DEFENSE SPENDING DEMANDS [SPUR]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400360017-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: August 13, 1979
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R00040036QO1
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AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY
13 August 1979
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Calls for bigger appropriations coming from SALT hearings
generate requirements across tactical, strategic spectrum
Washington-Demands for more defense spending emerging from the Strategic Arms
Limitation (SALT 2) hearings have generated military shopping lists that illuminate a i
wide range of perceived needs from tactical air defense to accelerated development of
strategic weaponry.
Defense Dept. officials are expressing confidence that Carter Administration promises
to meet the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commitment for a 3% real annual
growth in military spending will give them a chance either to push weapons development
or increase acquisition.
Senate sentiment on linking boosted
spending with SALT 2 ratification is
divided, with one faction, represented by
Sens. Sam Nunn (D.-Ga.), John Tower
(R.-Tex.) and Henry Jackson (D.-Wash.),
calling for a 5% real increase that they
said would yield a 12-15% hike in such
real investment as weapons, ships, equip-
ment and research and development, if
program efficiency improves.
`Gravely Concerned'
Another group of 12 senators told Presi-
dent Carter in a letter they are "gravely
concerned over these attempts to tie arms
procurement to arms control." They added
that they support the Administration's
announced commitment to avoid escalat-
ing defense costs merely to gain Senate
ratification of the accord.
Defense Dept. optimism was reflected
by one official who said: "If there is a
windfall from SALT, SALT will have
served the useful purpose of focusing
attention on growing strategic asymmetry.
The Senate will get educated and rebuke
its Budget Committee before this is
over."
In terms of strategic weapons, defensive
measures often were uppermost in the
minds of officials, as they were in discus-
sions of tactical needs. Ballistic missile
defense, or the lack of it, has raised some
immediate concerns.
"The U. S. has been putting 100% of its
eggs in the retaliatory basket," John M.
Collins, senior specialist in national
defense for the Library of Congress, said.
"It's the only major power in recorded
history to repudiate defense."
He added that bringing ballistic missile
defense progress up to the level of Soviet
research and development will require
more than money. "It's critical to get two
things," Collins said. "We need more
command attention and the kind of dedi-
cated, concentrated brainpower that went
into the Manhattan Project and the trip to
the moon." '
Other officials closer to the decision-
making apparatus said ballistic missile
defense may have to take a back seat to
other needs if more money becomes avail-
able.
"We're already spending a quarter
billion dollars a year on ballistic missile
defense research and development," one
Pentagon official said. "Pushing it to
design a system that will fit MX [mobile
missile] may call for a slight increase in
money."
An Army ballistic missile defense offi-
cial was optimistic about U. S. compari-
sons with Soviet advances, but he did note
that some more money will be needed to
go from the current technological program
to prototype demonstration.
"We are running studies on what it
would take to adapt low-altitude defense
technology to defense of an MX system,"
he said. "Consideration is being given to
going further down the road toward such a
system, but there's been no formal guid-
ance to proceed with it." i
Money being spent now is divided
between advanced technology for long-
term ballistic missile defense, such as
charged particle beam weapons, signal
processing and optical sensors, and a
systems technology program for plugging
in the component work transferred from
advanced technology.
"Congress instructed us to limit the
program to pretty much component-level
work," the official said. "We're not into
prototyping systems yet."
The MX itself attracted some attention
from those who want to see its 'initial
operational capability date pushed up at i
tional capability moved from 1989 to
1988. An Air Force official estimated that
require more initial funding, may mean a
S1.3-billion savings in overhead, most of
which is inflated dollars
.
Other strategic programs that officials
said needed tunding soon include:
31 A Boeing 8-52 replacement, the main
function of which could be cruise-missile
carriage, with some penetration capabili-
ty.
s Trident 2 missile.
? High-altitude supersonic bomber with
radar absorption.
N Improvements to the Minuteman
missile airborne launch control system,
which is "pretty high on the list and pretty
cheap," according to one Defense official.
The system also would be used for the
MX.
is Upgrading of the sonar system on the
Poseidon submarine.
Strategic Gap
As to the air-launched cruise missile,
the system that is expected to help fill an
early-1980s strategic gap, a Pentagon offi-
cial said: "I don't think it can be pushed
any quicker than it is. There's a hell of a
lot of concurrency on it. Once we do get
the IOC [initial operational capability] we
could step up production rates."
"That might mean pushing the cruise-
missile carrier to go with it," he said. "But
there are reservations about whether we
need a carrier aircraft. Some people
believe the B-52 will be a satisfactory
cruise-missile carrier long after it ceases
being a penetrator."
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The "moot pressing need," according to He also addressed what he called
a high-ranking Air Force official, is inequities in balance:
modernization of the manned penetrator "if we're talking about priorities for
force. One of the more immediate alterna- more money, my highest is for ballistic
five, would be to fund a Strategic Air missile defense, which is a priority for our
Command proposal for General Dynamics allies, too, and tactical air defense in
FB-111 and F-Ill modifications. The NATO.
total cost is estimated at S6 billion and "I'm not as excited as others are about
could include some Fiscal 1980 supple- the Backfire threat to Conus [continental
mental money and about SI billion in U. S.I. It does have intercontinental capa-
Fiscal 1981, according to one official. bility but is primarily designed to replace
He said it would involve converting 66 the Badger and to be used as a naval
FB-l t l As and fewer than 100 F-l t 1 Ds system. They don't need it against
into FB-1 l 1 Bs and FB-1 1]Cs. The region- Conus."
figured aircraft would have about the Close-in tactical air defense improve-
range and payload of the B-52G, due menu also received the support of several
largely to raising fuel capacity and teen-
officials. Beyond its lack of quantity, the
gining with the General Electric F101 in Navy's biggest problem, Collins said, is
the canceled Rockwell International B-I cruise missile defense.
bomber. A less likely immediate alterna- "If we want the Navy to keep control of
tive, the official added, would be ordering the seas and reinforce and resupply
the B-I back into production. Europe and maintain our commitments to
Another proposal would call for new Japan and Korea and keep the petroleum
engines on the Boeing KC-135 tanker lines clear, then survival of the Navy is the
fleet. One official said the Pratt & Whit- highest priority."
bant on
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` One answer to the cruise missile threat
is the "most fuel-inefficient engine flying
could be the General Dynamics Phalanx,
today. It's also the noisiest and the dirtiest. an automatic, all-weather, shipboard gun
If it were on a commercial airliner, it defense. For defense of NATO ground
wouldn't be allowed to land anywhere in troops and installations, the Army will
the U. S." conduct a competitive shootout next sum-
In the area of continental defense, any mer for DIVAD [division air defense].
discussion of more funding usually centers Genera] Dynamics. which is basing its
on the need to modernize the interceptor entry on Phalanx technology, will compete
force, made up now mostly of ,McDonnell with Ford Aerospace.
Douglas F-101s, General Dynamics F- Finally, a factor that could enter into
106s and McDonnell Douglas F-4 aircraft. how extra funds are spent is the politically
Among replacements being considered is a sensitive concept of NATO cooperation.
combination of the McDonnell Douglas Among the candidates for the proposed
F-15 and the Grumman F-14. Air Force enhanced tactical fighter pro-
From a Navy point of view, one gram is the Panavia Tornado (Aw&sT
congressional aide familiar with that Mar. 19, p. 13). The concept is for
service's needs said the most urgent is for day/night all-weather attack for European
more tactical aircraft procurement. "The warfare.
Navy has to buy more than they're Grumman Aerospace Corp., which has
requesting just to maintain their force," he agreed to aid the European consortium in
said. "To maintain 12 carrier wings and preparing the Tornado for USAF needs,
three Marine wings, one study said they complained recently that U. S. restrictions
need 180 aircraft a year just to keep the are stymieing efforts to exchange data
current force structure. But they [Defense between the two companies. Grumman
Dept.] are not asking for that much." hopes to overcome that temporary road-
Collins pursued that point in noting that block by pointing out that the Tornado,
the U. S. military has relied traditionally which already has all-weather capability,
on quality rather than quantity due to is in an advantageous competitive spot.
strategic nuclear superiority and a techno- Vitalij Garber, director of international
logical edge. "Now that [technological] programs in the Office of the Secretary of
gap's closing and the other guys are ahead Defense for Research and Engineering,
in some areas, particularly ground said he does not want the fighter selection
forces." process to be tied to SALT ratification.
"As an. Air Force pilot says," Collins He added that the NATO issues of ration-
explained, " `I'm flying the best air-supe- alization, standardization and interopera-
riority fighter in the world and I have a bility (RSI) should be divorced from
kill ratio of 6-to-1. That means the seventh requirements and source selection.
guy gets me.' We've got the best, but we "I want to insure that the evaluation is (;oN'j'j1V~T'i~
don't have enough of them. And, we have objective and fair and not torpedoed by
such a small reserve to play with that if we bureaucratic impediments," Garber told
commit it in the wrong place, we're AW&ST. "I'm not a champion of Tornad
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impediments."
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Presidential Approval of Racetrack Expected,
Washington-Final presidential approval of the racetrack concept for the hasing of the
MX mobile missile (Awasr July 23, p. 14) is expected by the end of this month or early
in September.
The system, a hybrid of previous concepts that also is being called a horizontal
multiple protective shelter, gained general approval at an Aug. 7 meeting of the
Presidential Review Council.
A Defense Dept. official said council members asked for clarification of details on
such aspects as verification and survivability. If the Air Force's answers are satisfacto-
ry, a recommendation will be sent to President Carter, who is expected to transmit his
decision to Congress.
The Air Force claims this system, in which transporter-erector-launchers would
move the new missile among horizontal shelters at the ends of spokes emanating from
the track, is the least costly alternative that can meet the needs of verification and the
quick movement and concealment needed for survivability.
So far, public acceptance of the MX in Southwestern states has met Defense Dept.
expectations. Each of the less than 5,000 shelters would be surrounded by a fence
enclosing about 2.5 acres. Defense officials predict that public access, including use of
the racetrack roads themselves, will enhance recreational use of acreage that
previously was difficult to reach.
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