DEFENSE AIDE CONFIRMS U.S. SATELLITES JAMMED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200980005-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 21, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200980005-7
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
21 June 1984
efense aide coyfflurms
J.S. satellites jammed
By Walter Andrews
THE WAS -I:P TON TIMES
The Soviet Union's jamming of
American surveillance satellites
used for monitoring Soviet missile
tests - a "possible" violation of
nuclear arms agreements - was
confirmed publicly yesterday by a
senior Defense Department: offi-
cial.
Richard Perle, assistant secre-
tary of defense for international-
security policy, said in testimony
before the House Foreign Affairs
Committee that the Soviets have
been jamming the surveillance sat-
ellites used by the United States to
monitor Soviet tests and to verify
their compliance with the nuclear
arms agreements.
Earlier this month, government
sources told The Washington Times
that the Soviets, apparently using
technical information provided by
convicted U.S. spies, had begun.
jamming the satellites, which are
the primary means the U.S. has for
verifying Soviet compliance.
Last week, Defense Department
spokesman Michael Burch did not
deny the stork But Mr. Burch also
declined to provide positive confir-
mation or details because he said
secret classified material was
involved.
During the foreign affaim com-
mittee hearing yesterday, Mr. Perle
was asked to what extent the Sovi-
ets are jamming U.S. satellites used
to monitor Soviet missile tests.
"There has been activity of the
kind that you suggest. It's very wor-
risome;' the assistant secretary
replied.
There is a pattern, a growing
.pattern, unhappily, of the Soviets
resorting to.a variety of devices
that have the effect of denying us
information that'is?critical to judg-.
ing their performance under exist-
ing obligations.
"And interfering with satellites
in the manner you suggested is one
,of the devices they've been resort-
ing to," Mr. Perle said.
Asked if the jamming consti-
tuted a violation of the existing
arms control agreements, the assis-
tant secretary replied "there is no
doubt there is a pattern of behavior
that is inconsistent with those
agreements, and it is possible that
the activity to which you refer is
also a violation."
There are problems in determin-
ing. whether violations have
occurred because of "some
difficulties in the way the existing
agreements have been drafted;'Mr.
Perle commented.
_ He said the existing agreements
do not prohibit interfering with sat-
ellites "provided they do not inter-
fere with the collection of
information relevant to provisions
? of the agreement."
Mr. Perle said it may be difficult
to prove the satellite jamming is
related to arms control provisions
because the Soviets have been
resorting to "concealment, camou-
flage, and the like" to obscure their
activities.
He said these attempts at con-
cealment and deception have been
increasing dramatically, and are a
source of concern.
Mr. Perle declined to elaborate
on his remarks following the com-
mittee hearing.
In January, President Reagan
-charged the. Soviets with seven
arms control violations, including
interfering with verification by the
encoding or encrypting of missile
test data being telemetered to
ground stations.
Among other things, the telem-
etry provides data on the number of
warheads tested on a particular
type of missile. That data is used to
set warhead limits in an agreement
for particular missiles. , .
But the Soviets now have begun
jamming the telemetry-monitoring
satellites so as to prevent even the
gathering of the encrypted data for
possible decoding later, sources
said.
Sources said earlier this month
the jamming has been electron-
ically precise, and has apparently
used to'advantage technical data
reportedly provided to the Soviets
,by convicted spies Andrew Daulton
Lee and Christopher John Boyce in
1977 on the Rhvolite and Argus sur-
veillance sate ~yp~
The satel "33amming began last
year after the Soviets shot down the
Korean 007 airliner in September,
the sources said.
U.S. intelligence also indicates
the jamming is deliberate in that it
has only occurred during missile
flight tests, the sources said. They
,said they could not say why the
Soviets waited until recently to uti-
lize the Rhyolite satellite data pro-
'vided by the spies.
Shortly after the KAL 007
disaster, the sources said the Sovi-
ets also began jamming three so-
c`alled "Cobra" radars used for
ionitoring the path taken by a
Soviet missile and multiple war-
heads during flight tests.
The radars, using sophisticated
phased-array, electronic scanning,
operate out of the Aleutian islands,
close to the Kamchatka peninsula
where much of the Soviet mon-
itoring of their warheads re-
entering the atmosphere is done. .
TheKAL007 was shot down after
flying off course over Kamchatka.
The Cobra Dane is a phased-
array radar based on one of the
Aleutian islands. Cobra Judy is
based on a ship and the Cobra Ball
is an aircraft specially designed for
monitoring Soviet missile tests.
The jamming of the radars was
previously reported in February,
although it has not been confirmed
by the Pentagon. The sources said
the jamming of the telemetry-
monitoring satellites began some-
time after the jamming of the
radars.'
One source said the intelligence
community has reached a a consen-.
sus that Soviet willingness to jam
verification monitoring satellites,
as indicated in the case oE the
Rhyolite spacecraft, has made the
arms control process "unviable."
STAT
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200980005-7