U.S. to Aim Missiles Away From Russia, Ukraine : Military: All three nations will target far-off seas, while Kiev will eventually dismantle its nuclear arsenal.

The United States is preparing to announce that it will aim many of its nuclear missiles away from targets in Russia and Ukraine and point them instead at far-off reaches of the open seas, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The announcement is expected to be made by President Clinton on Friday during his visit to Moscow to sign a broader agreement with the other two countries under which Ukraine will promise to dismantle its entire nuclear arsenal.

At the same time, officials said, Russia and Ukraine will announce similar plans to “de-target” their own nuclear missiles away from the United States. The three countries have selected several ocean sites as substitute targets.

Officials said the action will be conditional on the signing of the accord by all three parties. All three governments will be required to disclose specifics on how the new targeting will be accomplished.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk is scheduled to fly to Moscow on Friday to join Clinton and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin for the signing ceremony. The three presidents also are expected to announce other steps to help reduce nuclear tensions.

The re-targeting, which will affect thousands of missiles now in silos in all three countries, will be primarily a political gesture. Experts said the United States could aim its missiles back at Russian targets within 15 minutes if such a move was ever necessary.

Moreover, specialists cautioned that there is virtually no way to verify whether the targets of the missiles have been changed, since the weapons are controlled largely by top-secret computer programs.

U.S. officials argued nonetheless that the step will help reduce tensions among the three countries by slowing the now “hair-trigger” response time for firing nuclear missiles. Washington and Moscow accomplished a similar end in 1991, when they took their strategic bombers off alert.

The move will be another step in the gradual but steady arms reduction effort begun by the United States and the former Soviet Union when the Cold War ended.

But Bruce G. Blair, an analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank, warned that the action could have the ironic effect of increasing the pressure on commanders to order the launching of their missiles sooner to allow time for the change back to the land targets.

It would take about 30 minutes for a land-based Russian missile to reach targets in the continental United States. Some analysts have estimated that, if a U.S. commander had to re-target his missiles, he might not be able to launch before Russian missiles hit.

The idea of shifting the targets was broached by Yeltsin, who announced two years ago that his government no longer would aim its long-range missiles at U.S. cities. That announcement apparently was mostly a matter of intentions, however. In the months since Yeltsin spoke, several top Russian officials have conceded that Moscow has not altered the targets that it had in place before 1992.

However, at the Administration’s direction, senior military officers at the U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha have been exploring the idea with their Russian counterparts over the last 18 months and have hammered out a plan that is acceptable to both sides.

Ukraine was brought in on the arrangement more recently.

Officials said the bulk of the work for the U.S. side was done by Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert E. Linhard, the Strategic Command’s director of plans and policy. In December, Russian Col. Gen. Igor Sergeyev, commander of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces, went to Omaha to close the deal.

According to figures compiled by the Arms Control Assn., the United States now has 800 intercontinental ballistic missiles, carrying 2,250 warheads, while Russia has 688 ICBMs with 3,880 warheads. Ukraine has 176 missiles and about 1,250 warheads.

But experts said not all of these warheads will be affected. Rather, the re-targeting will affect only the primary targets for each country’s missiles. Reserve targets--mostly military sites and several for each missile--will remain in place.

Moreover, the agreement will not affect missiles carried aboard U.S. and Russian nuclear submarines.

Under the accord to be signed Friday, Ukraine will surrender its nuclear weapons voluntarily to Russia for dismantling, in exchange for Western security guarantees and economic aid for both Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine also is expected to ratify the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks treaty and to participate in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Ukrainian Parliament technically approved both accords last November but attached restrictive conditions.

Clinton met with Kravchuk late Wednesday at the Ukrainian capital of Kiev before flying to Moscow for his meetings with Yeltsin.

U.S. officials cautioned that the re-targeting plan could be delayed if either Ukraine or Russia declines to accept any of the provisions in the accord or balks at other steps now in the works to help reduce nuclear tensions among the three nations.