Official Says Accelerated Deployment Gains Favor : U.S. Opting for Phased ‘Star Wars’

PALM SPRINGS —  The Reagan Administration, which will submit a scaled-down defense budget next week, is leaning toward a phased, accelerated deployment of space-based anti-missile weapons rather than waiting until an entire system can be put into place, a senior Administration official said Tuesday.

The official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, also said that the Pentagon’s reduced budget request reflects two years of sharp reductions imposed by Congress.

But another official said the reductions were imposed on the Defense Department by the Office of Management and Budget, which forced a $10-billion reduction on the Pentagon.

$312-Billion Budget

The Pentagon is expected to ask for $312 billion for fiscal 1988, up from the $289 billion appropriated this fiscal year, including money to start work on two aircraft carriers, which would not be delivered until the 21st Century, and funds for an additional 50 MX missiles.

With President Reagan on vacation here in the desert, all major budget decisions have been completed. However, officials are still working on details of the document, which will be sent to Congress on Monday. It covers spending in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 1987.

For the current fiscal year, the Administration was given $3.5 billion to spend on the “Star Wars” missile defense program, formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Continued Controversy

That figure is expected to increase sizably next year--and the program is likely to engender continued controversy in Congress.

“Where we don’t want to give in is SDI,” the senior Administration official said, acknowledging that “there is a change” in the Administration’s approach to it.

“There is a sentiment for doing as much as we can as soon as we can,” he said, indicating that the Administration was opting for “a phased deployment of the entire system.”

He said, for instance, “if there is one part, the mid-course defenses, that could be deployed early,” the Administration was prepared to move in that direction.

Several Segments

As envisioned by Pentagon officials, the missile defense system would encompass several segments, intended to intercept enemy missiles as they are launched, while they are in their mid-course above the atmosphere or as they are closing in on U.S. targets.

Thus, the official said, although no formal decisions have been made and “there is no change” in Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger’s or President Reagan’s “dream of a full system,” there has been a willingness demonstrated within the Administration “to accelerate toward early development” of promising segments of a “Star Wars” weapon.

“You’ll see that reflected in this budget,” he said.

The senior Administration official, speaking of the overall Pentagon funding request, said: “It is essentially a reasonable budget.” It is not the sort of document that had led members of Congress to complain in the past that Weinberger was submitting spending plans that were “dead on arrival” because the increases were too great, he said.

In the last two years, such reactions in Congress have led to a leveling of defense spending, after the sharp increases granted in the opening years of the Reagan Administration.

The senior Administration official said that he and his colleagues expect a warmer reception in Congress and that this, to some extent, would be the result of the Democrats taking over control of the Senate, with a 55-45 margin.

He predicted that given responsibility for approving the defense budget, Democrats would be less willing to sharply cut the spending and risk criticism that they were endangering the nation.

Still, the 50 MXs being sought by the Pentagon are likely to encounter strenuous objections in Congress. They would cost $40 billion to $50 billion.

Congress has approved deployment of 50 MXs. The first of the 10-warhead missiles are just becoming operational in Wyoming.