ACCESSION NUMBER:302703

FILE ID:POL407

DATE:09/09/93

TITLE:DEFENSE DEPARTMENT REPORT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 (09/09/93)

TEXT:*93090907.POL

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT REPORT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9



(Aspin/Europe, Aspin/SDI, Aspin/Grachev, arms sales)  (700)

ASPIN TO VISIT BELGIUM, GERMANY, ITALY

Defense Secretary Aspin will travel to Belgium, Germany and Italy during his

European visit September 10-13, the Defense Department said September 9.



Earlier, spokesman Kathleen deLaski said that Aspin will meet in Brussels

with European security experts and U.S. military commanders in Europe in

the first of several planned regional defense policy conferences.  He also

will address the International Institute for Strategic Studies on the

implications for Europe of the U.S. Defense Department's Bottom-Up Review,

she said.



The department said September 9 that Aspin will depart Belgium for Germany,

probably September 12, to visit U.S. troops supporting humanitarian

airdrops over Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Aspin will then continue to Rome where

he will meet with Italian Defense Minister Fabio Fabbri and with Admiral

Jeremy Boorda, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's commander-in-chief

of allied forces in southern Europe, the department said.



Aspin will return to Washington September 13.

REPORT ON 1984 STRATEGIC TEST RESULTS CALLED ACCURATE

Defense Secretary Aspin said September 9 that a 1984 test of the Strategic

Defense Initiative (SDI), predecessor of the new Ballistic Missile Defense

(BMD), produced a report that was accurate to the test results.



Press reports said the test results may have been falsified to make the SDI

program appear more formidable in its ability to shoot down Soviet

missiles.  Such results also might have misled Congress into funding less

effective programs, Aspin told reporters.



But the defense secretary said the report accurately portrayed test results,

even though he said U.S. officials attempted to mislead Soviet intelligence

about the effectiveness of SDI.  Further, he said, more recent law requires

the Defense Department to notify Congress when it intends to distribute

misinformation to an adversary about such tests.  Congress is to receive

the accurate test results, the law states.

1

ASPIN, GRACHEV, OTHER OFFICIALS SIGN PACTS

Defense Secretary Aspin and Russian Defense Minister Grachev signed a

memorandum of understanding September 8 that sets up a framework for

further cooperation between the U.S. and Russian military services, a

Defense Department news release said.



Last week, Defense Under Secretary Frank Wisner and Russian Minister of

Atomic Energy Viktor Mikhailov signed two implementing agreements to help

Russia dismantle old Soviet weapons of mass destruction, the Defense

Department announced.



The Aspin-Grachev memorandum was drafted in accordance with directives from

President Clinton and Russian President Yeltsin at the Vancouver summit for

their governments to broaden contacts in defense and security matters.



The memorandum contained several specifics, including:

-- establishing a schedule for yearly exchange visits between the defense

secretary and the defense minister;



-- setting up alternating, bilateral working group meetings in Washington

and Moscow to explore new means of increasing contacts;



-- creating an exchange program between the military chiefs of staff of the

two countries and their subordinate commanders and staffs; and



-- promoting a plan for U.S.-Russian information exchanges and cooperation

in training for international peacekeeping roles.



The two Wisner-Mikhailov agreements signed September 2 implement parts of

the U.S. law that commits $800 million in American resources to free Russia

and other former Soviet states from Soviet arsenals.  One agreement

provides $75 million for a storage facility for radioactive material taken

from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons.  The other provides $10ÿ20million

in technical assistance to improve safeguards against contamination from

such materials.



SOUTH KOREA, TURKEY ASK TO PURCHASE SPARE PARTS, MISSILES

The Defense Department told Congress September 8 that South Korea has asked

to purchase $92 million in spare parts for U.S.-manufactured combat and

support aircraft and for radar navigation systems, and that Turkey has

asked to purchase $47 million in advanced, medium range, air-to-air

missiles.



Seoul would use the parts to maintain its air force.  The sale would help

South Korea remain "an important force for political stability and economic

progress in Northeast Asia," said the Defense Department.



Turkey would use the missiles to bolster the capabilities of its fleet of

U.S.-manufactured F-16 fighter aircraft.  The sale would not damage U.S.

efforts to encourage a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus question, the

Defense Department said.



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