U.S. Defence Dept cuts ‘star wars’ cost estimate

Press, 8 October 1988, Page 10

U.S. Defence Dept cuts ‘star wars’ cost estimate

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The United States Defence Department has slashed the estimated cost of an initial “star wars” anti-missile system by cutting back on space platforms and emphasising ground-based interceptors.

Defence officials on Thursday told Congress that their estimated cost for the first-phase deployment of President Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), commonly called “star wars,” had been reduced from SUSIIS billion to $69 billion.

The Pentagon did not set a timetable for initial deployment of SDI, but defence officials have said that initial deployment of even a partial defence could not be made until the late 19905. United States leaders could make decisions on

“star wars” in the early to mid-1990s “contingent on adequate funding levels,” according to one defence official. SDI is still far from a sure thing, however. The Reagan Administration has pushed hard for research funding on the controversial programme, but Congress has made sharp spending cuts over the last three years and critics are still questioning whether such a defence system would work.

The Defence Undersecretary, Robert Costello, and Air Force Lieu-tenant-General James Abrahamson, who will retire in January as SDI director, told members of the Senate and House of Representatives Armed Services Committees on Thursday that more ground-based interceptors would be used in any

initial deployment to protect some American bal-listic-missile sites. The number of small, space-based rockets used to shoot down attacking missiles, would be cut in half under the plan, they said.

Mr Costello also said the cost of the spacebased interceptors had been reduced partly by upgrading their performance and shifting more of the defence burden to interceptors attacking missiles in mid-course rather than just as they lifted off.

Mr Abrahamson expressed optimism that further dramatic reductions in costs could be made in the future.

“I think things are going right to a very, very large extent,” he said.

Mr Abrahamson said that although Congress had not provided enough money, it had allowed the

SDI programme to grow. He warned that any cut to the $1 billion research level — compared to current levels of about $4 billion a year — proposed by the Democratic Presidential candidate, Michael Dukakis, “means there wouldn’t be a programme.” Mr Abrahamson said it would be 10 years before the space-based interceptor system could be deployed. Mr Costello stressed there had been no change in the American pledge to remain in compliance with a restrictive reading of the United States-Soviet anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty, but a decision would eventually have to be made on whether to go to a less restrictive interpretation or to back out of the treaty altogether.