By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The House Armed Services Committee has voted to eliminate 50 MX "Peacekeeper" missiles from the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal, but has blocked efforts by the Pentagon to eliminate 33 Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers, originally developed during the Cold War to carry nuclear weapons.

The votes on the Peacekeeper missiles and the B-1B bombers came August 1 as the Armed Services Committee worked to complete the $343,300 million fiscal year 2002 defense authorization budget. The 2002 defense authorization budget matches President Bush's revised request for funding and marks the most significant increase in defense spending since the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s.

The full U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the measure in September, but the Senate Armed Services Committee is not expected to begin work on its version of the defense authorization bill until September. Any differences between the House and Senate versions would have to be resolved before the bill goes to the president for his signature.

The Peacekeeper missile, which was developed in the 1980s, carries 10 nuclear warheads. The B-1B Lancer was originally designed to deliver nuclear weapons during the Cold War, but air wings of the bombers have also been designated to carry conventional weapons.

The amendment to eliminate the Peacekeeper missiles supports a pledge by President Bush to draw down the U.S. nuclear arsenal of more than 7,000 warheads as part of his plan to develop a new strategic framework and an anti-ballistic missile defensive program. Bush, Vice President Cheney and members of the National Security Council met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon August 1 to hear a briefing on the U.S. nuclear posture.

Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during the Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Genoa last month to continue talks on arms control and disarmament.

However, any unilateral disarmament initiative by the United States faces a major hurdle: in 1997 Congress mandated that there could be no unilateral reductions in U.S. strategic nuclear weapons until the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START II, enters into force. The Bush plan to reduce the number of nuclear weapons will depend on Congress rescinding the law, but the Armed Services Committee voted 31-22 August 1 to defeat an effort to repeal the 1997 law.

The B-1B amendment -- offered by Representative Saxby Chambliss, (Republican, Georgia)-- prevents the Air Force from reducing its fleet of 93 B-1B Lancers to 60 and consolidating the air wings at two bases instead of five. The Air Force has argued that the bombers, first fielded in the mid-1980s, are costly to operate and highly vulnerable to enemy air defenses. Reducing the fleet to 60 would save $165 million, which could be used to pay for upgrading the remaining planes, Air Force officials have said.

The bomber fleet would be consolidated at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas. Bases in Georgia, Kansas, and Idaho would lose bomber air wings.

The defense budget authorization also contains $8,160 million for the Bush administration's missile defense program in fiscal year 2002, which begins this coming October 1.

The measure also would set U.S. armed forces strength levels at 1,387,400 active duty military personnel and another 864,658 reserve military personnel.

Several other amendments to the 2002 defense authorization include:

-- $35 million for the construction of a chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuchye, Russia. This expenditure is part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.

-- Limits on U.S. military personnel assigned to Colombia to no more than 500 troops.

-- Authorization for a variety of space programs, including creation of an office for under secretary of defense for space information and intelligence.

-- Diversion of more funding into engineering programs for the F-22 advanced tactical strike fighter.