CIA STUDY SEES SOVIET NEAR TO MISSILE DEFENSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100460009-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-005
BALTIMORE SUN
r- if car
1At 25 June 1985
CIA study sees Soviet
near to missile defense
By Charles W. Corddry to a site ADM site with no more
Washington Bureau at The Sun than 100 i ercepoor-mlr6e dtaich-
ers - the number each side had or
WASH NGTON - The Soviet Un- pknned at the timed the treaty. The
ion now has the "potential" to deploy Una States decided against one.
a countrywide defense against ballis! 'lam Solid Union's is around blow
1972 treaty limiting such arms, - The idea was that abandoning
White House officials said yesterday. such def:raes world avert a race in
Other sources said as many as 3.000 aderrslve minan to overcome the
missile I
te
e
t
ld b
_~ _
n
rc
p
ors cou
e
duced by 1990.
Drawing on a new intelligence aeVued t W1etine l
estimate, the White House ~ officials Si reseaed they go an deMdoplttg
also said Moscow was in the process new ABM ryvt=L
of replacing nearly all Its offensive The new QA study "details a
"
nuclear missiles with
new and Im-
proved systems" in a program to be
completed by the mid-1990x.
Details of what the White House
sources called an "unparalleled..
missile buildup are contained In a
new National Intelligence Estimate
(N1E-11-3-8-85) prepared by the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency.
In a mre development. two CIA of-
ficials - Lawrence Gershwm and
Robert Gates - are to give public
testimony on the Soviet advances to-
morrow before a joint session of the
Senate Armed Services Committee
and the defense subcommittee of the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
Senator James A. McClure (R.
Idaho), an appropriations panel
member. requested the testimony be-
mum a spokesman said. the senator
tluougtrt the M.S.. mfrs ma-
don" should be moods after
being "anltised" to protect secret
data.
The testimony is to be given
against a backp+orad of appoaltion
by conservatives like Mr. McChwe to
eaSoviet d
fou f ll American develop-
meet of a miaare defense system
popubo ly called "star wars...
Them is aarduveny ova whether
dernanta of the U.S. "star wars"
mink ddettse undentakmg could
of new of-
fai weapons and produces
''equal aanoern" about missile de-
fense:s the While House officials
sold. Improvements in ABMs have
produced "a steroid for deployment
of a wideepead buWetle miaslle de-
afenoe m& of national territory," they
Whether the CIA witnesses would
give numerical estlmatgi In public
testimony was uncertain. But
sou rcee familiar with the study sold
It mduded a range of projection of
Soviet r pbllfiha lock ding one for
producing 3.000 misaft merceptors
by the end of this decade.
The sources acid the Soviets were
No" all the components for de-
ployments "well In eaeeas of ABM
by limits.' These componer~s In-
cluded radar. laund>ters, advanced
hip speed mteceptor mtsolla and
weapons like the new SA-12. which
may double as antiaircraft mYelks
and mteeceptore of ballistic micelles
arch s. the U.S. Pass ing and Lance
In Eurm&
cussseed in the CIA study apparently
would be distinct from such efforts
as space based elements of the U.S.
Strategic Defense mibatlve.
violate the 1972 anti-batstle missile But the study emphasizes Mos-
a+aty4 The aelestrrlstratlan contends cow's "sWi f1cant progress" in re-
the d1avt. formally called the Strate- search on directed energy weapons
gle De=seem 1i111 smv, Is strictly re- - lasers and particle beams - as
search then far. which r allowed um- well.
der the beaty. The CIA analysts says three new
An actual construction and de- brtaoanlirrerrtal missiles are ready
p~byment par sin would be a maUnion
tter for tooting. One is the huge replace-
with ~~~ merit for the 10-warhead SS-18. c ur-an Paul EL Nile, the chid adviser ear arms
rentl 'a
' the war largest weapon.
The other two a are re new. mobile ver.
sous of the SS-24 and SS-25, the
yesterday 1 11 11, -- ~ won't
dlecun It he said. sources aafei
The 1972 treaty limits soar side
When the SS-24 and SS-25 w*
nally appeared. the adminietiat oo
said they were both new types mis-
sike and added up to a vioktim~of
the 1979 SALT-2 treaty, which Jim-
Red each side to one new type.
President
recently, an:.
nounced that Reagan
the United Swo
would continue to observe the-usr
ratified 1979 agreement, which
would capes December 31. ,and
would aoooedhtgly dlsoesntle anolder
mteatl submarine to stay within au-
merlal limits as a new Trident. nub
centers service.
W. Reagan has to make a, nkw
decision by the end of the year- and
has hubcated that one would be in-
fluenced by ads of Soviet restraint
and purwsat of arms reduction agree-
ments in current Geneva talks. . _
Mr. Niue said yesterday that the
II took the action he did to al:
low :acre time for results in Geneva,
But Mr. Nitze said he personally
doubted that these was time for p'0
ress there between now and the enc
of the year.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100460009-4