Counterattack

DEFENSE

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara has been under fire from some big guns because of his go-slow approach to the development of the RS-70, the Air Force's reconnaissance-strike superbomber. First, General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force's cigar-chomping Chief of Staff, bluntly charged that McNamara was endangering the nation's security. Then Chairman Carl Vinson of the House Armed Services Committee sided with LeMay, backed a bill that would give the Pentagon a direct order to speed construction of the RS-70. Last week McNamara, his patience gone, called a press conference to fire a salvo of facts and figures calculated to shoot down the RS-70--and his critics as well.

The RS-70 is the Air Force's new version of the controversial 2,000-m.p.h. B70 which both the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations cut back out of fear that the sleek bomber would be outmoded by missiles before it ever got into the air. This year the Air Force wants to modify the B70 plans and build the RS-70, which would be designed to fly over an enemy country hit by U.S. missiles, inspect the damage by radar, radio back reports and attack surviving targets with nuclear-tipped missiles. LeMay and Vinson, insisting that the U.S. will continue to need such bombers for some time, want to spend $491 million next fiscal year on a crash program to develop the RS-70. McNamara and President Kennedy want to spend only $171 million to continue development of three prototype RS-70s.

With all the information on file in his mind, McNamara ticked off his case against the RS-70:

P: Since the RS-70 could not be adapted for airborne alert--patrolling the skies with a full load of arms--it would be a sitting duck on the ground for any surprise attack. Nor could the high-altitude RS-70 dodge enemy radar by streaking in for low-level attacks.

P: The fleet of 150 RS-70s called for by the Air Force would cost $10 billion by 1970, more than half of the Air Force budget for this year.

P: By 1967, when the Air Force would just be getting its RS-70s into operation, the U.S. will be protected by over 1,000 Atlas, Titan and Minuteman missiles, plus 650 Polaris missiles carried by submarines and more than 700 B-52s and B-58s. Without a single RS-70, said McNamara, U.S. retaliatory forces "would achieve practically complete destruction of the enemy target system--even after absorbing an initial nuclear attack."

P: The RS-70 could do its job only if equipped with highly sophisticated electronic gear and nuclear missiles that have not even been designed, let alone built. McNamara proposed spending an additional $52 million next fiscal year to see if the electronic equipment planned for the RS-70 is feasible.

Only a day after McNamara's salvo, Air Force Secretary Eugene M. Zuckert stopped pushing for a stepped-up RS-70 program and fell in line with the Defense Secretary. That arrayed President Kennedy, McNamara, all three service secretaries and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff except Curt LeMay behind a throttled-back RS-70 program. Undeterred, Carl Vinson's committee sent to the House its bill to force the RS-70 on the Administration.

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