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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 22, 1990                   TAG: 9007220165
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REPORT SAYS `STAR WARS' SLOWED BY NEW CONCEPT

The report by the General Accounting Office, an investigative agency of Congress, reviews the first phase of the Star Wars effort. The study was made public Wednesday by the House Committee on Government Operations.

The new weapon concept calls for thousands of small maneuverable satellites, "brilliant pebbles" in Pentagon parlance, that would destroy incoming missiles by colliding with them.

By adding the new concept to the first phase of the Star Wars plan, the report said, officials have put the program in "a state of flux" and "destabilized" the final program design.

The report said these design changes and budget cuts in the anti-missile project would make it unlikely that officials could provide President Bush with enough information to make a decision on whether to deploy the first phase. He is scheduled to make the decision in 1993.

"Any executive decision in 1993 to deploy Phase I would be premature and fraught with high risk," the report said.

Maj. William O'Connell, a spokesman for the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, which is in charge of Star Wars, said officials of the agency had not yet seen a copy of the congressional report and would not comment until they were able to review it.

The Strategic Defense Initiative, which began in March 1983 at the direction of President Ronald Reagan, is the nation's largest weapon development program, but it has sustained significant budget cuts in recent years.

Last year, for example, the Bush administration requested $4.6 billion for research and development but received only $3.6 billion.