WARNER PRAISES ITT'S CIVILIAN-MARKETING PLAN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993                   TAG: 9303090215
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
WARNER PRAISES ITT'S CIVILIAN-MARKETING PLAN
Roanoke County's ITT Electro-Optical Products Division specializes in making night-vision goggles of the type used by the military in the Gulf War.
But in the wake of defense spending cuts, the company is developing a less expensive version of the goggles to be used for night recreational boating.
That idea won praise from Virginia's Sen. John Warner on Monday, who cited it as an example of how defense-based companies can survive the end of the Cold War.
Warner, speaking at the Governor's Conference on Defense Conversion, cited the company as a statewide leader in defense conversion.
A pair of the civilian goggles is priced at about $2,400 - about half the price of the military type.
"We're going at the yachting community because they are affluent enough to purchase the goggles," said Neil A. Gallagher, president of the local division.
Employment at ITT has shrunk from 962 in 1990 to about 693 because of defense cutbacks.
In the next four years, ITT hopes 40 percent of its business will be in the commercial market, Gallagher said.
Warner is a longtime supporter of ITT's night-vision goggles. He introduced a budget amendment last fall that is expected to bring the division more military sales - this time to reserve forces.
The statewide conference on defense conversion was held three days after the Radford Army Ammunition Plant announced an additional 350 layoffs and the same week that Secretary of Defense Les Aspin will announce which military bases he will recommend for closure.
Warner has seen the recommended base closings and said he's confident Virginia will survive the third round of base closings "unscathed."
"Virginia has escaped the silver bullet twice and looks like we might escape it a third time," he said.
Warner, a Republican, blasted President Clinton's proposed cuts to military spending, but said he wants to work with Clinton in cutting the federal budget.
Clinton is proposing $60 billion in defense cuts over the next four years, but Warner said that he and Sen. Sam Nunn estimate the defense reductions will reach more than $122 billion if cuts like pay freezes are considered.
"We have to maintain the strength of this country," he said.
Warner said he supports cutting funding for the space station and the superconducting supercollider instead of huge military cuts. Those two projects cost nearly $40 billion, but they provide hundreds of jobs in Virginia.
The space station project is based in Northern Virginia and much of the supercollider project research is done at Lynchburg-based Babcock & Wilcox.
"Virginia takes a hit" if these projects are cut, but the two projects "are of very little relevance to our national security," he said.
More than 500 government and business officials gathered in the state capital to discuss ways companies can convert defense technology to commercial markets.
Virginia Sen. Charles Robb, who sits on the Armed Services Committee with Warner, was not invited to speak at the conference, which was sponsored by Gov. Douglas Wilder.
Wilder and Robb, both Democrats, have had an on and off feud for several years. Wilder has hinted he might challenge Robb for the Democratic nomination for the Senate next year.
But Lisa Katz, the governor's deputy press secretary, said no snub was intended and Warner was asked to speak because he has more seniority than Robb.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB