The Soviet Union, in its first public disclosure of how much it spends on the space program, revealed that more than half of its annual $10.7 billion space budget is devoted to military use.
The revelation Wednesday shattered one of the Kremlin's most effective international propaganda claims, that the bulk of the program is devoted to peaceful civilian use.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 May 30.
Ryzhkov said $50.5 billion, or about 42 percent, of the military budget was used for procurement of arms, ammunition and equipment.
He 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.
By comparison, the United States spends about 28.6 percent of its nearly $300 billion annual military budget on procurement.
Ryzhkov also said military expenditure would be subject to public scrutiny and would be decided just as civilian expenditures are - by debate and necessity.
The Soviet military and space budgets had been closely guarded secrets at home and abroad, hampering East-West arms reduction talks by depriving negotiations of a realistic base to work from.
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 self-proclaimed priority area of its program.
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 manned orbit were suspended indefinitely.
By comparison, NASA's budget for 1990 is $13 billion, excluding Air Force launches.
The prime minister defended the military portion of the space budget, claiming such components as spy satellites.
The Soviet Union, while stating its space program was peaceful, proposed at the United Nations in 1987 the creation of an international space inspectorate to prevent the militarization of outer space.