Must Improve Nuclear Arms, Cheney Tells NATO

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies Wednesday that they will have to improve their short-range nuclear forces to keep up with the Soviet Union’s modernization efforts, conference officials said.

Cheney, making his debut at a NATO session, started the two-day session of defense ministers who are meeting as the Nuclear Planning Group with a report on the status of forces in East and West, including Warsaw Pact nuclear modernization and force restructuring.

NATO has been in disarray over the question of replacing the alliance’s aging Lance missiles.

Officials said Cheney reported that the Soviets are continuing to replace the older, inaccurate Frog artillery rocket with more up-to-date SS-21 missiles, with improved range and accuracy.

The Soviets are also developing a modernized version for the 1960s-vintage Scud missile. The new version would have a range of up to 279 miles.

“The point was made quite graphically and dramatically that extensive Soviet nuclear modernization is taking place in all areas,” a senior U.S. official said of Cheney’s presentation to the Nuclear Planning Group.

But the official conceded there are also widespread differences among the allies over how to respond to a Warsaw Pact call for talks with NATO to reduce and gradually eliminate tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

Some allies, including Belgium, pressed the case for talks with the Soviet Bloc to reduce short-range systems--an idea opposed by Washington and London, which fear they will lead inexorably to elimination of these weapons.

Modernization of NATO weapons is a hot political issue in West Germany, where the arms would be based, and the Bonn leadership has been trying to defer a decision on the policy.

The U.S. official, who did not wish to be identified, told reporters the allies have agreed the issue of negotiations should be addressed in a document to be issued next month at a NATO summit in Brussels.