Cutback Seen in Bush Request for ‘Star Wars’

President Bush will ask Congress for about $4.7 billion for the “Star Wars” anti-missile program next year, substantially less than the $5.9 billion President Ronald Reagan requested in his final budget but more than most congressional Democrats have been willing to spend, sources said Friday.

Bush’s proposal would accelerate work on ground-based systems of rocket interceptors and continue research on more futuristic space-based weapons, but at a reduced pace from that recommended by Reagan. The current budget contains $3.9 billion for “Star Wars,” formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI.

A key component of the Bush “Star Wars” proposal would be development of a weapon known as “brilliant pebbles,” swarms of small space-based interceptors designed to knock out Soviet ballistic missiles headed toward the United States.

Because of budget constraints, however, the entire “Star Wars” program will be pushed back about two years, officials said. The earliest possible deployment of any components--probably ground-based--is now set for sometime after the year 2000, they said.

On another major weapons question, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney is struggling to craft a political deal with congressional leaders on which of two land-based nuclear missiles to build, the 10-warhead MX transported on rail cars or the single-warhead Midgetman carried on trucks.

Sources said Friday that the Administration is likely to ask for immediate deployment of the MX on rail cars and, in a compromise with congressional Democrats, to seek funds to continue developing--but not to deploy--the Midgetman.

Cheney had recommended to Bush that Midgetman be killed because of its $24-billion price. Pulling the existing 50 MX missiles from their silos and placing them on flatbed rail cars would cost $5.4 billion, according to the Air Force.

“Star Wars” funding and the choice between the MX and Midgetman have been among the most contentious weapons issues facing the government in recent years.

Reagan, over the objections of Democrats on Capitol Hill, advocated aggressive development of space weapons.

The missile issue has congressional Democrats, who favor the Midgetman, on one side and the White House and the Air Force, which are pushing the big MX missile, on the other. Congressional leaders have threatened to kill the rail-borne MX if funds for the smaller missile are deleted.

Avoided Contra Fight

Bush’s approach to both controversies parallels his strategy on another point of friction with Congress--support for the Nicaraguan rebels. He avoided a bruising fight on the Contras early in his Administration by cutting a deal with congressional leaders before announcing a formal policy.

One Administration official, a strong MX advocate, called the proposed missile compromise “preemptive surrender.” He complained that such deals only embolden congressional Democrats to meddle in executive branch decision-making.

Cheney met with Bush and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft Friday to discuss a plan to keep both missiles alive.

Aide Favors Small Missiles

Scowcroft has long supported small mobile missiles because they present an unattractive target for the Soviet military, which would first have to find them and then expend a large number of warheads to destroy them. He was chairman of a 1983 commission that urged building a mobile single-warhead missile as a means of ensuring the survivability of the nation’s land-based missile force.

The national security adviser spoke up forcefully in favor of the Midgetman in a White House meeting on Tuesday. Cheney presented the Defense Department view that the country did not need the small missile and could not afford it.

“We have seen an opening gambit,” one Defense Department official said of Cheney’s initial MX-only recommendation to the President. “We have not seen the final move.”

Cheney himself acknowledged the possibility that his view would not prevail when he said Tuesday: “It may be we come up with some kind of mix out of the options that have been provided.”

Also on Friday, Cheney met with the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and defense appropriations subcommittees to discuss the missile question and his budget priorities. Among the congressional leaders were staunch Midgetman advocates, including Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.).

None of the participants would comment on the session. Officials familiar with the meeting said that Cheney had sounded out the lawmakers on a possible compromise on the missile issue but did not commit the Administration to funding the Midgetman.

A possible compromise that was discussed would be to take about $300 million of the savings from the “Star Wars” cutback and apply it to continued work on the Midgetman, sources said. The program could be kept alive at that funding level for several years, with the cost rising later if the government decided to deploy the missiles, Pentagon officials said.

Rising Costs Cited

But defense experts warned that stretching out weapons programs increases their cost and often produces weapons that are obsolete by the time they are fielded. The Air Force has warned that a decision will have to be made immediately if the Midgetman is to be deployed by the mid-1990s.

Sen. J. James Exon (D-Neb.) said that a compromise linking a rail-mobile MX with a limited Midgetman development program “would be unbeatable . . . . I think he could win with this.”

But, if Bush does not bend, he said, congressional partisans of the Midgetman are likely to override him and retaliate against the rail-garrison program.