11.9% Military Hike Seeks to Gain ‘Lost Momentum’

Pursuing the hard-line tactics that have served him well in past confrontations with a balky Congress, President Reagan on Wednesday proposed boosting military spending authority by 11.9% next year and nearly doubling the budget of the “Star Wars” missile defense program.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger described the $311.6-billion Defense Department budget as intended to “regain some of the momentum which was lost” when the new Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law forced the Pentagon to rein in spending for the current year.

And, to those who suggest that the military must bear a larger share of the pain involved in bringing the 1987 deficit down to the $144-billion ceiling imposed by Gramm-Rudman, Weinberger said: “We respond that we have given both at home and at the office and at the Pentagon.”

If adopted by Congress, the Reagan budget would boost overall defense spending, including Energy Department outlays for nuclear weapons, by $34.2 billion--up from $286.1 billion in the current fiscal year to $320.3 billion in the new fiscal year begining Oct. 1. These figures represent an 11.9% increase before expected inflation of 3.4% is taken into account.

According to Pentagon projections, the defense budget would grow to $395.5 billion by 1991.

In presenting a blueprint for substantially higher defense spending at a time when congressional opposition seems stronger than ever, Reagan and Weinberger appear to be following a tactical game plan they have used repeatedly in past budget battles: seeking large increases, refusing to talk about or propose cuts and ultimately getting nearly all they have asked for.

Using that approach, the Administration has sought a total of $1.37 trillion for defense over its five years in office, and received fully $1.28 trillion.

In the past, it has argued that the strategic buildup on which it embarked five years ago was necessary to catch up with Soviet advances of the 1970s. Having achieved what it considers “rough parity,” the Administration now sees itself--in the words of Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--”at a critical juncture” at which reductions in the spending request could “erode much of the progress we have already made.”

The new budget projections anticipate actual spending of $274.3 billion--$37.3 billion less than the overall budget request--because funds are appropriated for some weapons in one year but not spent until later years.

Estimate to Be Challenged

However, the Pentagon’s estimate will be challenged in a report later this month by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO assessment, according to one defense budget expert, will envision actual spending of $10 billion to $15 billion more than the Pentagon’s forecast. Higher actual spending would mean a corresponding increase in the Administration’s projected $143.6-billion deficit and could trigger mandatory spending cuts throughout the government, under the deficit reduction legislation.

Weinberger conceded that the budget faces difficulties in Congress. But he told reporters: “We have to do our best to persuade the Congress this amount is reasonable, is necessary, is not something that some brass has dreamed up, but is forced on us” by the requirements of defending the United States, he said.

In presenting the budget to the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, Weinberger made it clear in an exchange with Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) that he will fight a compromise.

‘We’ll Do Our Best’

Asked to work with the committee to find cuts, Weinberger said that any such agreement would “bring you out to numbers that are lower than the nation needs.”

Hart, who said “we wouldn’t be in this fix” if the Administration would increase taxes to pay for greater military spending, responded to Weinberger: “Your answer is no, and it is safe to say you won’t get the military budget you requested. We’ll do our best, even without your help.”

Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, predicted that a 4% increase is “the best case” Weinberger could expect.

“The worst case will be much, much below that,” he told the defense secretary, adding that the Pentagon offered a budget that “may be in tune” with the threat posed by the Soviet Union, but “is not in tune with fiscal reality.”

Quayle Favors 3% Increase

Indeed, even a Republican Senate source conceded that the Pentagon may end up with less than it received this year, and Sen. Dan Quayle (R-Ind.) said he’d like to see Pentagon spending increase by 3%, but that would not occur “unless we get some added revenues.”

Funding for Reagan’s top-priority Strategic Defense Initiative, the space-based missile defense program commonly known as “Star Wars,” would increase from $2.76 billion in the current year to $4.81 billion next year, receiving more than any other single weapons program.

Weinberger said the Administration is seeking the 74% increase in spending for SDI research because “we’re pursuing several promising lines of approach at once,” rather than exploring each proposal sequentially.

Development of Midgetman

The Pentagon’s over-all spending plan includes $1.396 billion to begin full-scale development of the Midgetman missile, a single-warhead, 30,000-pound weapon that would be deployed as a complement to the 50 huge 10-warhead MX missiles that have been approved by Congress. Spending for the smaller weapon would increase to $2.6 billion in 1988, leading up to initial deployment in December, 1992, on Western military bases.

Spending for SDI and Midgetman would amount to about 2% of the total Pentagon budget, which covers all defense operations including salaries for 2.1 million troops and 1 million civilians, weapons procurement, operations, maintenance and military construction.

Spending for the MX would drop from $2.5 billion to $1.8 billion, reflecting the 50-weapon limit imposed by Congress until the Administration comes up with an alternative to deploying the weapons in Minuteman missile silos that some fear could not withstand a strike by increasingly accurate Soviet weapons. However, Reagan is asking permission to buy 21 additional MX missiles for test purposes.

Funding for B-1B Bombers

While funding for the 100 B-1B bombers that are being introduced as a temporary replacement of aging B-52s begins to taper off in the new budget, there are indications that classified spending for the Advanced Technology Bomber, using electronic “stealth” technology to hide it from Soviet radar, is moving ahead.

Spending for special operations forces, including those trained for counterterrorist assignments, is generally classified, but one document provided by the Pentagon shows a nearly fourfold increase from fiscal 1981 to 1987, with a request of $1.69 billion.

The Army and Air Force are proceeding with full funding requests for two controversial programs--the Army’s Bradley fighting vehicle, a cross between a tank and an armored personnel carrier, and the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM. Work on the missile, being produced by Hughes Aircraft Co. of El Segundo for the Air Force’s most sophisticated jet fighters, became so expensive that Weinberger has delayed a decision on full production until later this year.

Jump in Spending

Air Force spending on the missile would jump from $209 million to $746 million, if it gets Weinberger’s go-ahead.

The Pentagon budget includes $1.2 billion for 870 Bradley vehicles and spare parts, though questions have been raised about the Bradley’s ability to withstand direct hits by armor-piercing shells.

In an effort to support Weinberger’s assertion that $4.3 billion had been trimmed from the spending requests made by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps and other Pentagon agencies, Pentagon officials distributed a list of cuts from a variety of high-technology programs. Many of the cuts would be achieved by stretching out weapons procurement, which the Pentagon acknowledges actually adds to long-term costs.

In addition, the document claimed that $1.2 billion was saved by holding a military pay raise once projected at 5.8% to 4%.

Funds Sought for 21 Ships

The Navy’s plans for a 600-ship fleet would proceed nearly on schedule, with funding for 21 vessels being sought. They would include four SSN-688 attack submarines and one Trident submarine, two Aegis cruisers and three guided-missile destroyers. Also, production of the submarine-launched Trident II missile, with greater range and accuracy than the Trident I, would begin in fiscal 1987. The budget also requests funds for 48 F-15 and 216 F-16 Air Force fighters, 120 F/A-18 Navy jets, and $217 million to begin Air Force procurement of the C-17, a new jet cargo airplane.

Weinberger has argued that the total requested increase should be viewed as a 3% increase, rather than an increase of 8.5% after inflation, because the total spending of $320 billion represents an increase of 3% above the level of defense spending agreed upon by the Administration and Congress last August, before Congress began shaving defense appropriations, and before the Gramm-Rudman balanced-budget legislation took an additional $11 billion from defense spending authority.

Those cuts brought the first decrease in the defense budget in 15 years.