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From the San Franscisco Examiner, Thursday, June 8, 1989.

"More than half goes for military use"

By Charles Mitchell
United Press International

Moscow - The Soviet Union, in its first public disclosure of how 
much it spends on the space program, revealed Wednesday that more 
than half of its annual $10.7 billion space budget is devoted to military use.

The revelation shattered one of the Kremlin's most effective 
international propaganda claims, that the bulk of the program 
is devoted to peaceful civilian uses.

Speaking at the first joint session of the Supreme Soviet, 
Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov also provided the first breakdown 
of the Soviet defense budget of $119.8 billion, first revealed by 
President Mikhail Gorbachev on May 30.

Both the military and space budgets had been closely guarded 
Soviet secrets, hampering arms-reduction talks.

Ryzhkov said $50.5 billion, or about 42 percent, of the military 
budget was used for procurement of arms, ammunition, and equipment.

By comparison, the United States spends about 28.6 percent of its 
nearly $300 billion annual military budget on procurement. 

The prime minister said research, development and testing accounted 
for $23.7 billion; personnel and maintenance of the army and navy, 
including food and wages, $31.3 billion; and construction projects, 
$7.13 billion. Another $3.6 billion went to military pensions and
$3.6 billion to miscellaneous expenses.

Ryzhkov also said military expenses would be subject to public 
scrutiny and would be decided just as civilian expenditures 
are - by debate and necessity.

In a startling disclosure, Ryzhkov said $6 billion, or 57 percent 
of the space budget, was devoted to military uses, dwarfing the 
$2.6 billion it says it spends on "science and economic" uses.

The remainder of the space budget, $2 billion, is devoted to the 
trouble-plagued Soviet space shuttle, which made an unmanned 
test flight last year before plans to send it into orbit manned 
were suspended indefinitly.

By comparison, NASA's budget for 1990 is $13 billion, 
excluding Air Force launches.

The Soviet space program has come under increasing pressure from 
the press and citizen's groups to justify its expense. Compared 
with the U.S. space program, there have been few technical spinoffs 
that have benefited the economy.

...

# mike (sun!mae), M/S 8-04
"The people are the water, the army are the fish" Mao Tse-tung