MX, Midgetman Freeze Predicted : Defense: Rep. Murtha says he plans to cut up to $10 billion from Bush’s military budget. He also sees a doubling of troop reductions in Europe.

The influential chairman of the House’s military spending panel Thursday identified the MX and Midgetman mobile missile programs as prime targets for cuts, predicting both will be put on hold pending the outcome of arms control talks with the Soviet Union.

In a shirt-sleeves interview in his Capitol Hill office, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) also suggested that Bush’s proposal to reduce U.S. troop levels by 42,000 in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 will be more than doubled.

Murtha, a Marine veteran who heads the defense appropriations subcommittee, declined to specify how many more troops are likely to be cut. But he noted that when he mentioned the possibility of a 100,000 reduction at a hearing earlier Thursday, Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “shuddered because he realizes that would be very disruptive.”

Cutting troop levels deeper and freezing the development of MX and Midgetman programs would save about $4 billion, in addition to the $3.2 billion in cuts already proposed by Bush.

Murtha said that his staff was preparing options to slash a total of $5 billion to $10 billion from Bush’s request of $292.1 billion in Defense Department outlays for fiscal 1991.

Congress is not likely to carve out a much bigger “peace dividend,” he said, because this is a “transition year” in which two sets of arms control talks are still proceeding and the outcome of dramatic events in Europe is uncertain. But defense savings could balloon enormously in succeeding years, he said.

“You’re talking about some big dollars that could be saved under the right circumstances,” he said.

The B-2 Stealth bomber is one of the big-ticket weapons programs currently up in the air.

Bush has proposed full-paced production for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. But at the same time, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has ordered a review of that and three other new aircraft programs by the summer.

With congressional pressure strong to pare or halt B-2 funding, Murtha said that Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) is conducting a separate study for his own subcommittee.

“We’ve got $20 billion in the goddamn thing, so we have to look hard at it,” said Murtha, a tough-talking former car-wash operator who fought in Korea and earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts in the Vietnam War.

He expressed amazement that Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) is spearheading a Senate drive to cut off production of the California-built B-2 at 13 planes, well short of the projected 132.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me from a parochial standpoint because there are a lot of jobs out there,” Murtha said. “It could put Northrop out of business, from what I hear.”

As far as Murtha is concerned, the B-2 long-range bomber, the already produced F-117 fighter-bomber and the ATF jet fighter in development are “competing systems” because they all have radar-evading Stealth characteristics. He suggested that, in the tight budget environment, either the B-2 or the ATF, or both, could be severely cut back or scrapped.

“In a sense, we have a fighter-bomber with the F-117,” he said. “So do we need the (ATF) fighter also? Maybe we do. But then do we need the B-2?”

Murtha had a backhanded compliment for Bush’s recent proposal to reduce U.S. troop levels in Europe to 225,000. He said he told Cheney: “Every time I turn around, you guys are taking money out yourself. How the hell can I argue against somebody (in Congress) that has something else legitimate to cut?”

In fact, Murtha said, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a liberal who has pushed for deep troop cuts, joked after the President’s latest proposal: “I can’t stay to the left of George Bush anymore.”

Generally, Murtha is an old-fashioned behind-the-scenes operator--with close ties to the House Democratic leadership--who shies from publicity. But at the outset of a hearing with Cheney and Powell on Thursday, he held aloft what he identified as a Viking battle ax.

“I’m afraid this is the mood of what we’re going to have to put up with for the rest of this year,” Murtha told the chuckling defense officials.

“From what I’ve been hearing from both Republicans and Democrats, they expect the peace dividend. So, I know that this committee will make some adjustments to your recommendation,” he said.