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Show Garn from ( 1 Washington... MJl ' vmnivyv . . f n ' By Jake Garn I am gravely concerned over President Carter's Fiscal Year 1979 defense budget in the face of undiminished Soviet growth in military capability capabil-ity and Moscow's unrelenting unre-lenting determination for military preeminence in the world today. Unless we take immediate action to rectify the present strategic stra-tegic imbalance between our two countries we can expect the Soviets to gain military superiority. In 1960, both the U.S. and the USSR achieved "TRIAD" strategic force status: manned bombers, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) and missile-firing submarines. The United states on Nov. 15, 1960, sent our first nuclear ballistic missile-firing missile-firing submarine, the George Washington, into sea on its first deterrent patrol. The Soviets went to station earlier that same year with converted "Z" class attack submarines sub-marines carrying two ballistic missiles. However, as a result of present and past administrations' adminis-trations' decisions, I am fearful that the course has been set, at best, for a triad system where all the elements may not be viable. For the record, let me detail my concerns: Our Navy today is down to an all-time low of slightly over 400 ships, compared to over 900 that we had in the late 1960's. Our B-52 fleet averages 16 years in age with some as old as 25 years. President Carter cancelled can-celled the B-l bomber and promised to replace it w"h cruise . missiles whose technological capabilities are unproven. The president ordered the only ICBM production line in the free world to be closed. Our air defenses of North America have been virtually abandoned. Our man power levels have been significantly reduced over the last two years of approximately 100,000 men. The full-scale development develop-ment of the MX, an advanced ad-vanced ICBM, has been delayed, despite acknowledged acknow-ledged Minuteman ICBM vulnerability to Soviet attack. U.S. strategic deterrence deter-rence is at a crossroads and the time has come for us to put a halt to practicing prac-ticing unilateral arms restraint. re-straint. The future is ours to shape and unless we reaccess our present policies pol-icies and budgets on defense, de-fense, our destiny may be a lapse into a second-rate world power. |