September 7, 1983

Mrs. Kirkpatrick's speech, page A15. UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Sept. 6 - A hushed and intent Security Council today heard 11 minutes of the tape-recorded voices that the United States said were those of the Soviet fighter pilots involved in the downing of a South Korean airliner with 269 on board. On five television screens placed around the Council chamber, the Council's 15 members and dozens of other diplomats read the translation and listened to these climactic reports attributed to the Soviet fliers: ''Now I will try a rocket,'' said the pilot of the SU-15 who United States officials say shot down the airliner. ''Twelve to the target,'' a second pilot added. This meant 12 kilometers, or about 7 miles.

At 3:15 P.M. today, the call went out that no marine on the base here likes to hear. ''Into the bunkers!'' shouted a marine to his comrades. ''Condition One!'' A siren sounded to signal the danger - Condition One heralds the most serious of threats - and troops scrambled into holes in the ground covered over with metal, the walls reinforced by wood and steel and the entire shelter surrounded by sandbags.

A debate vital to the nation's security is going on among military experts and lawmakers over how much a network of smaller missiles, dubbed Midgetman, would cost, when it could be built and how it should be deployed. This week the Air Force expects to get a secret report on the technical requirements and feasibility of a Midgetman system. What it recommends about building such a system may add fuel to the argument that has been growing since President Reagan endorsed the concept of the small missile last spring. The report will also bear on the continuing controversy over development of the much larger MX missile, which Congress approved earlier this year after a long and bitter debate. ''Closet patriots in the bureaucracy keep telling me the Air Force is doubling the Midgetman schedule and padding the cost by half to make MX look good,'' said Representative Thomas J. Downey, Democrat of Suffolk.

IN the past I have written about the many successful dishes that can be made without salt merely by replacing what it adds to meat, fish and vegetables with the piquancy of fresh herbs, lemon or lime juice, garlic, or cayenne or black pepper. Until recently not many interesting salt-free prepared condiments were on the market. The cook who wants to make a sauce gribiche of mayonnaise, minced herbs and chopped pickles has been faced with a grocery shelf of pickles laced with sodium. The addition of a teaspoon or two of prepared mustard to a salad dressing or sauce is something that those on salt-free diets cannot afford to be casual about. Recipes that call for a dash of ketchup or barbecue sauce or for pickled peppers, canned tomatoes or tomato sauce pose a problem for those who want to avoid salt.

A Federal grand jury sitting in Manhattan indicted two former executives of the General Dynamics Corporation yesterday on charges they accepted $2.7 million in kickbacks, part of a $5 million embezzlement scheme involving General Dynamics and the now-defunct Frigitemp Corporation. William M. Tendy, Acting United States Attorney, charged that they took the money in return for securing for Frigitemp more than $45 million of subcontracting work on tankers and submarines. The vessels were built at the General Dynamics shipyards in Quincy, Mass., and Groton, Conn. Also indicted were two former executives of Frigitemp, who were charged with arranging and paying the kickbacks.