Defense Proposals Stress ‘Star Wars,’ Nuclear Arms

President Reagan sends a $313.7-billion defense budget to Congress today, seeking major spending boosts for nuclear weapons and his “Star Wars” missile defense program but relatively modest increases for training and other programs that contribute to the readiness of conventional forces.

The Pentagon budget for fiscal 1986, which begins Oct. 1, represents an increase over the current fiscal year of 5.9% after inflation. Under the new blueprint, defense spending would account for 6.6% of the nation’s gross national product and would grow to 7.4% by 1990.

By comparison, the defense share of the GNP was 5.1% in 1980, two years before Reagan submitted his first complete budget, and 8.3% during the Vietnam War 10 years earlier.

Reagan’s defense spending plans are already under withering attack from congressional Republicans and Democrats alike, and are almost certain to be shaved. Critics contend that an increase of the magnitude being proposed is not justified at a time when domestic programs are being slashed and the deficit is continuing to spiral upward.

As one senior Administration official noted at a weekend news briefing, however, Congress--despite its complaining--has thus far given the President almost every thing he asked for in his proposed five-year, $1-trillion defense buildup--the largest peacetime increase in the nation’s history.

And Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, arguing that the budget is as lean as it can be, said at a news briefing Saturday that the President’s successful efforts to boost defense spending over his first term were responsible for the Soviet Union’s new willingness to resume arms control talks.

“We believe our resolve to stay strong is what brought the Soviets to the negotiating table,” Weinberger said, referring to the talks scheduled to open in Geneva next month.

At the same time, he asserted, current world conditions dictated the need to maintain that growth in military spending. “There’s been no diminution in the threat or the perception of the threat, and it is the threat which dictates our national security needs,” he said.

While Reagan is seeking authority for a Pentagon budget of $313.7 billion, up from $284.5 billion in the current fiscal year, the full amount will not be paid out during the 12-month fiscal year because of time lags on major defense contracts.

Outlays Projected

Pentagon outlays--reflecting costs of commitments authorized in earlier budgets as well as new commitments that will be made in fiscal 1986--would rise about 12.5%, to $277.5 billion in fiscal 1986 from $246.5 billion in fiscal 1985.

Despite repeated battles--and compromises--with congressional Democrats over his efforts to build up the nation’s nuclear arsenal, Reagan is seeking a 43% increase in funding for the controversial MX intercontinental ballistic missile, scheduled to be deployed in late 1986. He is asking $4 billion for 48 of the long-range nuclear missiles, compared to $2.8 billion for 21 of the weapons in the current budget

But even influential Republicans--including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Barry Goldwater of Arizona, normally a staunch ally of military modernization programs--have expressed skepticism about the MX. And in view of the barrage of difficulties the weapon has encountered in Congress, where another protracted battle is expected this spring, it seems unlikely that Reagan will win approval to buy the full complement of MX missiles he seeks.

$8 Billion in Energy’s Budget

In addition to the Pentagon’s own spending, the nuclear weapons programs included in the Energy Department’s budget would add $8 billion to the overall costs for national defense.

In other programs that are central to the President’s defense buildup:

--Spending on research for a space-based defense against enemy missiles, known in the Administration as the Strategic Defense Initiative and commonly called the “Star Wars” plan, would rise from $1.4 billion to $3.7 billion in fiscal 1986.

--The small intercontinental ballistic missile, dubbed the “Midgetman,” would receive $624.5 million, reflecting sharp growth in a program intended to deploy a new generation of nuclear missiles by 1992.

--An additional 48 B-1 bombers, the number projected in earlier years, would be purchased, bringing to 100 the number of bombers intended to replace the nation’s aging B-52s. This would complete the bomber modernization program until the Stealth plane is ready, sometime in the next decade.

Conventional Forces Cited

“Priority continues to be placed upon the President’s strategic modernization program and the development of well-equipped and trained conventional forces, able and ready to deploy rapidly,” the Pentagon said in an 11-page statement introducing the budget.

But in contrast to the budgets for operations and maintenance and for purchases--which will increase 6.1% and 5.1%, respectively--overall research spending, which encompasses “Star Wars” and other programs, will climb 20.1% over the 1985 figure.

In addition, the new budget reflects a growing disparity between pay for the Defense Department’s civilian and military employees. Through 1990, pay for the 2.1 million men and women in uniform will increase 24.6%. By contrast, salaries for the Defense Department’s civilian employees--the largest single element of the federal work force--will be cut next year and will rise only 7% through 1990.

When Weinberger was putting the final touches on the budget in December, he bowed to pressure from the White House and Republican leaders in the Senate and trimmed $8.7 billion from the spending plans he had been drafting for the new budget.

No Programs Sacrificed

To accomplish that, he sacrificed no major weapons programs. Rather, the budget provides for slight but temporary trims in the amounts the Pentagon had wanted to seek for purchases of such weapons as the medium-range shoulder-launched Stinger missile and the medium-range nuclear-tipped Pershing missile, as well as for military construction projects, which nevertheless increase by 23.3%.

The Pentagon also said it would stretch out purchase of the weapons over a longer period of time than originally planned.

A similar “stretch-out”--which the Pentagon argues costs more in the long run as a result of inflation--would trim 1986 purchases of F-14, F-15, F-16 and F-18 jet fighters. Under the reduced buying plan, the Pentagon wants to purchase 48 supersophisticated F-15s and 180 F-16s, the key elements in the Air Force’s tactical units. In addition, the Navy reduced from 27 to 23 the number of ships--none of them combat vessels--that it seeks to buy.

Pressure to trim the defense spending plan began mounting in December as the Administration revised its deficit estimate for fiscal 1986 from $175 billion to a record $230 billion. But the Pentagon maintained in its budget documents that defense spending is not as responsible for the deficit dilemma as some have argued.

‘Contributing to Deficit’

But Gordon Adams, director of the Defense Budget Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on defense spending issues, said, “Defense is growing in real dollars, and when they’re growing in real dollars, they’re contributing to the deficit.”

Moreover, Adams said, by overestimating the amount it would actually spend--and gaining close to that amount from Congress--the Pentagon is building up a treasure chest of unobligated and unspent money. One Pentagon document that was not made public, he said, indicated that such funds would grow to $279 billion next year from $92 billion in 1980.

As it has for several years, the Air Force is coming out with the greatest budget among the four uniformed services. It is slated to operate under a budget of $110.1 billion, an increase of 5.8%. The combined Navy and Marine Corps budget would be $104.8 billion, a 4.5% increase, and the Army budget would be $81.7 billion, an increase of 5.7%.

The budget also reflects a sharp jump in funding, from $147 million to $531 million, for the Sgt. York Division Air Defense gun, manufactured by Ford Aerospace & Communications Corp. of Newport Beach. However, questions have been raised about whether the weapon can meet the performance standards set for it, and Weinberger is scheduled to decide in June whether to proceed with its production.

Similarly, funding for the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, produced by Hughes Missile Systems Group of Canoga Park, is scheduled to soar from $282 million to $540 million. But Weinberger has indicated that if the weapon’s skyrocketing costs are not trimmed, he may abandon the missile.