Soviet Officer Tours U.S. Bases

The chief of the general staff of the Soviet military inspected the cockpit of a B-1 bomber and visited a training center for missile crews Sunday as part of a tour he said will help advance the cause of peace.

Sergei F. Akhromeyev, speaking through an interpreter, said his tour of U.S. military installations in the last few days with Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, demonstrated that American military personnel are competent and want peace.

“Of course the military might of the United States armed services and of the U.S. Air Force in particular is high, but I knew that before I arrived in the United States,” Akhromeyev said.

“The impressions I’m taking home of the armed services personnel are most favorable,” said Akhromeyev, second only to the defense minister in the Soviet military command. “I also got from the interviews I received from your military people you are peace-loving people.”

Akhromeyev and other Soviet military officials made the tour as part of an accord reached at the latest summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, at which the two leaders agreed to allow inspections of some military installations.

Lt. Col. Tony Beat, a B-1 pilot, said the Soviets were not allowed to see the bomber’s control system in operation.