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A home for the homeless MX missile? Facing a Feb. 18 deadline, a presidential commission looking for a way to base the controversial weapon may have found a compromise. Reports surfaced this week that the panel ''is moving toward'' a plan to put 50 missiles (half the number the White House wants) in existing Minuteman missile silos in Wyoming. Meanwhile, research would continue on the so-called dense-pack plan. One idea is to use superhardened missile capsules and perhaps some form of deception, including empty silos.

Congress is very skeptical of dense pack, but most lawmakers agree the US needs an improved land-based ICBM.m