Senate Votes to Deploy a ‘Star Wars’ Missile Defense

The Senate moved the controversial successor to Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program a step closer to reality Tuesday by voting to deploy a national missile defense shield “as soon as technologically possible.”

The deployment directive was endorsed, 99 to 0, in a preliminary vote after the Senate added compromise language to placate Democrats and President Clinton, who had threatened a veto. A final vote on the amended measure is expected today.

The new language says the United States will continue to negotiate arms reductions with the Russians and will not bypass the usual appropriations process to create the missile system.

The Senate move will not compel Clinton to deploy a system capable of shooting down incoming missiles before they can reach American targets. But it significantly increases pressure on the president to do so. The proposal has gained significant political momentum.

Advocates of the concept maintain that it is needed to defend the country from the rising threat of small-scale missile attacks by “rogue” nations, or from an accidental missile launch by Russia.

Opponents contend that it is still technically unproved and could unravel crucial negotiations with Moscow to reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals that still contain thousands of warheads.

The Russian government fears that deployment of a U.S. missile defense system, even if intended to block only a handful of incoming warheads, in fact could tip the balance of power further toward the United States.

In a remarkable bit of timing, the Senate’s vote came as the Russian government took a tentative step toward ratifying the long-stalled second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that would reduce the numbers of U.S. and Russian missiles.

In Moscow, leading members of the state Duma took a procedural step forward by submitting a draft law on treaty ratification to Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.

Duma Chairman Gennady N. Seleznyov said he was sure that the treaty would now be ratified.

A senior U.S. official said the Duma’s step was “very important progress” for the treaty, which has languished in the Russian Legislature after being signed by President Bush and Yeltsin in 1993.

But Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov, who is scheduled to visit the United States next week, warned in a television appearance that development of a missile shield would trigger a new arms race.

The Senate measure calling for deployment of a national missile shield, sponsored by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), was narrowly blocked by Democrats twice last year. Indeed, Tuesday’s vote marked the first time large numbers of Democrats voted to deploy the system, which is expected to cost an estimated $10.5 billion or more.

The Senate measure still must survive a series of proposed amendments and a final floor vote. But lawmakers on both sides of the issue said the unanimity of Tuesday’s preliminary vote assures that there will be no substantial changes and the measure appears virtually certain to pass.

The House is scheduled to take up a similar measure Thursday and it, too, is expected to win approval.

The White House had threatened to veto the Cochran bill out of concern that its language put too much emphasis on the technical feasibility of the missile defense system.

Administration officials contended that they must also weigh issues of cost, military need and potential effect on nuclear disarmament diplomacy before making a deployment decision next year.

A senior administration official expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the vote. He said the amendments made clear the importance of continued negotiations to reduce nuclear arms and the need to follow normal appropriations procedures.

The official expressed confidence that the measure, as amended, would not alarm the Russians.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said the compromise language on further arms negotiations was vital, because the measure otherwise would send “a very bad signal” to Primakov on his arrival.

But some arms control advocates contended that the Democrats and the White House, faced with the rising popularity of the missile defense idea, had simply caved in.

“They took a sow’s ear, added a little rouge and lipstick and ended up with a sow’s ear,” said John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World, an arms control advocacy group.

Tom Collina of the Union of Concerned Scientists, another arms control advocacy group, said the measure’s language was “vacuous,” yet “the political message is very clear that there’s growing sentiment for deployment.”

In Moscow, an eight-member U.S. congressional delegation that was attempting to soften Russian opposition to the missile shield had little success in a meeting hosted for their counterparts from the Russian Duma.

The eight members of Congress, led by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), invited all Russian Duma deputies to a briefing to hear why America needs a ballistic missile shield.

Only 10 of the 450 deputies turned up. Weldon said his delegation met with about 50 deputies in other talks with political factions.

Pavel Y. Felgengauer, a Russian defense journalist seated in the front row of the U.S. delegation’s news conference, laughed at the proceedings, drawing the ire of Weldon, who demanded that he show some respect.

After the news conference, Felgengauer ridiculed as “ludicrous” the delegation’s warning that North Korea and Iran could develop intercontinental ballistic missiles in five years, and that Iraq could do so in less than 10.

Richter reported from Washington and Dixon from Moscow; Times staff writer Janet Hook in Washington contributed.