(b) The construction subcontractors perform a variety of tasks under the integrating contractor, such as the installation of major items of aerospace ground equipment, completion of unfinished construction tasks, minor modification of facilities, and the maintenance and operation of real property installed equipment during the installation and checkout period.

(c) While major elements of AGE are installed and hooked up by the construction subcontractor, detailed wiring and adjustments within and between control consoles and launcher actuating and guidance devices can best be performed by plant engineers and technicians intimately acquainted with the particular equipment. It is also desirable that the same crews conduct the unit, subsystem, and system checkout routine, trouble shoot and correct malfunctions, and perform the turnover demonstration prior to Air Force acceptance of the total weapon system.

The procedures employed at the ICBM sites have (a) placed the work of construction and major installation in the hands of construction contractors, (b) retained essential control of AGE subsystems in the hands of associate contractors thereby protecting the Government's interest by fixing responsibility for system performance, and (c) delivered operable and uniform weapon systems into the Nation's strategic inventory on schedule.

Mr. Hoekstra has indicated that the concurrent operations of employees of missile manufacturers and construction companies at the missile sites have resulted in labor problems. For the period from the beginning of construction in June 1956 to the present there have been 9 work stoppages-I rechecked that and we find the figure should be 9 instead of 6-due to jurisdictional disputes between the industrial unions and the building trade unions at operational missile bases as compared with 72 jurisdictional work stoppages among building trade unions.

Mr. Chairman, I will be glad to respond to such questions as the committee may wish to ask.

I would like to introduce Colonel Reilly from our Construction Agency, who will assist me to the extent that technical information is necessary.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Thank you very much, General.

Colonel Reilly, we are happy to have you with us.

I think you certainly have explained, General, the philosophy behind the Air Force procurement policy on missile bases.

I have a couple of questions. No. 1, in your statement on page 2 you state that

Such delicate and complex equipment as command control consoles, electronic data processing equipment, cable termination equipment, sequencers, and monitors can best be installed, checked, and calibrated to minute tolerances by technicians specially trained by the manufacturers.

I think I would be able to fully understand why you might say that the manufacturer could best check them and calibrate them but I am a little at a loss as to why you think they could best be installed by the manufacturer. In other words, that would be just the same as saying that the man who manufactured the bathtub for a house was also the fellow who ought to install it because he designed it.

That goes against the whole historical approach of the building trade industry.

On the other hand, I would find it difficult to disagree with you about checking and calibrating.

What tests have you ever made to substantiate the belief that it can best be installed by the manufacturer?

General THURMAN. Sir, I think the answer to that probably lies in the illustration drawn by the chairman.

If we are dealing in bathtubs, I think you would be absolutely right. We are not dealing in bathtubs. We are dealing in items of equipment such as those mentioned and others that have been developed to do a specific job, frequently highly complex equipment.

I suppose that a part of the problem, Mr. Chairman, is in what do you mean by installation. If you have only the business of plugging something into the wall, if you have only the business of tying on to a valve, for example, of normal type, I would see no reason except for the timing aspect of the thing why it could not be done as in the case of a bathtub.

On the other hand, these things, particularly as the new missile series or types are introduced, are in a state of development at the time the first ones are installed and a part of the responsibility of the manufacturer of the equipment is to insure that the performance as intended in the environment of the missile silo. The installation is a part of the total job of checking out and insuring the functioning of the particular piece of equipment.

It frequently gets to be a different task to actually install it and do such correction of malfunctions as may be required.

Have I answered your question?

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Except for this comment: The Atomic Energy Commission testified before us that they did not follow this concept. Certainly I do not think that you would compare their installations to the bathtubs I mentioned. They were novel and complex.

Yet they found this difficulty in enforcing the historical concept that checking and calibrating was the job of the manufacturer but that the basic installation, the initial installation and in some instances if not all the initial checkout was also done by the installer and that it was up to the installer and the manufacturer to get to know each other well enough to enable them to do a good job and that historically they had worked out this relationship and the intimation was that we were deliberately upsetting it by the concept which you have introduced and explained here.

It was that disparity of the testimony, I think, that the committee has wanted to discuss in rather complete detail.

General THURMAN. I am not sufficiently familiar with the Atomic Energy installations, Mr. Chairman, to comment on that, but let me emphasize something that I may not have made clear.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Put it another way. Did you ever try it the other way?

General THURMAN. I think the answer to that is no. But we have shifted things back from one category to the other as we have progressed and have seen that this can be handled perfectly well in the normal way.

Let me emphasize, Mr. Chairman, that what we are talking about here is responsibility for a job as distinguished from what kind of workmen do the job.

Now, as I pointed out in my statement, most of the types of things that can be compared to installation of plumbing and electricity— that are of that nature-in fact are done by a construction subcontractor.

It is the responsibility and control over the job that we are concerned about more than the particular type of people who do it. Now, by giving the integrating contractor the responsibility for the total job of installation of this complex equipment, checking out and insuring that it works, we accomplish the purpose of fixing responsibility in one place instead of having responsibility shared by two people who have no connection with each other.

So the work of the sort that I mentioned usually is done by tradetype people but the subcontractor for whom they work is under the direct contractual control of the integrating contractor instead of being contractually directly related to the Air Force or the Corps of Engineers.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. General, have you read the Holland report?
General THURMAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. I do not know whether you have.

General THURMAN. It has been some time ago but I read it.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. I do not know whether you have read the Van de Water proposals.

General THURMAN. Yes, sir; I did.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Many of these, I believe, violate the principle you have laid down. They have talked about who should do the work. You are talking about who should have the responsibility for overall responsibility. Leaving aside who should do the work but acknowledg ing that most of it is done by the construction workmen, I do not see how, though, the definitions in the Holland report or in the Van de Water report could tie in with what you have said here.

General THURMAN. I am not sure that they would, Mr. Chairman, but I also do not think that they are too far different from what I am saying.

The sort of straightforward construction-type work that is done is normally done by tradespeople.

When you get into installation factors that take it out of the category of normal type of construction installation, the integrating manufacturer uses factory technicians. By having control over both he can accomplish the best mix, we believe.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Let me read you a couple of sentences.

Work performed at missile sites should not be construed as construction within the meaning of the act if such work is performed for or is incidental to the purpose of providing a fully operational missile or space vehicle together with its associated and supporting systems including components thereof.

On the other hand, you point out that much of that type of work, which is certainly work performed for and in a sense incidental to, is done by subcontracting to a construction component.

General THURMAN. That is correct, and to that extent that might change it.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Therefore that would change that, would it not? General THURMAN. I would gather it might.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Certainly.

You have not read the Van de Water report so that perhaps I cannot ask you specifically to go into it in detail but it cannot be based upon whether or not the installation remains a part of the permanent installation, or not, or whether it is removable or not removable. That would seem to be quite extraneous to the discussion.

General THURMAN. Well, it could be, sir.

Also I might point out that whether the Davis-Bacon Act is applicable or is not applicable does not necessarily determine what kind of workers are best qualified to do a particular kind of job and, if such a definition as that suggested were used, I would think that straightforward construction type of installation would still be done by tradespeople regardless of whether it is classified Davis-Bacon or not classified Davis-Bacon. But in all instances it would be under the control and responsibility of your integrating prime contractor and his associates.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. What you are saying, however, again, it seems to me, makes inapplicable another comment in the Holland report when they say.

In the case-by-case application of the standards set forth above the Secretary of Labor would seek to determine whether particular work is performed principally (1) to provide housing shelter

et cetera, to the missile, its supporting system and site personnel or basic services to the structure which provides such housing shelter,

et cetera

or to provide services to the missile or space vehicle which will insure its satisfactory performance pursuant to specifications.

In your testimony, much of what you have described as being done by the construction industry is certainly not just housing or shelter. They actually are there to provide service to the missile or space vehicle in order to assure its satisfactory performance, is that correct? General THURMAN. Sir, let me give you an illustration or let me ask Colonel Reilly to do it because I think he can do it better.

In the course of the installation of some of this complex equipment is a launcher platform that I would like to ask him to explain as probably a good case in point. You have some normal construction type work involved and you have some other than normal construction type of work involved. I do not think that classification of what does and does not fall within the Davis-Bacon Act should be the sole criterion of what kind of workers can be used most efficiently to perform a particular job.

May I ask Colonel Reilly to explain this missile launcher platform? It is, I think, a good case in point.

Colonel REILLY. Mr. Chairman, I refer to our Atlas F missile which is the latest series of the Atlas missiles and a missile which is enclosed in a silo, the missile being raised by an elevator prior to its launching. Whe have in the silo and actually what you might term the top point of the elevator, the launch platform. It is the very complicated complex mechanism which mates the bottom part of the missile, if you will, with the elevator.

Now, the silo itself, the crib within the silo, and the associated structural work has, of course, all been accomplished under our prime construction contracts administered by the Corps of Engineers.

With regard to the launch platform specifically, the components of this platform are considered to be an integral part of the overall missile launch system.

These components are manufactured, engineered, and designed by the various associate missile manufacturers who work together with the integrating contractor, General Dynamics Astronautics.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Of course, the rest of the silo is also a part of that design, the integrated design. You did not just tell the manufacturer to design the launching platform. He designed the whole thing from the bottom.

Colonel REILLY. No, sir. The missile and the crib which surrounds the elevator are designed as a part of the construction phase of work. Mr. ROOSEVELT. Yes, but it is designed by the manufacturer. Colonel REILLY. No, sir.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The overall design is; is it not?

Colonel REILLY. No, sir. The overall design is accomplished by our Air Force design agency in the Ballistic Systems Division.

This design is then turned over to the Corps of Engineers for the procurement of the necessary services.

General THURMAN. It is an integrated design all right, Mr. Chair

man.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. That is what you said before.

General THURMAN. The question is who does it? That is all. It is certainly an integrated design.

Colonel REILLY. The component parts of this launch platform are actually assembled by people of the construction trade who work for General Dynamics. It must be lowered into position with cranes and you have certain bolting and welding and things of this nature.

However, the tolerances and the degree of precision which is required in the assembly are utterly fantastic.

The precision is such that it must be completely controlled by optical means during the assembly.

All of this close configuration control is under the direct supervision and actually performed by the technicians of the integrating con

tractor.

However, the various skills, certain skills and trades which are used in the assembly of this 145-ton launch platform are furnished by people from the construction trade.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Just to put that into a layman's language, if I may, what you are saying is that the responsibility for seeing that it is properly done, that the tolerances are correct, is done by the manufacturer's experts, but the actual work is done by the construction workmen.

Colonel REILLY. That is correct.

Another point, if I may mention, is the time phasing. The assembly and installation of the launch platform is very intricately interwoven with the time phasing of the installation and checkout task. It is not appropriate, nor could it be accomplished during the construction phase. The restricted area within the silo is such that certain components which must go in during the installation and check