NATO Chiefs See Weaknesses : Agree on Unreadiness for Conventional War

NATO defense ministers reached rapid agreement today on the alliance’s major weaknesses and pledged a stronger effort to remedy them, a senior NATO official said.

In the opening session of a two-day strategy meeting, the ministers also reaffirmed a longstanding goal of increasing military spending by 3% a year, the official said during a break in the closed-door discussions. Few NATO nations have consistently met that target.

The official said the ministers accepted an internal NATO report that said the alliance is poorly prepared to deal with a conventional Warsaw Pact attack because of inadequate standing ground forces and reserves, insufficient stocks to sustain a conventional defense, lack of facilities to receive and protect reinforcing aircraft, and inadequate ability to identify enemy aircraft.

Joint Equipment Buys

The ministers agreed that the 16 North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries should buy military equipment jointly more often.

The ministers are likely to be less harmonious when they turn to President Reagan’s space-based defense program, called “Star Wars.”

The meeting brings together the defense chiefs of the United States, Canada, Britain, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Iceland. Spain is represented by an official observer. France is absent because it is not part of NATO’s integrated military command.