
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990                   TAG: 9004260676
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHENEY PROPOSES B-2 CUTS/ DEFENSE CHIEF WOULD ALSO SLASH OTHER AIRCRAFT PLANS

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney today outlined $34.8 billion in cutbacks through 1997, including a sharp reduction in the B-2 Stealth bomber and other sophisticated aircraft.

In testimony prepared for delivery to Congress, Cheney said the changes were warranted because NATO faces "fewer enemy aircraft and a reduced ground threat" as a result of the dramatic changes sweeping Eastern Europe.

Cheney's blueprint follows a detailed Pentagon study of military needs, and came one day after an Army official said troop levels would probably be cut by 250,000 over the next five or six years to a total enlistment of 580,000 troops.

The defense secretary said in his prepared testimony that his plans would trim $2.41 billion from earlier estimates of Pentagon spending plans for 1991, and $34.8 billion through 1997. Cheney offered his plan at the same time the Democratic-controlled House and Senate are drafting spending blueprints for 1991 expected to call for sharp cuts in Pentagon spending.

Cheney proposed reducing the Pentagon's request for 132 B-2 Stealth bombers to 75.

Congressional pressure has intensified to reduce the Pentagon's budget following the lessened Soviet threat and the budget crunch. Supporters of the $530 million radar-evading bomber have warned that the per-plane cost could double if fewer aircraft are ordered.

On the other aircraft programs, the secretary proposed to buy 120 of the C-17 long-range transport planes instead of the 210 originally planned at a proposed savings of $12.6 billion over the life of the program. The plane is designed to replace the aging C-141 transport plane.

Cheney noted the new transport plane's ability to land on the "shorter runways typical of the Third World." He also proposed buying a smaller number of the Navy's A-12 all-weather medium-attack planes, cutting the original request of 858 to a minimum of 620.

by CNB