President Backs MX Deployment on Roving Trains

President Reagan, in a move certain to reignite controversy over the nation’s long-range nuclear missile arsenal, decided Friday to deploy additional MX nuclear missiles on railroad trains that would traverse the countryside in times of crisis to evade strikes by enemy weapons.

Reagan also decided to move ahead with development of truck-mounted small intercontinental ballistic missiles known as the Midgetman.

He rejected suggestions from some senior Defense Department civilians that as many as three warheads be placed on the new weapon. Rather, he chose to limit it to one warhead and to deploy it on trailer trucks because it would be cheaper and quicker to build.

The new proposal will be sent to Congress, which must give its approval, next month.

The smaller missiles and mobile launchers could be moved away from military bases and other storage sites during periods of heightened international tension. The Midgetman, to be ready for deployment in six years, would cost as much as $50 billion, the Air Force said.

Reagan was compelled to take up once again the troublesome question of how to base the 10-warhead MX missile when Congress balked at providing funds for more than 50 missiles unless he found a new deployment system. He had decided more than three years ago to place the missiles in old Minuteman missile silos, but critics complained that they would be too vulnerable to enemy attack. The silos are unprotected and are in known locations in the upper Midwest.

Issue Raises Questions

Although the objection to the fixed base apparently has been met, the resubmission of the issue to Congress will reopen the long-running controversy over the weapon’s practicality, its impact on Soviet relations and its cost in times of severe budget constraints. Also, questions are likely to be raised about whether the trains could be dispersed quickly enough to protect the missiles in the event of a surprise attack.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who headed a presidential commission on the missile arsenal three years ago, said that the “key problem of the MX is that of survivability, and I think the rail mobile is a step beyond putting it in Minuteman silos. It doesn’t provide adequate survivability, but it does provide something.”

As devised by the Air Force, which resurrected a deployment method suggested more than two decades ago, 25 railroad trains made up of six cars each would be maintained at a total of 10 Air Force bases. Each train would carry two missiles and launch-control facilities.

In the event of a threatened attack, “We would put them on the rail system of the United States, over 200,000 miles of rail, and that would provide, we think, for the Soviet planner a very unattractive target because he wouldn’t be able to locate it,” said Brig. Gen. Charles A. May, a special assistant in the Air Force for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile modernization.

Cost Put at $15 Billion

He estimated that the rail basing would cost $15 billion. The main garrison would be at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, and additional missiles would be deployed on government land in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.

The Administration has maintained that it needs 100 of the powerful MX missiles to counter the Soviet missile threat. The first 50, already funded by Congress, will be placed in the silos.

The Administration has left open the issue of how many of the smaller Midgetman missiles it will request.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said that the number “will be dependent upon the size of the Soviet threat and progress reached on arms control agreements.” But May said that the Administration will seek funds for 500 small missiles.

May said that although money for development would be requested next year, a production decision would not be made until 1989 or 1990. The first weapons would be placed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

Reagan, in opting for use of the Minuteman silos in 1983, accepted the recommendations of a commission headed by Scowcroft. Scowcroft said he considered that solution imperfect but more immediately feasible.

Backing for Midgetman

The small missile has been more warmly received than the MX in Congress, where supporters have been impressed by its greater mobility and survivability during a nuclear attack.

One senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition that he not be identified, complained about the congressional pressure to build the smaller missile in the face of concerns among some senior defense officials that it would be “militarily negligible.”