Air Force Offers to Cut Entire Fleet of Minuteman 2’s

WASHINGTON —  The Air Force has proposed to eliminate as a cost-cutting move the entire U.S. force of 450 Minuteman 2 intercontinental ballistic missiles beginning in the budget for fiscal year 1991, Administration officials disclosed Friday.

Internal Air Force documents have estimated that the action, which would eliminate roughly 9% of the U.S. arsenal of strategic warheads, will save $400 million a year in operating costs at a time when the Defense Department is under pressure to shrink its budget because of public perceptions of a declining Soviet threat.

Officials said the proposed action has been tentatively approved by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and that the White House has authorized him to discuss the idea with key congressional leaders before making a final decision.

The proposed elimination of the Minuteman 2 force depends in part on budget negotiations between the Pentagon and other agencies, officials cautioned, saying that it still could be withdrawn before President Bush makes his final submission to Congress on Jan. 29.

The Minuteman 2 missile force is one of the oldest U.S. strategic weapon systems, having been deployed beginning in 1966 at three bases in Montana, South Dakota and Missouri. It carries the only nuclear warheads in the strategic missile arsenal with a megaton-sized explosive force, equivalent to more than 1 million tons of TNT.

The Bush Administration has proposed to build and deploy late in this decade a new single-warhead missile, the Midgetman, which would be moved from site to site on trucks.