primary contractor on the F-22 is Lockheed Martin Corp.
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            Labor troubles throw Greek airports into chaos
     ATHENS - April 15, 1998 09:37 a.m. EDT - Scores of travelers and
 foreign tourists faced cancellations and long delays at Greekairports
 on Wednesday due to union action and staff shortages at state carrier
 Olympic Airways.
     Company officials said shortages of ground, cabin and technical
 staff forced the cancellation of 13 foreign and domestic flights on
 Wednesday. About 15 were delayed.
    The delays and cancellations have added chaos to the traditionally
 busy week surrounding Greece's Orthodox Easter holidays.
     Olympic has cancelled about 30 flights since last Friday, when
 parliament passed a law on drastic cost cutbacks.
     Unions have reacted strongly to the law, with a number of senior
 staff applying for early retirement and refusing to work overtime.
     "If we continue this way with our airplanes grounded, the company
 will collapse economically," Olympic's managing director Theodore
 Tsakiridis told reporters. "We expect things to return to normal at
 the start of May."
     Olympic ticket sales usually double during the Easter holidays as
 a mass exodus of Athenians spend the holidays at their villages. The
 company is the nearly exclusive carrier to all domestic destinations.
     Company officials said a number of planes were grounded or await-
 ing repairs and that four aircraft chartered from the United States
 would not be available until next week.
     "Beyond the many room cancellations, Greece is also badly defamed
 abroad," Aristotelis Livanis, president of the Greek hoteliers asso-
 ciation, told Flash radio.
     "If the state can't find ways for Olympic to operate as it should,
 it must close it down and allow other carriers to serve its routes."
     The law passed on Friday imposed a three-year wage freeze for
 Olympic's 7,000 employees, longer working hours and less overtime
 pay.
     Prime Minister Costas Simitis has said the cost-cutting package
 would either be applied strictly or the company had no chance to
 survive.
     Olympic, in the red for the past 20 years, has lost about 65,000
 passengers this month from work stoppages and strikes against the
 cost-cutting law.
     Management was urgently seeking new staff to cope with the busy
 summer season after senior pilots and technicians opted for early
 retirement.
     "The law didn't solve the problem. A great fiasco with Olympic's
 flights," said Ta Nea, Greece's biggest newspaper, in its headline
 on Wednesday.
     Olympic's austerity package is seen by the government as a pilot
 for cutting costs in other money-losing state firms in line with
 provisions after the drachma's entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism
 (ERM) last month.
     Greece wants to join Europe's economic and monetary union by
 January 2001 and Simitis has said one of the main prerequisites is
 an overhaul of the public sector with drastic savings.
--- DB 1.39/004487
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