NAVY ASSESSES DAMAGE TO SECRETS OF HUNTING SOVIET SUBMARINES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470043-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: May 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470043-2
ARTICIJ
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
30 May 1985
1lTavy Assesses Damage to Seeress of
Hunting Soviet Submarines
/J I By George C. Wilson
Wadwteton Post Staff Wnter
Last month, at what he thought was an
off-the-record seminar at Harvard's Center
for International Studies, Lehman said that,
under certain scenarios, the United States
would attack Soviet missile submarines al-
most immediately in a war.
The hair-trigger usually associated with
land-based missiles thought vulnerable to
enemy missiles if not launched quickly will
John Walker, they said, would have been
in a better position to gather such poten-
tially damaging information from his jobs
and from others who the justice Depart-
ment has said were engaged in espionage.
"If the Soviets sent a submarine into the
Mediterranean an -Me t sure it had not been
detected and earn rom one of the secret
The Soviet Union may have learned how
the United States tracks its submarines in
acetime and would destroy them in war,
Navy and intelligence officials said yes-
terday in discussing what they called deep
concern about the Walker spy case.
Secret information allegedly passed to
the Soviets by John Anthony Walker Jr.; his
son, Michael, and John Walker's brother,
Arthur, and unnamed others in a spying
operation could be damaging enough to
force the superpowers to change tactics in
the silent struggle under the seas, sources
said.
The Navy is assessing the damage and
has not reached a conclusion about it, Navy
officials said.
Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. was
among those waiting at the Defense De-
partment yesterday for a briefing on what
material the Soviets are thought to have
received and what countermeasures might
be necessary, Navy officials said.
Navy officials, while distressed about
what information may have been compro-
mised, said none of the Walkers had the
array of special clearances needed to gain
access to information about supersensitive
U.S. antisubmarine warfare, the "black"
programs.
But even less sensitive material already
thought to have been given to the Soviets
by the Walkers, they said, might reveal the
pattern and scale of U.S. antisubmarine op-
erations.
"Sources and methods, that's what we
have to worry about right now," an intelli-
gence official said, referring to secret tech-
niques eve ope in the last 215 years to o-
cate every submerged vie submarine.
These range from sensitive microphones
on the ocean floor to hunter submarines
concealed outside Soviet ports to eaves-
dropping satellites.
The United States and the Soviet Union
have been playing a cat-and-mouse game
under the sea for more than two decades. It
is deadlier than ever because each nation is
using a growing proportion of its nuclear
firepower on submarines.
ir su
soon be true of sea-based missiles because papers o taine rom Walker that the
they are becoming accurate enough to hit was detected at a certain time, t e cou
s, an inte
enemy missile silos in a surprise "first reason backwar lligence official
? said. "The might know a radio transmis-
strike, according to arms control special- sion was made at that time revealing we
fists.
If the Soviets learned from the secret had an intercept capability- they did not
papers how the United States detects, l know existed.".
cates and "prosecutes the target" with a Any rTorts covering years of U.S. sub-
combination of sensors, submarines, ships, marine operations, another intelligence o -
aircraft and satellites, they could concen- icia said might evea a Pattern even
though each patrol was different.
on ways to combat it, several intelli- The Soviets most likely would run all of
gence officials said. the operations through computers to pro-
"Until now," one former missile subma- duce a profile of how the United States
rine skipper said of the Soviets, "they have thinks when it comes to deploying forces,
been studying the shards. Now they may he said, enabling them to anticipate where
see the shape of the whole pot. That's bad. U.S. subs are most likely to be at a given
Navy submarine and intelligence officers time.
said they are less worried about what the
Soviets may have gotten from a eUTTr, 22,. "We don't operate everywhere," one sen-
Na seaman recently returned to the Unit- for Navy officer said, adding that any tipoff
ed States from the aircraft carrier US to the Soviets about where missile-carrying
Nimitz, than what they may have received submarines operate would be damaging.
from his father. Both attack and missile submarines must
John Walker retired as a warrant officer rise near the surface at specific places to
after a 21-year naval career, including han- communicate with shore through aircraft or
dling top-secret coded communications on satellites.
the nuclear missile submarine Simon Boli- Another source expressed concern that
var from 1965 to 1967 and reading top-se- what the Walkers are suspected of trans-
cret communications in and out of Atlantic mitting may show the Soviets how to evade
surface-fleet headquarters at Norfolk from the network of sound surveillance system
1975 to 1976, his last Navy job. (SOSUS) underwater microphones on the
After finishing boot camp, Seaman Walk- continental shelf off the U.S. East and West
er was assigned in April 1983 to Navy coasts'. These listening devices triangulate
Fighter Squadron 102 in Oceana, Va., sound from a passing submarine and pin-
where he worked as a yeoman until January point its location.
1984 when he went to the Nimitz.
Navy officials said secret material from
Oceana and the Nimitz to which Walker
would have had access would be mostly
about daily operations and tactics, not the
tightly compartmentalized information
about undersea operations and satellite sur-
veillance.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470043-2
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470043-2
F.J. Schiavi, a senior vice pres-
tdent of VSE, described the Alex-
-andria-based company as an engi-
neering firm of 1,700 employes that
'does substantial work for the Navy
'and other military agencies.
Ron Howell, engineering site
manager for VSE's branch in Ches-
apeake, said Walker had been em-
ployed there for more than five
years. He said he was hired on the
basis "of his military experience"
and seemed like "a pleasant nice
? fellow, Mr. Average. Just like your
next door neighbor."
He said Walker's job was to de-
velop plans for the repair of Navy
ships in the section devoted to "am-
phibious planning and engineering
repair and analysis."
Howell said he couldn't conceive
of any information that Walker
would have had access to through
his job that would be of interest to
the Soviets:
"There's nothing he could get out
of the firm that he couldn't get in
the public library," Howell said.
Thomas J. Scarfato, who said he
had lived two doors away from
Walker for 15 years, described him
as "a very nice fellow, outstanding,
and I'm being sincere about it. I'm
very, very surprised." '
He said Walker was always offer-
ing gardening tips and frequently
helped him with various mechanical
problems with his car and the elec-
trical pump on his, swimming pool.
"If I wasn't quite sure, he would
drop everything and come right
over," he said. "An ideal neighbor."
In arguing that Michael Walker
should be held without bond, Assist-
ant U.S. Attorney Michael Schat-
zow disclosed that Walker had al-
legedly taken "stacks of classified
documents" to his father John on 10
occasions.
He said the documents weighed a
total of 20 pounds, and that another
15 pounds of classified material was
found near Walker's bunk on the
Nimitz.
Schatzow said that while Michael
Walker was working in a clerical
position at a fighter squadron at the
Oceana Naval Air Station in Virgin-
ia Beach, where he was assigned
beginning in April 1983, he men-
tioned to his father that he had seen
some classified documents.
John Walker told his son that "he
could make some money" if he
brought the document to him,
Schatzow said.
"He thereafter took a number of
documents to his father," and later,
in about March 1984, John Walker
paid his son $1,000 in return for the
information, he said.
State Corporation Commission
records list Arthur Walker as sec-
retary and treasurer of two of his
brother's private detective and "de-
bugging" companies; Confidential
Reports Inc. and Associated Agents
Inc. Both operate from a suite in a
Virginia Beach office building.
But Laurie Robinson, part own-
er of Confidential Reports, said the
records are at least partly incor-
rect. She said she was vice pres-
ident, secretary and treasurer of
Confidential Reports, and Arthur
Walker was only employed as an
investigator. "He is not a corpor-
ate officer in any way, shape or
form."
She said he had worked for the
firm for almost four years.
Arthur and John Walker formerly
were partners in a Virginia Beach
electronics business called Walker
Enterprises.
After receiving submarine train-
ing, Arthur Walker served aboard a'
number of submarines, rising to the
rank of lieutenant commander.
From 1968 on, he was assigned
to the Atlantic Fleet Tactical School
as an antisubmarine warfare in-
structor, according to his Navy bio-
graphical sheet.
Married to the former Rita Clare
Fritsch, Walker has three children,
Andrea Jay, 28, Eric Paul, 26, and
Curt Christopher, 23.
Staff writer Sharon LaFraniere
contributed to this report.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470043-2