D Kenneth Richardson

Gov. Pete Wilson told California's top aerospace executives Tuesday that he would attempt to stem an exodus of aerospace jobs by improving political support for the industry and reducing the economic burden of doing business in the state.

During the Cuban missile crisis, engineer Al Raisters worked at Vandenberg Air Force Base, testing surveillance satellites. He has helped design missiles for Hughes Aircraft Co., and advised the largest electronics firm in Latvia, his native country. Now retired after a 35-year career with Hughes, Raisters volunteers in local classrooms overseeing technological tasks that are simpler but, he says, at least as rewarding.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, under unrelenting congressional pressure to trim the Pentagon budget, has decided to delay a decision on future purchases by the Air Force of a highly sophisticated missile until its skyrocketing costs have been contained. And he has raised the possibility of canceling production of the weapon, the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, which is to be produced by Hughes Aircraft Co. of El Segundo for both the Air Force and the Navy.

Hughes Aircraft Co., the world's largest defense electronics contractor, will reorganize its operations to help achieve its long-term goal of shifting more of its production to commercial applications, the company said Monday. Although it will involve no layoffs, the Hughes restructuring is another manifestation of defense budget cuts that have cost the 1.23-million-employee aerospace industry more than 101,000 jobs since 1989, according to the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Assn.

A federal grand jury in Birmingham, Ala., is investigating criminal allegations that Hughes Aircraft, a General Motors subsidiary, fraudulently overcharged the Army on missile contracts, it was learned Friday. The grand jury has subpoenaed Hughes Executive Vice President D. Kenneth Richardson to testify in the near future and has already subpoenaed 13 other Hughes officials since February, a company spokesman confirmed. The U.S. attorney's office in Birmingham has interviewed Malcolm R.

The damaging and costly problems at Hughes Aircraft's missile operations have dragged on for more than a year, generating an enormous financial burden and prompting recent Air Force dissatisfaction over the firm's progress in restoring full production. Hughes Missile Systems Group, based in Canoga Park, has lost $100 million in out-of-pocket expenses and forgone profit and will close 1985 with its third annual financial loss, according to group President D. Kenneth Richardson.

Ordinarily, the prospect of winning a big chunk of a $10-billion job would send any defense contractor gleefully into financial orbit. But, at Hughes Aircraft, things aren't so simple. Next month, the Pentagon will decide whether to give the go-ahead for full-scale production of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs. The missiles, now in the development stage, would replace 1950s-vintage Sparrows. The production contract would be worth $10 billion through 1992.

An unlikely casualty of the Persian Gulf War might be the defense industry itself, despite the high marks given to American weapons technology, defense industry executives and analysts say. The cost of the war effort is potentially so great that they worry that it could deplete defense budgets--long into the future--of money for new weapons purchases. The outlook for the defense industry was already dismal.