AIRFORCE TO TEST A WEAPON IN SPACE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302430022-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: February 20, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved
ARTICLE LIPPj.kED
ON PAGE M1'
AIR FORCE TO TEST
A WEAPON IN SPACE
Missile Is to Be Fired at Star,
Avoiding Ban by Congress
on Man-Made Targets
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Special to The New York Times
, WASHINGTON, Feb. 19? Air Force
officials have devised a plan to con-
tinue testing an antisatellite weapon
that they believe does not violate a Con-
gressional prohibition against testing
the weapon on objects in space, Penta-
gon officials and Congressional experts
say.
The plan, which has yet to be ap-
proved by Defense Secretary Caspar
W. Weinberger, calls for carrying out
at least two tests in which a missile
fired by an F-15 jet would seek to guide
itself toward the heat generated by a
star.
A Pentag,24 official said Tuesday
that the tea would be Darticular1V
helpful in developing the capacity to at-
tack satellites that fly in low orbit.
These could include Soviet Photo-
graphic reconnaissance satellites and
ocean reconnaissance satellites.
Last year Congress voted to ban all
tests of the Air Force antisatellite
weapon against objects in space as long
as the Soviet Union continued with its
current moratorium on tests of its an-
tisatellite system, which would be
launched into space by an SS-9 rocket.
Congressman Expresses Concern
Officials in the Defense Department
said the tests planned for the current
fiscal year would not violate this re-
striction because the antisatellite mis-
sile would be directed at the infrared
energy, or heat, emitted from a star
and not at a man-made object in space.
They said the Air Force had estab-
lished a legal precedent for this inter-
pretation by carrying out the same
type of test last year in the face a dif-
ferent Congressional measure that ap-
plied to tests against objects in space.
Representative Norman D. Dicks, a
Washington Democrat who played a
role in drafting the Congressional re-
striction, expressed concern over the
Air Force plans and said he was seek-
ing further details before the test
procedures were approved.
"I am a little worried that it looks as
if they are tying to find an avenue to
skirt the intention of the amendment,
for Release 2012/09/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302430022-9
DCA I OKA. ELM.Lb
20 February 1986
though they may be in technical com-
pliance," Mr. Dicks said.
The Air Force antisatellite system
uses an F-15 plane to fire a missile
equipped with a heat-seeking sensor.
The missile carries no explosives; it
destroys the target by crashing into it.
A Pentagon expert said test plans de-
veloped before the Congressional ac-
tion called for conducting one test in
the current fiscal year in which the an-
tisatellite missile would seek to home
in on the heat generated by a star.
Balloon-Like Target Planned
Other tests would also have been car-
ried out in which the missile would
have been directed at balloon-like tar-
gets, according to the earlier plans.
After the Congressional action, Air
Force officials who oversee the devel-
opment of the antisatellite system de-
cided to "restructure" the program.
They have since proposed that at least
two and perhaps three tests be con-
ducted in the current fiscal year in
which the antisatellite missile would be
directed at the heat of a star, the Penta-
gon official said.
The official said that such tests were
technically important because they
would allow the Air Force to assess the
performance of the weapon at low alti-
tudes, where the the heat generated by
the earth's atmosphere could affect the
performance of the missile's heat-seek-
ing sensor.
He said the balloon-like targets de-
veloped for the antisatellite program
were of limited utility in such low-alti-
tude tests because they did not hover
for a long time at those altitudes.
However, the official said the antisa-
tellite program would probably be ad-
versely affected if the Congressionally
imposed ban on testing against objects
in space was not reversed for the fiscal
year 1987. If the restriction is main-
tained for that year, he said, "you be-
gin to run out of useful tests to do."
'Batting Practice Without a Bail*
Some Congressional critics of the Air
Force program have questioned the
scientific utility of tests that do not in-
volve the use of targets.
Representative Les AuCoin, Demo-
crat of Oregon, said in a letter written
Feb. 10 to Gen. Charles A. Gabriel, the
Air Force Chief of Staff, "Testing
against a point in space is like doing
batting _practice without a ball."
In a similar letter to Secretary Wein-
berger, Mr. Aucoin suggested that the
purpbse of such tests might be to pro-
voke the Soviet Union to abandone its
moratorium on antisatellite tests.
Despite the Congressional restric-
tion, the Air Force has requested $30
million in procurement funds and $278
million in research funds for the antisa-
tellite weapon program in the fiscal
year 1987.
In a Pentagon report released Tues-
day, Donald A. Hicks, Under Secretary
of Defense for research and engineer-
ing, said the Pentagon would seek "cor-
rective action" to "promptly restore
our ability to conduct" tests against
targets.
Mr. Hicks said that if such action was
not taken the Pentagon would lose $20
million that was spent on two targets
sent into orbit last December, shortly
before the Congressional prohibition on
testing against targets was enacted.
Critics of the antisatellite program
contend that the Pentagon placed those
targets into orbit to put pressure on
Congress not to agree to a test ban.
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302430022-9