Bugs in Big Eye

The Senate made a mistake in voting down a motion last week that would have blocked production of the trouble-plagued Big Eye nerve-gas bomb. The project can still be put on hold if the House does a proper job with similar legislation.

The Reagan Administration’s determination to resume production of nerve-gas weapons is understandable under the circumstances.

The size of both the Soviet and U.S. chemical-warfare arsenals is secret. But it is generally believed that the United States, which hasn’t manufactured gas weapons since 1969, has 35,000 to 45,000 tons of lethal gas in storage, while the Soviet Union has close to 10 times as much. Making things worse, the existing U.S. stockpile of deadly chemicals is in containers that have started to deteriorate, thus posing an unacceptable environmental hazard. The Soviet Union says that it wants a global agreement to outlaw the production or possession of chemical weapons, but has so far refused to accept meaningful provisions for verification of compliance with such a ban.

Meanwhile, military planners see evidence that the Soviets would actually use chemical weapons in the event of war.

The Administration wants to resume production of chemical weapons in order to increase the pressure on the Soviets for a global ban--and to deter them from ever using those weapons if an agreement cannot be negotiated.

Pentagon plans call for replacement of the existing nerve-gas stockpile with new, so-called binary weapons that would be safe to store and would remain non-lethal until their actual use against an enemy. The nerve gas would be delivered by artillery shell or aerial bomb.

The Big Eye bomb has run into technical problems that raise serious doubts as to whether it could be used effectively. The General Accounting Office has made the common-sense proposal that preparations to produce the bomb be held in abeyance until the problems are solved. Defense officials, meanwhile, still haven’t met a congressional requirement that an acceptable plan for safe destruction of the existing nerve-gas stockpile be ready before binary weapons are produced.

Congress should not lead the Soviets to believe that, in the absence of an agreement banning chemical weapons, the United States will maintain its unilateral moratorium on production indefinitely. But, until and unless the Pentagon gets its act together, preparations for the production of Big Eye should not go forward. It’s up to the House to see that they don’t.