Pentagon Officials Fear a Freeze in Defense Spending : Say They’re Wary That 3% Increase Agreed Upon by Senate-House Panel Will Be Pared

Pentagon officials say they are wary of the eventual outcome of Congress’ work on this year’s defense budget, worrying that the roughly 3% increase agreed upon in a Senate-House conference committee will be whittled back to a defense spending freeze.

One week into fiscal 1986--and after weeks of wrangling--the House Armed Services Committee hopes to resolve its disputes over the Pentagon authorization bill and present it to the full House by Friday. But congressional aides indicated they were not optimistic that the remaining issues can be worked out in time to meet that schedule.

Unless the bill is passed by the end of the week, one congressional source noted, the 2.1 million members of the armed services will not get scheduled 3% pay raises in their next paychecks--although the raises, which were to take effect Oct. 1, would be paid retroactively once the measure is enacted.

$1-Trillion Buildup

And while the committee looks ahead to the new fiscal year, its chairman, Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), has issued a 25-page summary of the Reagan Administration’s $1-trillion defense buildup, saying: “There’s a considerable question over what we’ve gotten for our money.”

Aspin, serving his first term as committee chairman, said that “only in the personnel area do the figures clearly demonstrate real improvements for the money invested.” He said that individual costs of weapons have grown, “and that’s hardly a sign of progress, considering that we were told the faster pace of procurement under Reagan would mean greater efficiency and lower unit costs.”

The committee is scheduled to begin a series of hearings Tuesday in a review of what the buildup has accomplished. Acknowledging that assessing the impact of the budget increases involves subjective measurements, Aspin nevertheless questioned whether overall gains have been achieved in technology, readiness and equipment inventories when they are compared to the growth in spending.

Personnel Improvements

The Defense Department responded with a statement that underscored the personnel improvements noted by Aspin and claimed that readiness in key weapons systems has “improved markedly.” It said aircraft “mission capable” rates had jumped between fiscal years 1980 and 1984 from 53% to 62% for Navy fighter and attack planes and from 62% to 67% in the Air Force. The statement also said realistic training had been revised and expanded and that the airlift and sea-lift capabilities of the armed services had been “dramatically improved.”

In addition, the statement said modern equipment had been procured for all three military services and was coming into use. It reported that the costs of “many weapons systems have in fact decreased.” As examples, it said the cost in constant dollars of an F-18 fighter had declined from $37.6 million to $29.8 million; of an AIM-9 air-to-air missile from $112,000 to $59,000; of a Blackhawk helicopter from $5.7 million to $4.9 million, and of a Bradley fighting vehicle from $1.7 million to $1.3 million.

“Readiness or combat capability cannot be divorced from procurement actions,” the statement said. “More modern equipment in the hands of our forces translates into a more capable force.” While House Armed Services Committee members continued to meet in a series of informal, closed-door meetings last week, the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee finished its work on the Pentagon’s 1986 appropriation.

Spending Guidelines

Under the multi-tier congressional budget process, the Senate and House Armed Services committees set overall spending guidelines and policies in the defense authorization bill and the Appropriations committees allocate the actual amounts that may be spent by the Pentagon. Their recommendations must be approved by the House and Senate.

The full House Appropriations Committee is not expected to begin work on the Pentagon budget until the week of Oct. 21.

To the dismay of Pentagon officials, the House defense appropriations subcommittee, which met in private, approved an overall defense budget of $292.5 billion--$10 billion less than the authorization level agreed upon by the Senate-House conference.

It also placed restrictions on Pentagon tests of an anti-satellite weapon against objects in space, and on efforts to modernize the nation’s supply of chemical weapons and store them in Europe, congressional sources said.

“We expect to lose some more in the appropriation in the House and recoup in conference, with the Senate people holding fast,” predicted a senior Pentagon official, speaking on the condition he not be identified by name. But, he added: “I wouldn’t say anyone is terribly optimistic.”