1976 or Bust

DAYTON, OHIO--if Congress fails to authorize funds for an anti-ballistic missile system this year, it will take until 1976 to establish another operational missile defense system, the Pentagon's top scientist said in a speech Monday before the Aviation-Space Writers Association meeting in Dayton.

"We would then be defending with too little, too late," said Dr. John S. Foster Jr., assistant defense secretary for research and development. He contended that the Soviet Union's new SS9 missiles, now under development, could destroy all but 50 of the 1000 U.s. Minutemen missiles in the 1970's if the missiles were left undefended.

The Nixon administration is asking for $900 million this year for development of two of the twelve proposed ABM sites. ABM critics, complain, however, that the total cost of the system would be about $13 billion.