Conferees Agree on Defense Budget : Congress: The measure totals $305 billion. But Gramm-Rudman cuts could lower that figure and force reductions in troop strength.

House and Senate conferees completed work Thursday on a $305-billion defense budget but cautioned that spending cuts required under the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction rules could imperil the measure’s painfully crafted compromises.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) warned that mandatory budget cuts under Gramm-Rudman could slash as much as $18 billion from Pentagon spending this year and force the military to reduce troop strength by 100,000 or more.

“I would be very surprised if they can maintain this size military” in the current fiscal era, Nunn said at a press conference announcing the military spending agreement. “They’re going to have to make some . . . cuts” from the current 2.1 million American men and women in uniform.

And the troop cuts will be permanent, Nunn warned. “There is no such thing as temporary layoffs in the military,” he said.

The $305 billion represents a 1% decline from last year’s spending level, after adjustment for inflation. Thus, 1990 will be the fifth straight year that defense spending has declined in real terms.

As expected, the Administration’s “Star Wars” space defense plan took a $1-billion cut from the White House request, but the B-2 stealth bomber program won a strong endorsement from lawmakers.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, in a statement issued from Australia where he is meeting with defense officials, said that the spending package “sounds fairly good”--except for the sharp cuts in “Star Wars” funding. But his comments suggested that President Bush will sign the bill if it passes the House and Senate, as expected.

“The authorization bill provides for a strong national defense and embodies the basic principles of the President’s defense budget recommendations,” Cheney said.

The bill now goes to the full House and Senate, which under parliamentary rules can approve or reject the bill but cannot amend it. A vote is expected by the full House next week and by the Senate within two weeks.

Nunn said that “Star Wars”--formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative--lacks support on Capitol Hill because the program is “amorphous” and is constantly being redefined. “It leaves many people, including myself, skeptical.”

Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said that the seven-week conference in which more than 100 House and Senate members thrashed out differences in the two chambers’ defense bills was one of the most rancorous he has seen in all his years in Congress.

He singled out debate over continued production of the Navy’s F-14D fighter as particularly brutish. The Pentagon and the Senate recommended killing the program, despite vigorous lobbying by representatives from New York’s Long Island, where the jet is produced by Grumman Corp.

“All hell broke loose,” Warner said. “I’ve never seen such forceful, such ruthless lobbying by some groups, which I won’t name. It became the axle around which the whole bill rotated.”

In the end, the committee agreed to pay $1.2 billion to build 18 more F-14Ds, but required Grumman to sign a promise that it would close down the assembly line when the last jet is completed.

Other highlights of the defense bill:

--”Star Wars” will receive $3.57 billion for 1990, with an additional $220 million in Department of Energy spending on space defense research. Last year, a total of $3.9 billion was spent on SDI.

--The conference authorized building two B-2 Stealth bombers in 1990 and five in 1991, but the radar-eluding aircraft must pass certain performance tests before all the money is released. The Air Force wants to build 132 of the high-tech bombers at a cost of $530 million each.

--The V-22 vertical-takeoff airplane is kept alive, barely, with $255 million in research and development funds but no production money. The Administration had recommended killing the new plane because of its high cost.

--The United States will reduce its troop strength in Europe to 311,000 from the current 326,000 to reflect the no-longer-needed personnel assigned to weapons that will be eliminated under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty with the Soviets.

--The Air Force will get $1.13 billion to put 50 multiwarhead MX missiles on rail cars and develop the Midgetman single-warhead ballistic missile. The bill does not specify how the money must be spent, meaning that the Air Force will be free to pursue the MX plan first and postpone work on the Midgetman, a favorite of congressional Democrats.

--The bill authorizes $450 million for drug interdiction, an increase of $150 million over 1989 spending. But an amendment permitting the military to shoot down aircraft suspected of carrying drugs was soundly defeated.

NEXT STEP

The $305-billion defense budget agreed to by House and Senate conferees is expected to be voted on by the full House next week and by the Senate within two weeks. If the compromise legislation is approved as expected, it will be sent to President Bush.