Sticking To His Guns

By BRUCE VAN VOORST

Frustrated at the failure of the Bush Administration to redefine U.S. defense posture in the face of changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Democratic Senator Sam Nunn has delivered a series of speeches on "defense- budget blanks." Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, Nunn pointed to a "threat blank" based on a dated U.S. assessment of Soviet military power, a "strategy blank" unfilled by Pentagon planners and, most important, a "program blank" in which requests for tens of billions of dollars in new weapons are unsupported by any rationale. Deciding on the defense budget, said Nunn, is "little better than pulling a number out of the air."

The cuts that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney unveiled last week are the most significant so far, but they fail the Nunn test. Rather than rethinking weapons programs, Cheney simply trimmed some back and stretched them out. The proposals:

-- Reduce the purchase of B-2 Stealth bombers from 132 to 75. But Cheney did not persuasively explain why the U.S. needs another expensive, as yet unproven strategic bomber at all when the Air Force already has the new B-1 bomber and the still reliable B-52. Moreover, in one of the traditional paradoxes of military procurement, slashing and stretching out the Stealth program will increase the per-plane cost from $530 million to $815 million.

-- Scale back the huge $240 million buy of C-17 transport planes, designed for rapid reinforcement in Europe, from 210 to 120. The longer warning time required for a Warsaw Pact attack, Cheney said, will permit more U.S. resupply by ship. Cheney also argued that the big C-17 can land on the shorter runways of Third World airports. But the C-17, though arguably necessary against the Warsaw Pact, is too much airplane for Third World tasks, and any successor should be more like the reliable C-141s still flying.

-- Delay production of the Advanced Tactical Fighter from 1994 to 1996, but not cut the planned 750-plane, $79 billion program. Some congressional experts think the Air Force's present F-15 interceptor could last another decade.

-- Proceed with production of the Navy's A-12 attack bomber, but slash the purchase order from 858 to 620. This was the first public confirmation that Cheney assumes that the Navy will operate with twelve aircraft-carrier battle groups, two less than at present. It also means no longer relying on the % Navy's A-6 attack jet.

Even though the Warsaw Pact is for all practical purposes defunct, Cheney insists that the Soviet Union remains a military superpower capable of destroying the U.S. with a nuclear attack or striking at Western Europe. But at least he now concedes that the U.S. can slow its own buildup because Soviet forces are being reduced. The Stealth program, he said, can be cut in part because the Pentagon is preparing to reduce thousands of targets for nuclear attack in the Soviet Union. Cheney said his cuts would save $2.4 billion from next year's requested $295 billion defense bill, with a cumulative total of nearly $35 billion by 1997. But to many in Congress, his proposals reflected little more than manipulation and improvisation. House Armed Services Committee chairman Les Aspin said that Cheney failed to explain whether the cuts reflected the changing strategic situation, doubts about the weapons or the domestic budget crunch. Nunn called Cheney's efforts a "fiscal exercise" without "the strategic underpinning I would like to see in the future."

If Congress does not like his proposals, Cheney challenged, it should come up with its own. "It's easy to pontificate about what the overall top line ought to be," he said. "But as soon as we get down to the real nitty-gritty, there's a noticeable lack of any significant, substantive plans on Capitol Hill." True as that may be, it is not an excuse for lack of initiative or leadership by the Executive Branch. The Bush Administration must reduce military spending by a further $100 billion to meet its five-year goals. Reaching that number may require filling in Sam Nunn's blanks.

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CAPTION: CHENEY'S CUTS