Air Force Says Budget Cuts Boost MX Price by 50%

WASHINGTON — The Air Force, blaming budget cuts made by Congress, has revised the cost of each MX intercontinental ballistic missile upward by 50%, Defense Week said in today’s editions.

The magazine said the Air Force notified congressional leaders last week that the estimated cost of producing each MX in fiscal 1985 would rise from $79.3 million to $119 million.

Acting Air Force Secretary E. C. Aldridge said he raised the MX estimate “solely because Congress voted to procure 21 missiles in fiscal year 1985 instead of the budgeted quantity of 40,” the magazine said. Defense Week quoted an unidentified Air Force spokesman as saying that “the difference in cost is the result of losing the benefits of economies of scale.”