Artillery program to get ax

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday he intends to cancel an $11 billion program to develop an artillery gun for the Army, a move that revealed tensions between Rumsfeld and Army Secretary Thomas White who has fought to save the program.

Rumsfeld said he was looking into reports Army officials had gone behind his back to Congress in hopes of building political pressure to rescue the project.

"I have a minimum of high regard for that kind of behavior," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld's comment about behind-the-scenes maneuvering over the future of the artillery project, called Crusader, suggested he felt his authority as the Pentagon's top civilian official was being challenged.

It also raised questions about White's future. He is under political pressure from his contacts with Enron Corp. officials during the company's collapse last year. White had headed Enron Energy Services, a subsidiary, before he became Army secretary.

Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the Lexington Institute, a think tank, said the flap over Crusader may well be the final straw for White, a decorated Vietnam veteran.

"Mr. White has finally found a matter of principle on which to depart," he said.