Pentagon Unveils Plan to Counter Mass-Destruction Arms : Weapons: Initiative comes as result of directive from President Clinton. It’s partly spurred by surprises of Gulf War.

The Pentagon unveiled a new push Tuesday to bolster the ability of the armed forces to respond to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the post-Cold War world--particularly in the former Soviet Bloc and in hostile Third World countries.

The initiative is expected to involve a range of efforts, from improving methods for detecting nuclear, biological and chemical weapons facilities to developing new doctrine and high-technology weapons needed to destroy them if necessary.

The Pentagon’s plan follows a formal directive from President Clinton earlier this year ordering the Defense Department to strengthen the military’s ability to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

The program is in part a result of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. U.S. officials admitted after the conflict that they were surprised both by the effectiveness of Iraq’s Scud missiles and by the scope of its nuclear weapons program. U.S. planners also did not prepare adequately to counter biological weapons.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who announced the new program in a speech, insisted that the initiative was designed to complement longstanding U.S. diplomatic efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. He said that diplomacy would remain the Administration’s major priority.

But, Aspin warned, experience has shown that negotiations do not always work and that trying to halt the spread of such weapons by denying a country crucial technology no longer is sufficient, because sophisticated technology has become widely available.

As a result, he said, U.S. forces now must be better prepared than they have been to keep track of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons around the globe and to destroy them promptly in case of hostilities before an adversary can use them against U.S. troops.

“The threat is real and it is upon us today,” Aspin told the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday. He called the new threat “a bigger proliferation danger than we’ve ever faced before.”

Despite the timing of the speech, Aspin and other top Pentagon officials insisted that the announcement was not intended to influence negotiations between the United States and North Korea over that country’s nuclear weapons program.

The two sides have been at a stalemate following Pyongyang’s decision to shut out international inspectors sent to examine its nuclear weapons facilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Washington has threatened to back economic sanctions as a next step in the conflict.

For all the hoopla over Tuesday’s announcement, defense experts said, the new Aspin program is partly a repackaging of several smaller-scale initiatives launched by previous administrations but never given a high profile.

Defense Department officials conceded that the Pentagon still has not allocated any more money for the program. A senior Pentagon planner said only that the effort “easily” could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Nevertheless, analysts said that the announcement of the new policy marks the first time that any administration has given the issue such high-level attention. Aspin already has reorganized the Pentagon’s staff to place the program under an assistant secretary of defense.

David Kay, a nuclear warfare expert with Science Applications International Corp., a Virginia-based defense research group, said Tuesday’s move is an important step in pushing the “counter-proliferation” issue. But he added that “everything depends on how well they follow through on it.”

Authorities said that the Administration plans to seek the cooperation of U.S. allies in strengthening the West’s capabilities. Aspin is scheduled to attend a North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting in Brussels today and will discuss the issue with the alliance.

Here are the major elements of the new Pentagon program:

* The Pentagon will order top military planners to make preparation for combatting nuclear, biological and chemical weaponry a major element in departmental planning and military doctrine, elevating its importance in strategy formulation.

* Officials in charge of major acquisition programs will be ordered to speed up development of high-technology weapons that can hunt down Scud-type missiles, penetrate underground nuclear weapons bunkers and detect and destroy nuclear and chemical weapons before they are launched.

* Commanders of major combat forces will develop detailed plans for dealing with a wide range of contingencies involving weapons of mass destruction, including the possibility of contamination where such weapons are used and political repercussions from such operations.

* The Pentagon will step up its monitoring of selected nuclear, biological and chemical warfare programs around the world--including closer cooperation with the CIA--to help military planners prepare for possible action against such facilities.

* The Administration will push to persuade key U.S. allies to take on similar roles in strengthening counter-proliferation efforts worldwide, both by involving NATO in the program and enlisting the cooperation of Japan in developing an antimissile missile program.