Aides Scramble for Missile Explanation : Weinberger’s Gaffe Rattles Pentagon

WASHINGTON —  When Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that the Soviet Union shot down one of its own cruise missiles over Finland last month, he set in motion a considerable scramble back at the Pentagon.

His remark contradicted the Defense Department’s official view, and it sent senior aides scurrying to offer an explanation. But in the end, one Administration official gave a terse answer to his own rhetorical question: “He said what he said. Was he wrong? Sure.”

The defense secretary, who was once described as operating under a motto of “Ready, fire, aim,” had made a gaffe, pure and simple. On Friday, it was viewed as a “tender” episode that officials would prefer to overlook.

The subject arose at the committee hearing while Weinberger was discussing President Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” space-based missile defense system, which is intended to create a screen against long-range ballistic missiles.

Testifying on the first day of a long, detailed look at the scope of American foreign policy, Weinberger said the $26-billion “Star Wars” system--formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative--could not bring down relatively slow, low-flying cruise missiles but that other defense networks could.

“The Soviets demonstrated their defense against cruise missiles a couple of days ago when they shot down one of their errant missiles that was on its way, at least, into Finland,” Weinberger said.

Anti-Cruise System

But that, Pentagon officials said later, was not actually the case.

The incident to which Weinberger was referring occurred Dec. 28. The Soviets have said the missile-like drone was being used for target practice over the Barents Sea. It went astray, traveled over Norway and fell into Lake Inari in a remote section of Finland.

Moscow has apologized to Norway and Finland over the incident and on Friday asked Finland for the recovered partial remains of the target drone, the Finnish army said in Helsinki.

Several hours after Weinberger made the comment, the Pentagon said in a prepared statement intended to explain his apparent mistake that “there is evidence that the Soviets are attempting to develop a look-down, shoot-down system” to defend against cruise missiles. The secretary was referring to reports that the Soviets may have a “limited capability” to defend against such weapons.

Meanwhile, Michael I. Burch, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, tried to clarify Weinberger’s remark. He said, “The secretary did not mean to imply that the missile was shot down. The Soviets didn’t shoot the missile down. It ceased to fly.”

Burch was seen by many at the Pentagon as trying to back away from the defense secretary’s remark. One Pentagon official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, said the Soviet drone probably ran out of fuel.

According to this official, Soviet forces launched the target “to try to shoot it down” but were unable to do so because the drone veered off course. “This was just a target for Soviet firing practice that went astray,” the official said, describing the drone as “an old clunker” dependent on technology from the 1950s.

At the Pentagon, sensitivity was aroused over the issue even before Weinberger spoke. On Wednesday evening, officials were called upon to respond to a report in London’s Daily Express newspaper, which said one of two Soviet pursuit airplanes shot down the drone after a computer operator mistakenly used a war code to misdirect it on a path toward Hamburg, West Germany.

Throughout Thursday, Pentagon officials said there was no truth to that report.