August 8, 1984 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 23165 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS MILITARY READINESS: A vestments, especially strategic nuclear fense request, the House Armed Services GROWING PROBLEM programs. Simply drawing out pro­ Committee was most protective of conven­ curement, or cutting a program in half tional warfare systems and force readiness, will only postpone what will then be a but willing to let strategic nuclear systems HON. CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR. take their lumps. Weinberger's sacrifices OF MARYLAND larger crunch in the 1985-90 time­ were quite the opposite, insulating the stra­ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES frame. tegic buildup while cutting back the general Aerospace America magazine recent­ forces. Wednesday, August 8, 1984 ly pttblished an article in which these very points were discussed, and in con­ Looking down the road, it is obvious that •Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. President, while many more tough decisions will have to be siderable detail. I insert the Aerospace made about what to keep, cut back, post­ the current military readiness picture America article entitled "Pentagon's may be good-and even getting pone, and what to jettison. Richard De­ Bright New World Fading Fast" in the Lauer, defense under secretary for research better-the long-term effectiveness of RECORD: and engineering, told Sen. Ted Stevens <D­ our Armed Forces may indeed be in Alaska) that he could "handle" congression­ danger. [From the Aerospace America, July 1984] al refusal of new starts for the $1 billion DDG-51 guided missile destroyer as well as It seems to me there are two poten­ PENTAGON'S BRIGHT NEW WORLD FADING FAST tial problems: the nature of the de­ the $129 million requested for development <By Henry Simmons) of the McDonnell Douglas C-17 STOL fense budget itself, and the financial transport in the current fiscal year. The burdens imposed by an unprecedented Remember those gloomy predictions of House has already canceled further Air number of new starts in strategic three years ago, when President Reagan an­ Force participation in the "Sons of Assault weapons systems. nounced his five-year defense plan? The ink Breaker," JSTARS and JTACMS, repre­ The defense budget is becoming un­ was hardly dry before the bean counters senting radar, communications, computa­ controllable. Prior year obligations are warned that the president had vastly under­ tion, ballistic launcher, and submunition of estimated the cost of his ambitious muni­ the system proposed for disruption of consuming an ever larger share of a tions program. Late in the decade, they said, second- and third-echelon Warsaw Pact given fiscal year budget request. Ap­ the Pentagon would have to make huge new forces in European land battle. The decision proximately 35 percent of the fiscal demands on the American purse to sustain reflected not so much budgetary constraints year 1985 defense budget request is its programs. as exasperation at the utter failure of the untouchable, up almost 30 percent According to a recent calculation by the Air Force and Army to agree on a common since 1981. The Congressional Budget General Accounting Office, actual DOD system to meet the deep-strike requirement Office projects that the untouchable spending from 1980 to 1984 overran esti­ and the evident evolution of the program share of the defense budget will con­ mates by $246 billion. This trend, continu­ into two separate, duplicative weapons to tinue to rise through 1989. ing over the life of the present five-year perform the same mission. plan, implies a $324 billion overrun simply The Pentagon's financial bind may stran­ In a period when all of us are trying to sustain program now underway or sched­ gle follow-on SY.stems planned for the to make prudent reductions in Federal uled to get underway during the period. 1990s-the single-warhead Midgetman spending, including defense expendi­ The scope and imminence of the Penta­ mobile ICBM, the Stealth bomber optimized tures, this leaves fewer and fewer gon's problem can be gaged from the for minimum radar signature, and the areas for the President, the Armed volume of obligated but unspent "carry­ second-generation advanced cruise missile Services Committees, and finally the over" funds committed under contract for with low-observable features. of the Stealth. Congress to cut. And of the areas that shipbuilding and other procurement. In Both the B-1 and the MX were called "in­ three years through FY83, the backlog terim" systems-the idea being that they remain, one is forced to choose be­ climbed 89%, from $68 billion to $128 bil­ would plug the "window of vulnerability" tween investment accounts-procure­ lion. Over the same period, the backlog of anticipated in the U.S.-Soviet strategic bal­ ment of new systems, and so forth­ carryover not only unspent but as yet com­ ance in the mid-80s. MX deployment would and readiness accounts-spare parts, mitted to contract has climbed 79%, from phase out with the arrival of the supposedly ammunition, salaries. $24 billion to $43 billion. MIT's William survivable Midgetman, and B-1 deployment Traditionally, it is in the readiness Kaufman has analyzed these figures for the would cease with the advent of the Stealth. Brookings Institution. He believes that their The bipartisan Scowcroft Panel laid particu­ side of the ledger that cuts have been sheer size will make increasingly difficult lar stress on this scenario in selling the 10- made. And there's the rub. Instant congressional control over military spending warhead MX to a reluctant Congress last gratification in budget cutting can in the outyears. "These backlogs will create year, noting also that the introduction of only be achieved by attacking the major wedges of expenditure in the future the large missile would establish a bargain­ readiness accounts where a virtual and will make substantially more difficult ing chip in arms-control talks with the dollar-for-dollar ratio exists between any future effort to control the growth of Soviet Union. That argument narrowly pre­ amounts cut and saved. And, as bills the defense budget in an orderly way," ac­ vailed in the House this year, overcoming a come due in the latter half of this cording to Kaufman. Democratic effort to deny all production decade for the big procurement items, Even if Congress hold the FY85 military funding for MX. the tendency to whittle away at readi­ appropriation to $290 billion <the level set In the eyes of many lawmakers the MX is both by House vote in May on defense au­ a destabilizer. Because of its size and accura­ ness in order to pay for these systems thorization and the cuts proposed by De­ cy it will act as a magnet, the detractors say, will be even stronger. fense Secretary Weinberger to provide the rather than a deterrent to Soviet attack. This, admittedly, leaves the Con­ defense share of the "down payment" on That it partially redresses the present gress in a tough spot. We have no al­ the deficit that the president and Congress strong edge in nuclear ballistic throw­ ternative but to identify and eliminate are trying to work out), spending from the weight they consider inconsequential. <To­ some highly visible weapons programs, backlog alone would increase to more than gether with Trident II, to enter the fleet in if the burgeoning defense budget is $110 billion in FY86. "As such," Kaufman 1989, MX will increase U.S. throw-weight by ever to be brought under control. Con­ says, "it will mean that at least 36% of de­ 55%.) fense outlays will be committed and uncon­ In its consideration of the MX and Midg­ gress must focus on the investment ac­ trollable even before Congress takes action etman systems, Congress so far has shown counts. And the sooner we do it, the on the budget for that year." little inclination to ponder cost implications easier it will be to do because Congress The chickens have not come home to of the two systems. Cost of developing, has authorized and appropriated an roost yet, but already one can hear the flap­ building, and deploying 100 MX missiles in unprecedented level of funding for in- ping of wings. In rolling back the FY85 de- existing Minuteman III silos is estimated to e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. 23166 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS August 8, 1984 run about $30 billion. The cost of a force of tralize a new initiative. In the eyes of the company invested more than $130 mil­ 1,000 mobile Midgetman missiles has been Reagan administration, if that is the best lion, and spent over 10 years trying to put at between $45- and $70-billion, depend­ we can hope for with the land-based compo­ obtain rights-of-way for their pro­ ing on the basing mode, according to the nent of the strategic force, it is far better Congressional Budget Office <CBO>. The than "getting run off our own land" by su­ posed pipeline. goal presently favored calls for launchers pinely conceding the other follow's advan­ They were thwarted, however, by capable of withstanding blast overpressure tage. It also qffers the further possibility of long, costly legal battles with the rail­ of 30 psi, about three times as much as an bankrupting him before the game bank­ roads and by their inability to acquire Abrams M-60 can take. The launchers rupts us altogether. the necessary easements. The rail­ would be spread over 12,000 sq. mi. of gov­ With the election fast approaching, the roads forced ETSI to litigate ease­ ernment-owned land in the West.