United States Defense

In what officials called a major first step toward developing space-based "Star Wars" weapons, Defense Department scientists announced Thursday that they have successfully tested an experimental space vehicle designed to destroy incoming nuclear missiles by crashing into them. The 21-second flight of the 6-foot rocket took place Monday inside a cavernous Air Force laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base near Palmdale. Officials from the Pentagon's Strategic Defense Initiative Office said the test significantly boosted efforts to develop and deploy the first phase of a much larger space-based defensive network.

The B-1 bomber could be shot down by the Soviet's most advanced surface-to-air missiles because of deficiencies in its electronic radar jamming system, built in New York by the Eaton Corp., Air Force officials have disclosed. The jammer's shortcomings mean that the bomber cannot safely fly over certain Soviet anti-aircraft sites, as it was expected to do, apparently limiting its capability to attack some highly defended Soviet targets.

The Air Force Wednesday lifted some of the secrecy surrounding its exotic new stealth bomber, releasing a rough artist's rendering revealing the plane to be a modern version of a "flying wing" design tried out and abandoned in the early 1950s. With the picture came the announcement that the controversial plane will make its first flight next fall--a short hop from its assembly facility at Palmdale to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base.

Little Lanxide Corp. was barely a spot on the map of the vast chemical and materials industry dominated by the likes of Dow and Du Pont until, less than a year after its birth in 1983, Lanxide was tapped on the shoulder by an obscure Pentagon agency. Getting anointed with a mere $1 million from the government gave Lanxide the credibility it needed to attract $250 million more from private investors and big corporate partners, including its Delaware neighbor Du Pont Co.

In recent weeks, while most investors seemed focused on election news or worries about technology stocks, shares of leading aerospace-defense companies hit new highs. The underlying reasons weren't hard to find. Defense budgets are slated to rise in the decade ahead as a changing world presents new challenges to U.S. military strategy. A major review of defense policies is a certainty in the next few years.

The new burst of defense spending, set in motion by a desire to help the military buy spare parts and recruit more troops, is proving a boon for some big weapons programs. Formally unveiled Monday, the $261-billion fiscal 2000 defense budget would spread around money for three high-priced fighter planes, attack submarines and a heavy artillery system for the Army, among other projects.

The Navy on Wednesday selected General Dynamics Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. to jointly develop a new attack jet, thus handing a defeat to Northrop Corp. and Grumman Corp. in a program that may be worth $35 billion over the next decade. The Navy announced few details of the award, but Navy officials had said earlier that it wants to buy about 450 of the jets, which will be based on aircraft carriers and fly long-range attack or bombing missions.

Alarmed by a boom in commercial spy satellites, the Army is poised to fire up a furnace in the New Mexico desert, collect the raging energy on mirrors and focus it into a laser beam aimed to cripple a satellite hundreds of miles up in space. Army scientists hope the million-watt laser, the nation's largest, could blind orbiting eyes that might reveal the position of U.S. and allied troops and weapons in times of war.

President Bush's decision to "refocus" the "Star Wars" missile defense effort may give major new impetus to a program that had begun to lose its direction and political support since its heyday during the Ronald Reagan Administration. Bush said Tuesday night he had directed the Pentagon's Strategic Defense Initiative Office to shift its emphasis from providing a shield against a large-scale missile attack to providing "protection from limited ballistic missile strikes whatever their source."

World War III, if it ever comes to Los Angeles, will mean megatons of hell. To Soviet war planners, Southern California is loaded with attractive targets: nuclear weapons facilities, military bases, defense plants, military command centers and even a civil defense command center. Except for Washington, Los Angeles would be the ripest urban area in the United States for an attack by the Soviet Union. Theodore A.