By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 13, 1997; Page A04

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen confirmed yesterday that a major review of the structure of U.S. forces would reaffirm one of the Pentagon's central post-Cold War assumptions: that the United States needs to retain enough military strength to fight two regional wars nearly at once.

In his most detailed remarks so far on the results of the Quadrennial Defense Review, scheduled for full release next Monday, Cohen also signaled his intention to announce "some marginal reductions in the current force" in order to help finance the purchase of new weapons and equipment. He did not offer specific numbers, although other defense officials reported last week that about 60,000 active-duty personnel would be cut from the current force of 1.45 million.

With defense spending likely to remain at most flat into the next decade, and with U.S. forces becoming increasingly involved in time-consuming peace operations, the notion that the Pentagon could continue to prepare for two regional wars while embarking on a stepped-up modernization program has been considered highly dubious by many defense experts. But Cohen said the two-war requirement was essential for the United States to protect interests around the world.

"It signals our resolve to friends and foes alike," Cohen said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Brookings Institution Board of Trustees here. "And it maintains our flexibility to respond to unforeseen challenges. It is a prudent and responsible approach for deterring opportunism."

At the same time, he asserted, the Pentagon needs to increase investment in new technologies to make U.S. forces lighter and yet more lethal and accurate. "The time has come to leap our forces into the future," he declared.

"We can modestly reduce the number of our active, reserve and civilian personnel, get more out of our newer, more capable ships, aircraft and other platforms, and lose some of the older, less capable ones," Cohen said.

More important, he added, the Pentagon must reduce support structure and improve efficiency "by harnessing the Revolution in Business Affairs," a reference to such measures as streamlining Pentagon buying practices, transferring more defense activities to the private sector and adapting more commercial technologies to military uses.