SDI Director Cuts Budget for Space Weapons

The director of the Strategic Defense Initiative said Wednesday he is scaling back spending on space-based weapons in response to accusations that he was defying Congress.

Henry Cooper said SDI funding will be used instead to develop a $27-billion ground-based defensive system to be deployed by 1997. The government has already invested about $25 billion in SDI.

Cooper told a House Armed Services panel that the Pentagon will spend $2 billion less than planned on the “Brilliant Pebbles” program and trim the budget for “Brilliant Eyes” by $600 million.

The money was to be spent over a five-year period.

Brilliant Pebbles is a futuristic system of space-based interceptors to seek and destroy enemy weapons. Brilliant Eyes would be a series of satellites designed to detect and track missiles in flight.

Cooper’s decision is seen as a victory for Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who last month angrily accused the SDI chief of ignoring Congress’ wishes by spending millions on space-based weapons at the expense of a ground-based system.

“I have taken these actions to be responsible to congressional priorities as explained to me by Sen. Nunn,” said Cooper, referring to the changes he made in the past two weeks.

The SDI director did not say what the original budget was for the space-based weapons. Last month, however, Cooper told Nunn’s panel that the budget for Brilliant Pebbles would be $2.6 billion and total spending on SDI was expected to average about $7 billion a year.

Cooper said then that he would reprogram about $4 billion from space-based weapons and other SDI research and earmark the money for ground-based defenses.

The SDI chief stressed the importance of congressional solidarity with the Bush Administration on SDI in light of the scheduled June summit between President Bush and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.

Cooper believes that the summit will give the two leaders an opportunity to reach agreement on a global ballistic missile defense.

The House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to craft its version of the defense budget Wednesday.