Reagan Backs Action on ‘Star Wars’ : Cites Technological Advances in Urging Early Deployment

President Reagan, marking the fifth anniversary of his “Star Wars” proposal, said Monday the United States would move to deploy elements of the space-based missile defense system as soon as they are ready, thereby denying the Soviets “confidence in their ability to achieve any objectives through the use of ballistic missiles.”

But the President gave no indication of any scientific breakthroughs that would allow initial deployment before the early 1990s--a schedule that would leave to his successor the crucial decisions on implementing the system.

Reagan, while chastising Congress for not meeting his budget requests for the Strategic Defense Initiative, as the program is formally known, said technological advances have still come “more rapidly than many of us ever dreamed possible.”

Delay ‘Unconscionable’

” . . . Given the gravity of the nuclear threat to humanity, any unnecessary delay in the development and deployment of SDI is unconscionable. And that’s why we’ll move forward, when ready, with phased deployments of SDI,” he said.

Reagan made his remarks in a speech to a conference organized by the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis of Cambridge, Mass., a nonprofit research group that studies national security issues.

The President’s address put his stamp, as has been expected, on plans disclosed by the Pentagon in September to push ahead with the phased deployment of the controversial, multibillion-dollar system before it is fully developed.

Last year, some in the Administration and defense community had discouraged partial deployment, arguing that putting up anything beyond a very rudimentary system would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and also would drain money away from research on the latter stages of the system.

Called Deterrent

However, former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger argued strongly for early deployment as an important deterrent against nuclear aggression. Analysts also saw it as a method of undercutting any future efforts to terminate the program.

Reagan is seeking $4.5 billion for the program in fiscal 1989. Congressional cuts in the Pentagon’s requests have led to a reassessment of the program’s scope, and this summer a defense advisory panel will review its goals and make recommendations on shifting from research to development.

As envisioned by the Pentagon, the initial phase would entail six individual programs intended to track enemy missiles and warheads and intercept them at different stages of their intercontinental flight.

The system, however, would not include the more sophisticated weapons intended to destroy enemy missiles and warheads with lasers. If a fully operational network of anti-missile weapons can be achieved, it would not be ready until perhaps the next century, scientists have said.

‘Top Priority’

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater on Monday described the missile defense program as “the top priority” for the President and said the speech amounted to the announcement of “the beginning of a Phase 1 implementation program.”

But a Pentagon spokesman termed the address as less significant, noting that it revisited plans laid out by the department in the fall and discussed extensively since then. “It puts the presidential chop on the whole thing,” said one White House official.

Reagan sought in his address to draw attention to the opposition the program faces in Congress and among others, including some scientists who question whether its goals are feasible.

“If we’ve learned anything in five years, it’s that it’s sometimes easier to bring into being new technologies than it is to bring about new thinking on some subjects. Breakthroughs in physics are sometimes easier than breakthroughs in psyches,” the President said.