Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger has offered a concise and convincing defense of the Reagan Administration’: program to fl I the natlon’s mllltary needs. His statement first appeared on the editorial page of The Washington Post. obviously in response to one the previous week by former Defense Chlef Harold Brown entitled. “Wrong on the Bl, .Wrong on the MX.” We nberger sought to correct “serlous mlsconceptlons” regarding the admlnlstration’s “overdue program to reami America” which he said, “ccmtinue to surface in publlc debate, in Congress. and in the press.” The admlnlstratlon Interpreted last year’s election results as a “sweeplng mandate” for strengthening the nation’s defense. “The reason, I believe, is clear,” sald Weinberger. “ln the lW0s. the natlon, tnrsllng overly in the spirit of ‘detente,’ debated – whlle the USSR continued..,to arm. “‘flre Soviet Union today not only has matched our previous nuclear superiority; It has far exceeded our conventional mllltary strength and ls rapidly projecting its power beyond the needs of legitimate defense. I need only cite Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Angola, South Yemen and Cuba,” The Reagan hilosophy as enunclated by the defense secretary ls that unless we move promptly, the USSR’s military bulldup will carry It past us. leaving America In the position of permanent, dangerous lnferity. Under thls reasoning, the U,S,, could be subject to nuclear blackmail, cowed from moving boldly to defense itself and its Allies in a crisis. “Thls we cannot and will not risk.” A prime administration goal is to modernize both our aalng bomber I based mlsslles. and air-breathing , strategic systems.” i The 51 bomber, workhorse of our bomber fleet, is more than 25 years old, still useful but outmoded in many respects, By contrast, the new, highlyimproved Bill bomber not onlv has tion in M7. Weinberger claimed. ‘ The new lslli employs extremely sophisticated ‘avIonlcs’ e electronic countermeasures that will make it capable of foiling advanced Soviet defense/detection measures well into the ltlws. The ll S thlnkina is that even the so-called advance technology “stealth” bomber will continue. Another must ls modernization of our land-based missiles, “We believe the MX is the answer – in throw-weight. accuracy and tlexe ibllity,” sald Weinberger. “fnitially we intend to base it in speciallyhardened Titan and Minuteman silos as a credible, necessary and immediately-available deterrent to Soviet attack. “Thls wlll glve us breathing time to devise a pennanerlt, survlvable basing mode: either in continually patro ling alrcraft, In deep shelters under mounfalns protected by far more effective balllstlc missile defense than we have nor or In other combinations as research and technology suggest,” After prolonged study, the Carter reglme’s multiple basing system was rejected as unduly expensive and vulnerable “The Soviets would need only to Increase the number of nuclear reentry vehicles to saturate it.” In the over-all dew, the neagao team believes a “mlx” of IB penetrating bombers and MX mlssiles will force the Soviet Unlon Into a costly restnicturlng of Its entire defense system, Including command, control and communlcatlorrs networks. Thls, It ls hoped, will divert Into defense USSR monles that might otherwise be avaliable for offense, and cover vital U.S defense needs untll, by the end of the decade, “we will have devised s permanent survlvahle basing mode for the MX National defense is expensive it is a sad commentary on clvlllration that nations must spend so much of their substance for war preparedness. . Hut as Weinberger said, we do not live in an ideal world. For years the U S has been slighting defense