Pentagon Ploy to Avert Cut in ‘Star Wars’ Seen

The Defense Department may ask Congress for more than it needs next year for President Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” program to protect it from the impact of any across-the-board cuts required by the new deficit-reduction law, a senior Reagan Administration official said Wednesday.

“It is not uncommon to ask for more than one absolutely must have in anticipation of cuts,” the official said in unusually candid remarks about federal budgeting in general and spending on “Star Wars,” Reagan’s space-based missile defense system, in particular.

His comment drew a quick denial from Defense Department Comptroller Robert Helm, who called it “a ridiculous and absurd statement to make. Resources are scarce enough.”

Untouched by Cuts

“Star Wars” emerged Wednesday as one of the few military projects untouched by the 1986 budget cuts unveiled by the Defense Department as a result of the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.

Department officials announced $5.1 billion in reductions, or 4.9% of total spending for defense programs subject to cuts. In addition, the Energy Department, which operates the government’s nuclear weapons programs, and some other federal agencies, will have to absorb cuts in defense spending of nearly $300 million.

“You’re not going to be as ready tomorrow as you would have preferred to be,” Helm said. “You’re going to have less ammunition, less days of readiness, fewer spares. Support items undoubtedly will be casualties. Items will have to be stretched out, purchased later, at higher cost. Training probably will be affected--flying hours, steaming hours. Literally every aspect of the defense budget has been touched by Gramm-Rudman.”

Because the department decided to shield the $2.75-billion “Star Wars” budget from cuts, it was forced to compensate with deeper reductions in other military research and development. Helm said that the other military R&D; would be cut approximately 9.8%.

Other Programs Untouched

The Defense Department also declined to reduce personnel levels and pay rates and in addition to “Star Wars” 19 other weapons programs emerged unscathed--out of a total of about 4,000. Among the major programs exempted from the cuts are a new Army communications system, an Air Force communications and war-targeting satellite known as NAVSTAR and research on modifications to several Navy airplanes, including the A-6F attack aircraft and the F-14.

Elsewhere in the Pentagon budget, programs were trimmed uniformly to yield the $5.1 billion in savings. Among the thousands of individual cuts: $4,000 from a Navy program to buy air conditioners; $653,000 from the program intended to replace Air Force One, the President’s official jet, with a new jumbo jet; $385,000 for inert training bombs for the Air Force, and $12,000 for conventional 40-millimeter cartridges for the Army.

In California, military construction will be trimmed by $5,072,000.

Heart of Nuclear Arsenal

As Pentagon sources indicated earlier, there will be trims in spending for such major weapons systems as the B-1B bomber and the MX missile, which represent the heart of Reagan’s buildup of the nation’s nuclear arsenal during the first five years of his Administration.

Similarly, the reductions apply to research and development of a new small intercontinental ballistic missile known as the Midgetman and to efforts to improve the communications systems used to control the use of nuclear weapons.

Helm said that the Pentagon decided to protect “Star Wars,” formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, because Congress had shaved the President’s initial request of $3.7 billion by about $1 billion. Congress trimmed the other strategic weapons programs by smaller amounts and Defense Department officials thought that they could absorb the 4.9% cuts required in the current round of reductions.

‘Star Wars’ Needed Help

“These programs are well along,” Helm said. “They’ve got some legs” to stand on. But “Star Wars,” he said, “did not have the flexibility to take that (4.9%) cut and stay on the track it was on.”

A senior Administration official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified by name, was asked if the Strategic Defense Initiative would suffer cuts in 1987, when the Pentagon will not enjoy the flexibility Congress gave it this year to exempt certain projects from the across-the-board cuts that will be required again if Congress fails to hit the Gramm-Rudman act’s deficit target.

“It isn’t clear that we will be suffering in SDI,” he said. “One can always put SDI in the budget in such a way as to protect the program from across-the-board cuts.”

Translating Orders

While the individual services are still translating the orders from Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger into numbers that will indicate how many fewer guns, missiles and airplanes can be purchased, Helm said, “levels of readiness . . . are going to be affected this year.”

According to Pentagon documents, spending for operations, maintenance and procurement--the elements of the Pentagon budget that have the greatest impact on readiness--will be trimmed by $3.8 billion, by far the largest chunk being taken from the 1986 defense allocation.

The Pentagon, dismayed at the White House’s failure to derail the deficit-cutting measure, has launched a campaign on behalf of the budget it will submit in early February for fiscal 1987, which will begin Oct. 1.

Pentagon News Conference

Weinberger has scheduled one of his rare Pentagon news conferences today.

The Navy disclosed Wednesday that the Soviet Union has launched the first of a new class of aircraft carriers, and is believed to have begun work on a second such vessel that could be launched within three years. The first ship, however, is not expected to be operational for at least four years.