Congress OKs Combat Role for Women Pilots : Military: Navy, Air Force would be affected. Senate backs opening all fighting units to females on trial basis.

WASHINGTON —  Paying tribute to the performance of female pilots in the Persian Gulf War, the Senate on Wednesday joined the House in voting to repeal a 43-year-old law that bars Navy and Air Force women from flying combat missions.

In a separate action, the Senate moved potentially much further on the controversial issue. It voted to allow women in all branches of the service to fill any combat role on a 14-month trial basis while a commission studies lifting all such bans.

Although the defense secretary and various military chiefs would make the final decision on whether to assign women to combat, the overwhelming votes by the House and Senate sent strong signals to military officials deeply split on the subject that Congress wants to see broader combat opportunities for women.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill A. McPeak told Congress recently that he saw no reason why women could not perform combat jobs as well as men. Although Navy officials have said they are open to clearing the way for women to serve on a greater number of ships, they have balked at the prospect of women fighting in naval combat jets, which would require them to be deployed on aircraft carriers.

The Army and Marine Corps have reacted the most strongly to the proposal. Leaders of both military branches have argued that women do not have the strength to perform the infantry tasks most central to their combat mission.

The Senate actions followed fierce debate as lawmakers began amending a $291-billion defense authorization bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The House passed its version, which included a proposed repeal of the combat-pilot ban, in June.

In another battle Wednesday night, the Senate refused to scuttle provisions in the bill that call for major changes in the “Star Wars” anti-missile program.

The provisions, chiefly written by Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), would delay President Bush’s planned deployment of space-based interceptors while aiming to build by 1996 a ground-based system at a single site. The plan, however, urges Bush to seek changes in a U.S.-Soviet treaty that bars space-based defenses and limits ground systems to one site.

Bush would be given $4.6 billion for “Star Wars” next year, $1.1 billion more than voted by the House.

Opponents, led by Sen. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.), offered a $4.6-billion alternative that would focus, instead, on defenses against short-range missiles such as the Iraqi Scud while merely continuing treaty-compliant research on systems to knock down long-range missiles.

The Gore amendment was defeated in a 60-39 vote.

While the Senate debated sending women into combat, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney suggested that he might be open to changing a policy that excludes homosexuals from military service.

In testifying before the House Budget Committee on Pentagon spending plans, Cheney said that “there have been times in the past when (the prohibition against homosexuals) has been generated on the notion that somehow there was a security risk involved.” However, he added, “That’s a bit of an old chestnut.”

In the Senate, two former combat pilots--Sens. John Glenn (D-Ohio) and John McCain (R-Ariz.)--vigorously opposed repealing the 1948 statute that prohibits combat roles for female pilots in the Air Force and Navy, who now number about 1,000. (Army and Marine combat bans are covered in service regulations unaffected by the proposed repeal.)

McCain argued that the repeal amendment, offered by Sens. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), was premature and might ultimately subject women to the draft.

But the measure carried by voice vote after a motion to table it failed, 69 to 30. Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and John Seymour (R-Calif.) both voted against the tabling motion.

Glenn and McCain had sought to head off the repeal by offering an alternative. It called for temporarily waiving prohibitions against women in combat until a presidential commission could make recommendations by Nov. 15, 1992.

During the test period beginning this fall, Cheney could assign any of the 227,000 servicewomen to air, land or sea combat posts, most likely for training only. Glenn said that evaluations of the women’s performance would help the commission in its recommendations.

Staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this story.