Bush Seeks Funds for High-Tech Weapons

President Bush on Tuesday said he would ask Congress to spend an additional $2.6 billion to develop high-tech weapons for the nation’s arsenal and called for cooperation among NATO allies to confront terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

In the post-Cold War era, Bush explained, the allied nations’ adversaries have grown less predictable and more diverse. So new weaponry must be developed to counter the long-term dangers posed by terrorism and by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

“With advanced technology,” the president said, “we must confront the threats that come on a missile. With shared intelligence and enforcement, we must confront the threats that come in a shipping container or in a suitcase.”

But Bush said that the new funding was just a down payment until a thorough review of America’s military needs is completed. “Our defense vision will drive our defense budget, not the other way around,” he said, emphasizing that strategy must precede spending.

The White House said the $2.6 billion represented a boost over the amount being spent for research and development in the current budget and was part of an overall funding increase--rather than just a shift in money from other programs--that Bush plans for the Pentagon in his $310-billion budget request for the next fiscal year.

Bush plans to present a detailed version of the federal budget, including allocation for the Pentagon, at the end of this month.

Having campaigned on a platform of restoring military programs, Bush surprised the Joint Chiefs of Staff last week by suggesting a top-to-bottom review of Pentagon spending priorities by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, Bush again hinted that the pie might be smaller than some in the military had assumed. His plan to modernize the military, Bush told reporters, could result in cuts in older defense programs and weapon systems.

Anticipating reluctance to cut major programs, Bush said that Congress “ought to wait” until Rumsfeld finishes his review.

The president is spending three days this week unveiling his plans to beef up the armed services. On Monday, he promised to ask Congress for $5.7 billion to raise pay and provide more for military health care and housing. Today, the focus will be the reserves and National Guard, which are being given increasingly ambitious missions. “We have no higher priority than the defense of our people against terrorist attack,” Bush said.

All told, the president has promised a $20-billion increase in research and development spending in the military by 2006.

He presented his outline for America’s armed forces Tuesday under sodden skies at Allied Command Atlantic--a NATO headquarters attached to one of the world’s largest Navy bases here--as the 18 flags of the alliance nations snapped in the damp breeze and some 1,000 enlisted Navy men and women, along with a few hundred officers, served as the audience.

After spending day after day on the campaign trail chastising the Clinton administration for inadequate stewardship of the military--and sending a message to the men and women in uniform that “help is on the way”--Bush made it clear Tuesday that he is offering only limited assistance for the time being. He pledged to modernize existing weapons and equipment but added: “We will do this judiciously and selectively.”

At the heart of Bush’s push for more high-tech weaponry is the capabilities that computers have brought to long-distance command and control of the battlefield--allowing for the dispatch of stealth weapons and unmanned attacks.

“We’re witnessing a revolution in the technology of war, powers increasingly defined not by size but by mobility and swiftness,” Bush said.

“Safety is gained in stealth and forces projected on the long arc of precision-guided weapons,” he added. “The best way to keep the peace is to redefine war on our terms.”

Acknowledging the ambassadors from NATO countries who had journeyed to Norfolk for his address, Bush saluted the alliance as “the reason history records no World War III.”

NATO is facing some tension over the Bush administration’s strong desire to develop a national missile defense system. The allies fear it would force the scrapping of the nearly 30-year-old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which has been credited with establishing nuclear stability.

Paying heed to the concerns, with only a passing mention of the missile defense plan, Bush said:

“We will cooperate in the work of peace. We will consult early and candidly with our NATO allies. We will expect them to return the same. In diplomacy, in technology, in missile defense, in fighting wars and, above all, in preventing wars, we must work as one.”