Senate Endorses Plan to Make MX Missiles Mobile

WASHINGTON — The Senate today endorsed President Bush’s plan for making MX nuclear missiles mobile, rejecting a proposal to slash $502 million from the Administration’s $1.1-billion request for the weapons program.

On a 62-38 vote, the Senate turned aside an amendment that would have trimmed the funds earmarked for placing the existing 50 MX missiles on railroad cars--a budget-cutting step the House took last week.

“If we have that kind of unraveling over here, we go to conference with a totally illogical, unsound program . . . and I believe that will be detrimental to both our national security and our arms control,” Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said as the Senate resumed consideration of its version of the $295-billion fiscal 1990 defense bill.

Stealth Program Criticized

The Senate also approved, 93 to 7, a non-binding resolution expressing the sense of the chamber that “it is not presently prudent or possible to commit to the procurement of an operational force” of B-2 Stealth bombers.

Lawmakers have criticized the plan to build 132 of the radar-evading planes at a cost of $70 billion, or $530 million per plane.

The House last week voted to strictly limit the Stealth program in fiscal 1990, pressing the Pentagon to come up with a cheaper program. But the Senate kept the Administration’s program relatively intact, making a modest cut of $300 million.

Voting against the B-2 resolution today were Sens. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Bob Dole (R-Kan.), Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), James A. McClure (R-Ida.), Don Nickels (R-Okla.) and Steve Symms (R-Ida.).