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Testimony of R. E. Clark Continued: 



future defense and aerospace work. Finally, Aerojet has the 

 opportunity to accommodate its future growth requirements 

 well into the next century. 



Aerojet is one of the nation's leading aerospace and defense 

 contractors. We have been in business for 45 years. We 

 have made major contributions to programs such as Titan, 

 Hinuteman and Polaris missiles, the Titan as a space launch 

 booster, and the Gemini, Apollo and the Space Shuttle manned 

 progreuas. We also have been key participants in a number of 

 highly successful secret programs. 



Aerojet operates in three principal business areas — rocket 

 propulsion, defense electronics and ordnance systems. Among 

 the major programs where we are now contributing vital 

 technology are the National Aerospace Plane, Strategic 

 Defense Initiative, Small ICBM, and SADAKM — the very cost 

 efficient anti-armor program. 



If Aerojet is to continue to contribute to major space and 

 defense programs in the coming years, we will need 

 additional facilities. As we began to look for possible 

 sites for these facilities, the proposed land exchange made 

 eminent sense. Since we had some wetlands in Florida 

 surplus to our needs and since Nevada is close to many of 

 our current operations in the West, it seemed logical to try 

 to arrange for this type of land exchange. 



When we began our initial conversations with the Department 

 of the Interior, it was made clear by both sides from the 

 outset that any proposed exchange had to be equitable from a 

 financial standpoint — that is, the land we were giving up in 

 Florida had to be of equal value to the land which we would 

 be acquiring in Nevada. That was not open to debate by 

 either us or the Department of the Interior. 



The State of Florida appraised the land which we were 

 proposing to give up in this exchange, and at the same time 

 we had professional appraisers — who were approved by the 

 Bureau of Land Management — document land of approximate 

 equal value in the State of Nevada. After these parcels 

 were identified, the Bureau of Land Management reviewed the 

 Nevada appraisal and agreed it was appropriate. 



I wish to make it absolutely clear that Aerojet did not 

 determine the land prices involved here. That was done by 

 independent professional appraisers under instructions 

 provided by the Bureau of Land Management. 



After the parcels of land were selected which made sense for 

 the land exchange, Aerojet invested more than a half of a 

 million dollars in land studies, environmental surveys and 

 economic studies on the proposed Nevada site. Complete 

 environmental reports on the proposed exchange lands in 



