Back to the flight safety problem. One of the issues that was discussed atthe hearing on the Hill Tuesday was the Marine Harriers, which statisticallyhave the highest accident rate of any military aircraft. General Blot pointedout that the Marines would like to remanufacture those aircraft, put a biggerand better engine in at a faster rate, but they don't have the money to do it. Now Congressman Hunter is promising the Republicans will do that. That's oneof the things that he's attributing the Administration's budget cuts, makingthe Marines fly those airplanes that are not safe.
All airplanes have to be flown within the envelope of their performancecharacteristics.
You could probably increase the engine power of almost anyairplane, and therefore, change its performance characteristics and thecircumstances, change the circumstances under which you fly it or the way inwhich you'd fly it. I can't comment specifically on that, but clearly, one ofthe steps that's been taken with the F-14s is to remind people to fly themwithin the parameters that are specified for the engines, the avionics, etc. In a speech this morning the Secretary didn't even mention Liberia, but hementioned another problem in Africa which is the plant being built in Libya,and he mentioned taking preventive action against it. He's mentioned thisbefore, of course, but he sort of went out of his way to mention it today. The first thing we've done is started a diplomatic effort to generateopposition to this plant.