Pentagon Ponders Sale of Defense Plants

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Department of Defense has asked the military services to appraise the manufacturing plants they own with an eye toward selling some of them to private industry, Pentagon sources say.

The review, urged upon the department last summer by the congressional General Accounting Office, focuses on what the Pentagon's ''government-owned, contractor-operated'' plants - or GOCOs.

The assessment is still in its early stages. But Pentagon officials, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not identified, say it could set the stage for some sweeping changes.

The Army, Navy and Air Force currently own 64 GOCO plants among them, spread throughout the country. The GAO has conservatively estimated the production equipment alone is worth more than $2.7 billion.

''The idea (of the new review) is that all the services should prepare an analysis of what can be done, whether the plants can be turned over to the private sector,'' said one official. ''It's an appraisal estimate, with a preliminary report to DoD within the next few months, to include a prioritized list of candidates for sale.''

According to the sources, some Pentagon officials believe selling plants would net the government not only a one-time sales payment but also reduced annual maintenance and administrative expenses.

Moreover, they said, any such plant sales would likely result in defense contractors investing their own money in future production equipment rather than relying on the Pentagon to provide it.

The GOCO plants, which produce everything from ammunition to missiles to tanks and aircraft, are operated by many of the nation's largest defense contractors. For example, the Lockheed Corp. builds the giant C-5 transport at Air Force Plant No. 6 in Marietta, Ga., while the McDonnell Douglas Corp. builds aircraft and missile systems at the Navy Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant No. 205 in St. Louis, Mo.

GOCO plants have been shifted to private industry in the past, with 17 sold since 1971. But there are potential problems, the sources said.

The contractors currently operating some of the plants may have no interest in buying them and there is probably no way to force them to do so or to offer a reasonable price, the sources said.

Perhaps more significantly, it is unclear whether continuing government ownership is necessary to ensure a plant's availability in the event of wartime mobilization, the sources said.

The GAO itself noted this summer that many Army ammunition plants, for example, have been built with equipment needed to match wartime requirements and not current production needs, observed one official.

These issues are being examined, another source said. ''Some think we are subsidizing private industry with the GOCO's. But it's in the evaluation stage right now. What are we operating in the name of national security? What can be sold?''

The existing network of GOCO plants can be traced to the beginning of World War II, when the Pentagon provided facilities and equipment to contractors to speed mobilization.

As peacetime defense business continued to grow in the 1950s and 1960s, however, contractors began investing more and more of their own capital in their own plants. By 1971, the Pentagon had decided it could begin to sell some of its facilities.

According to the GAO, this ''phasedown policy'' contained so many exceptions and gave such wide discretion to the services that the process gradually slowed to a crawl.

The Pentagon refused to confirm the services had been asked to conduct reviews of their GOCO facilities, saying it was not prepared to discuss the issue.

James P. Wade, the assistant defense secretary for acquisition and logistics, was said to be out of town on business Friday. His supervisor, undersecretary Richard P. Godwin, also declined comment.

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