THE LEDGER-STAR 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, August 22, 1994                TAG: 9408220214
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JOHN MINTZ, WASHINGTON POST 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   59 lines

PENTAGON ORDERS BIG ARMS CUTS DUE TO A BUDGET SHORTFALL, THE SERVICES HAVE BEEN TOLD TO PLAN FOR ONE OF THE LARGEST MASS CUTBACKS EVER.

The Pentagon's top leadership has ordered the military services to plan for the possible cancellation or delay of nearly every large new weapons system in the planning or development stages.

In a memorandum last week, Deputy Defense Secretary John M. Deutch asked the Army, Navy and Air Force to draw up specific alternatives for the major weapons programs planned by the services. The cost savings would pay for ``improvements in other areas.''

Deutch's memo alarmed the military services and defense contractors, who said such cuts or delays could weaken the nation's defenses.

The memo was intended by Deutch to be ``a huge wake-up call'' to the military services that they will have to delay or eliminate hardware programs or face deep cuts in other areas, a Pentagon official said Sunday.

Deutch is ``telling people to take notice because we have very tough decisions coming,'' the official said.

Top Pentagon officials received the memo Friday, and a number of military and industry officials expressed distress when they learned about it over the weekend. Several officials said that if the order were enacted as written, it would be one of the largest mass cutbacks of military programs in memory.

``You're going to hear a lot of screaming'' by Air Force officials over the proposed delay of up to four years in producing the F-22 jet fighter, an Air Force official said Sunday.

``This'll be a blow to the Navy . . . and it's scary,'' a Navy official said.

Deutch, with the support of Defense Secretary William J. Perry, is searching for budget cuts because the Pentagon lacks funds to carry out its missions.

Last month the General Accounting Office said the Defense Department has underestimated its costs and exaggerated its savings, and will find it is $150 billion short over the next five years. ILLUSTRATION: BUDGET ORDERS

NAVY: Slow production of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and attack

subs

MARINES: Cancel the embattled V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft

ARMY: Cancel the Comanche helicopter

AIR FORCE: Delay the F-22 jet fighter four years

KEYWORDS: PENTAGON MILTIARY BUDGET DEFENSE BUDGET

by CNB