European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 14, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page the stars and stripes saturday february 14. 19fl7 wholesale prices Rose in january Washington a1 wholesale prices Down dramatically in i98fi, re hounded last month will a Sharp 0.6 per cent increase the government reported Friday. Gasoline prics Rose at a record Pace. Reflecting across the Board tins in Energy prices gasoline costs soared 18.0 percent the biggest jump since the labor department began keeping track of wholesale prices in 1947. Healing Oil prices Rose 15.7 percent the steepest Advance since a 19.a percent increase in february 1974  Gas prices advanced 4.2 percent. The january gain the biggest Overall increase since november 1985, followed ,1 year that saw inflation turning in its Best performance in 37 years. Economists suggested january s Energy Price increases would have been even higher had it not been fora Milder Tolian usual Winter they noted prices Hail begun edging up in december. Food prices last month fell 1.8 per cent the second straight dip. Excluding Bod and Energy wholesale prices were  percent in january. Last month s Overall increase in lie labor department s producer Price Index would be equivalent loan annual inflation Rale of 7.7 percent if maintained for 12 consecutive months. That compares to a drop in wholesale prices of 2.5 percent for All of 1986. Wholesale prices in december however had fallen 0.1 percent. La was the collapse of Energy prices in Early 1986 that Scal the full year Index tumbling for 1hc first Lime since 1963. Indeed Only in 1949 did prices fall at a faint clip 4.6 percent. Now it is largely because of the re hound in Energy prices thai economists Are predicting moderately rising prices for the Lirse Earlc future. Analysis also Point to declines in the value of inc Dollar against Oiler major currencies in forecasting that prices of Industrial products will Rise in the months in come. In january heavy machinery and other capital equipment Rose 0.2 percent double december s  per cent. The consumer Price Index which reflects mail prices paid by Consumers will be released for january on feb. 27. For All of 1986, the Index showed an increase of just 1.1 pc Cen. The labor department gave these additional specifics on january wholesale Price activity automobile prices fell 0.7 percent after a 0.4 percent dip in december. Among foods by of prices were Down 3.8 percent poultry prices dropped 1.2 percent and egg prices were off 6.3 percent. Vegetable prices soared 21,2 it Rwal. However. Coffee prices fell 0.9 percent. Food prices had been Down 0.4 percent in he preceding month. Since Only Domestic products arc monitored the Indin does not Dirac Fly reflect rising import prices due to de Clines in the value of he Dollar against other foreign currencies. However higher prices for far Ign made parts do have a bearing on do Myslic goods. Also some . Manufacturers Nave increased their prices to match the recent Price increases of imports. Aspin puts Price of fixing bomber of $3 billion plus Washington of More than s3 billion May he needed to fix the by bomber and even that might not solve All the problems of the world s most expensive air plane the chairman of the House armed serv ices committee says. The air Force is requesting $800 million Over the Neil two years to develop fixes for the by s prob lems said rep. Les Aspin a wis. But that is Only it tip of the iceberg. The flues arc Likely to Cost in excess of $3 billion and perhaps Way in  Aspin advised other committee members he has identified sin major problems with the air plane and Tor some of them a solution in t Sci in sigh at any  each by costs $265 million and Congress has authorized 100 of them. They already arc operating out of Dyess fab in Texas and Ellsworth fab in South Dakota. In All 52 have been completed with another 10 in final production Aspin said. The option to kill the program no longer exists said Aspin. He voted with the Carter administration to Block by production in the 1970s and unsuccessfully fought president Reagan s plan to revive a later ver Sion of inc plane the by b. Sen. Charles e. Grassley a Lowa said in a hearing last month that the fix May Cost $7 billion to $10  defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and air Force chief of staff Gen. Larry d. Welch have defended the he and arc asking Congress Tor $415 million for 1988 and 1387 million in 1989 to ii it. Welch in an interview Jan. 16, said there is no cause for great alarm about the  Weinberger has said the by can perform All of its missions. Aspin said there were six Nijor problems with the by an internal system designed to diagnose repairs sends false alarms 80 percent of the Lime making maintenance a  due to night stress the plane s fuel lines arc teak ing. This is not a High tech problem la obviously can be corrected. But each plane has five Miles of Metal to Metal join is that require  the advanced electronics system designed to carry out bombing missions and inc electronics system designed to counter soviet efforts to shoot Down the plane Jam each other. Put in Binl language this Means the Pilot can choose to protect himself or to carry out his Mission but not born at she same  the terrain following radar designed for flying below 200 feel tells the plane to avoid mountains that Don t  soviet ability to detect and intercept hostile War planes Over the soviet Union has increased faster than expected and the by s hardware designed to evade detection is outdated. The aircraft stalls in what should be Normal Fly ing conditions and As a result can Only carry about three car tors of the Load it was designed for. Apsis said in the memo dated feb. 10, that he had assigned staff members to determine which of the problems could be solved at what Cost who s to blame and what lessons the Pentagon and Congress should draw from the experience. Capitalizing on Spring fever feeling that certain Sonu Ali in in the air usually associated with springtime a Young couple strolls Hind in hand toward inc Canillo in Washington. Though it s Loo Early for the Trees to Start bursting out in Bloom,.there s no Hinc 14 hold Back is capital sensation of Romance. Experts reportedly sceptical of $2 million value put on Gem los Angeles