WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon is scrambling to avoid a shortage of cruise
missiles, increasingly the weapon of choice in attacking heavily defended
targets in places like Iraq and Yugoslavia. Before the latest NATO strikes
over Kosovo and Serbia, the Air Force was down to 150 cruise missiles
carrying conventional warheads. At least 30 have been launched since then.
The Navy has more than 2,000 but is using them up at a faster rate. No
cruise missile production line is in operation. "The stocks of
air-launched cruise missiles are limited, and it's something we're
addressing," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Tuesday. The Air Force
said Tuesday the Office of Management and Budget was permitting it to
convert 92 nuclear-tipped cruise missiles into conventional air-launched
cruise missiles, or CALCMs. See
