Broad Defense Plan Lacking, Study Says

A major new Senate study sharply criticizes Congress and the Pentagon on their handling of defense issues, concluding that both have become too wrapped up in detail at the expense of broader defense planning, a Senate source said Monday.

Indeed, the 670-page study by the Senate Armed Services Committee states that the fixation on detail in peacetime has become “an impediment to proper planning” for war, the source said. And this, he said, “leads to the conclusion that our military forces are not as effective as they should be.”

Congressional Debate

Committee staff members have expressed hope that the report will become a central element in the growing congressional debate over reforming the operations of the nation’s military Establishment.

But the study, which also faults the military services for duplication of effort, already has generated controversy. It came under fire at a private weekend conference attended by some of the nation’s most senior defense experts, who called it “lopsided” and said it failed to “explain the virtues of the current system,” the source said.

“The general consensus was that it was overstated and used inflammatory language that would leave the reader with the impression the system was in utter chaos, and that just isn’t accurate,” the source said, speaking on the condition that he not be named.

Minor Revisions

As a result, the study has been sent back to its authors--but Senate sources said only minor revisions are scheduled before it is made public next week, and its overall conclusions are expected to be left untouched.

Nonetheless, one Senate aide said, “there was a clear direction at the end (of the conference) that the staff was to tone down a lot of the language. It gave the view that the Defense Department system is in greater turmoil and paralysis than is the case.”

The conference at Ft. A. P. Hill, an Army post about 50 miles south of Washington, drew several leading former Pentagon officials, including former Defense Secretary Harold Brown and two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. David C. Jones and retired Adm. Thomas H. Moorer. No current Pentagon officials or active-duty military officers took part.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), a member of the Armed Services Committee and a participant in the conference, agreed that the Pentagon has paid too much attention to specific problem areas--for example, meeting manpower goals--and not enough to its overall objectives.

“There has been less focus on the fact they should be prepared to project forces and fight in a given arena, or secure a particular kind of objective in a military and political way,” he said in an interview.

‘Organizational Obstacles’

The Senate source, who has studied the report, said participants in the conference concluded that “there were organizational obstacles to effective management in the Department of Defense.” But, he said, former senior military officers and civilian officials both “felt the situation today is probably better than it’s been in 25 years.”