Ford Aerospace Settles Claims Over Billing : Defense: The company had been accused of irregularities in its charges to the Air Force.

Ford Aerospace Corp. has paid $2.8 million to settle civil charges that it overbilled the Air Force for labor costs on four contracts, the Justice Department said Friday.

Stuart M. Gerson, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, said the billing irregularities were disclosed in 1986 and 1987 after Ford Aerospace officials notified the Defense Department under the government’s voluntary disclosure program.

Ford Aerospace made an undisclosed payment of $2.1 million in partial settlement of the charges some time ago and paid the remaining $650,000 on Friday, the Justice Department said. In addition, Ford must also pay all legal expenses incurred by the government during the investigation.

“This settlement represents precisely the type of voluntary cooperation that we encourage among all the contractors who discover billing irregularities,” Gerson said.

In agreeing to the settlement, Ford admitted no wrongdoing. Chris Clough, a spokesman for Ford Aerospace, declined to comment.

The contracts involved work done for the Air Force at Ford Aerospace’s space systems division in Sunnyvale, Calif., and at the Air Force’s technical services operation division in Colorado.

Frank Kelly, a Justice Department spokesman, said the work involved maintenance of Air Force satellites and providing technical services for the North American Air Defense radar tracking facility at Cheyenne Mountain, Colo.

New York-based Loral Corp. agreed last week to acquire Ford Aerospace from Ford Motor Co. for $715 million plus other obligations.

In September, 1988, Ford Aerospace agreed to pay a $7-million fine to settle a separate case in which the Air Force alleged that the company had submitted false pricing information that could have led to overcharges on contracts for a laser-guided targeting system.