Loopholes Seen in Strategic Pact Outline

The rough outlines of a strategic arms reduction treaty, which is to be the centerpiece of superpower summit discussions next week, contain serious loopholes that would force major changes in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a House panel concluded in a report released Wednesday.

“We are very lucky the Administration is not going to sign the START treaty in Moscow,” said Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and head of the committee panel that issued the evaluation.

The treaty is designed to halve the number of warheads for the superpowers’ arsenals of long-range missiles and bombers, leaving each side with a total of 6,000 deployed warheads.

But as it is currently drafted, “the purported START limit of 6,000 weapons is an illusion,” said the report by the committee’s defense policy panel.

Some proposed rules for counting warheads would understate the total that the Soviets might actually have, it said. While the treaty would assign arbitrary warhead capacities for some weapons, such as bombers, there are indications that they actually could be outfitted with a greater number of warheads.

In addition, the accord tentatively would permit each side to stockpile extra missiles and warheads for tests and as spares for the deployed force. So far, no limits have been set on the number of extra warheads, the panel noted, warning that the Soviets might choose to keep more than 10,000 in this category.