1982 arms sales to set US record

The United States will sell a record $30 billion in arms overseas this year, far surpassing the Soviets and topping the $17 billion sold by the Ford administration in 1975, says a survey by the Center for Defense Information, a nonpartisan think tank specializing in the military.

White House reports to Congress say total arms sales in 1982 will amount to only $10 billion, but the CDI said the administration's figure is unrealistically low because it deals only with deliveries of weapons and not with new approved sales.

The administration's plan to make the arms sales an instrument of foreign policy has also meant overlooking some countries' poor human rights records, the CDI said. ''Of the 41 military-dominated governments in the world with records of violating citizens' rights, the United States has been a mojor supplier to 28 ," the report said.