SOVIET REPORTED BUILDING A VAST ANTIMISSILE SYSTEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080046-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2006
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: December 8, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/11/13: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080046-7
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Thursday, 8 December 1966
Soviet Reported Ruildiog
A Vast Antimissile Systemi
I
Some Unknowns
Net Believed? Nationwide But the analysts readily, ad-
By WILLIAM 111. BEECHER mit they do not know how ef-
Special to The New York Times fective the over-all Soviet de-,,
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7-As fense may be or whether itl
President Johnson ponders includes other types of missiles
,whether to deploy a costly Nike- or when the full system mayl
'X missile defense around the be functioning.
United States, the American in- The appraisal by these an-i
Itelligence' community is poring alysts of the Soviet missile de-1
over every scrap of information fense will do more than simply)
it can gather on what, precise- play a central role in the United)
ly, the Russians are doing in States decision on Nike-X. Ifni
this field. the President decides against
Despite reams of data from a go-ahead, the analysts' ap-
such intelligence sources as re- inentll y ino the) Congressional
inent
connaissance satellites, the ex- debate that will inevitably fol-
perts do not know precisely low.
what the soviet Union is doing. The Nike-X question is said
t have occupied a large portion
stressed since missiles present
the greater threat. i
The Russians have paraded in!
Moscow two different weapons
that they call antimissile mis-
siles. These weapons are gener-
ally referred to in the West by
their NATO code names, Grif-
fon and Galosh.
Of the two, American special-.,
ists believe the larger one, the
Galosh, probably is the key ele-
ment of the system now heirs'
deployed. The solid fuel Galosh;
has been tested, they say, butt
there is scant information or,
its thrust, payload potential or
range.
"It's certainly large e* ough
so that it could be every bit as
good as our Zeus is or ever will
be," according to one source..
The Nlkc-X system supple-
ments the Zeus, which has a
range of about 400 miles, with
a shorter range, high accelera-
tion sprint missile that is de-
signed to intercept those mis-
siles that get past Zeus.
The analysts do not know
whether the Griffon constitutes
the second missile in a similar
one-two Russian punch.
"Of course, the Galosh itself
,nay well have a short range in-
tercept capability as well," says
angther analyst. "How good
nds on its acceleration."
Is the Soviet missile defense
better than the Nike-X?
But qualified sources say this o
of yesterday's defense budget'
is the current reading: meeting at the LBJ Ranch inl
4lAntimissile missile facilities Texas.
are being constructed all over The Joint Chiefs of staff areI
'Russia, not just around Mos- on record
immedi tea deployment nt oof'I
cow and Leningrad. They are the Nike. Defense Secretary
being positioned, athwart nat- Robert S. McNamara, however,
ural access avenues that Amer- is believed to remain uncon-,
ican land-based and sea-based vinced that a start. must bel
missiles must traverse to attack made just yet, prefering instead l
key military and industrial tar- to devote additional funds to
y y improving the capability of
gets. America's strategic missiles so
)The defense is believed built that they can penetrate the!
around a long-range, solid fuel Russian defenses and thus per-
missile whose capabilities may i#aps deter the Soviets from
match or even exceed that ,Q$ ever launching an attack. I
1- 11 American specialists say
the Nike Zeus missile, curl there is a vast amount of newt
under advanced develor?sYreht activity at many of the thou-
Such a missile would attei it to sands of Soviet antiaircraftI
achieve interception in space missile sites and at many new'
hundreds of miles from the de-
fended areas.
The first elements of this so-,
called area defense are expected,
to become operational within'
the next 12 months. At that)
point, Russia will have a limit-
ed capability to destroy incom-
ing missiles. The United 'states
has no such defense, except on
paper and in prototype equip-
ment.
The activity started in nurLU-
west Russia, along an arc
guarding the principal path
that the Minuteman and Titan
II missiles fired from the United
States would travel in an attack
on principal targets in Russia.
The activity then spread to oth-
er areas, including those that
Polaris mi?siles would cross if
fired from submarines in the
Atlantic Ocean or the Mediter-
ranean Sea.
Dual Capability
Because the early work was
concentrated at antiaircraft
sites, there was some specula-
tion in the intelligence commu-
nity that the effort might have.
merely been designed to improve
defenses against strategic
,bombers.
The consensus now is that
Ithe equipment going in doubt-
'less will have dual capability,
against missiles and bombers.
But it is thought likely than
Some United States experts
doubt it.
"Although the Russians have
always been very defense-mind-
ed and have devoted a lot of
resources to defense," says one
Pentagon official, "we've spent
more than $2-billion on develop-
ment of Nike-X and we're con-
fident we know at least as much
as they in this field. We can't
be sure, of course, but this is
our best judgment."
How System Would Work
The Nikc-X system is de-
signed to work this way::
Long-range radars pick' up
enemy missiles shortly `after
Zeus missiles are fired on
intercept course.
Because large numbers of
enemy missiles might be fired,
some containing devices de-
signed to elude Zeus, super-fast
sprint missiles would be sent up
to engage those missiles that
slipped through the outer de-
fense to within 50 miles or less
of their target.
Both the Zeus and sprint mis-
siles would be launched fpoln
concrete and steel silos, some
what like Minuteman mis les.
A whole range of dep oy-
l ats is possible, depending, on
thq.degree of protection desiggdl
ikndthe cost to be shoulderej
,Aa price range of from $3-
billion to $8-billion, the system)
would feature large numbers of
Zeus missiles positioned all,
around the continental United;
States with only a relatively
small number of sprint missiles
defending key cities and pos-
sibly military systems such as
the headquarters for the Stra-
tegic Air Command in Omaha,
Neb.
Officials say such a light de-
fense would provide excellent
protection against any 1,at-,
tack, whether mounted the{
Red Chinese some yeas i on- ce
or by the Russ in an acci-
dental or unautho znd launch.
i'uch a defense could be fully
constructed in six years or less,
technical specialists say. Also,
it could be expanded at any
time, by the addition of more
radars and missiles, to provide
a much tighter shield keyed to
handling an all-out Soviet mis-
sile strike.
A tight defense might cost
anywhere from $20-billion to
$30-billion. Even proponents
admit it could not guarantee
that some Soviet missiles would
not get through, but it should
intercept a good many and thus
limit death and damage in the
event of all-out war.
t`VRl/CD1
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 Approved For Release 2006/11/13: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080046-7
Space Shots Stir Concern
By EVERT CLARK
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7--Con-
fusion and concern over the
Soviet Union's space plans have
been increased here by three
I recent launchings in which un-
,usual secrecy played a part.
In two of these, the space Sut the experts here recall
craft exploded in obit-ap-
parently accidentally, although ;between the end of America's
this was not certain. The third Mercury program and the first
Soviet launching, last week, had manned Gemini flight.
some earmarks of a test flight While they discount that time
gap as an indication of Soviet
for a manned launching. But s they are harder put to
,it also was surrounded by con- P} a
g~cplam why Russia does not
fusing circumstances that an- ppear to have tackled the ren-
ialysts here are still trying to ezvous problem, which is con-
American
l t
p~idered essentia o
t New Moves Observed
i
t it was the first vehicle of
ch a large size to be launched'
tom Tyuratam, a site in cen-
al Kazakhstan usually used
r launching smaller Cosmos
yatellites. It was also the first
e that a satellite had been '
1 nched from this base at an
i clination of 49 degrees to to
uator-an angle that pro -
des maximum coverage for
connaissance of the United
pates.
Russia did not even report
e, launching of the vehicle,
uch less its mission, size and
Nether any part of its was re-
vered. Soon after launching
e vehicle was observed to
eak into at least 80 pieces,
any of which are still in orbit.
Confusion over the space-
aft's mission caused the
ited States Government not
list it immediately in its pub-
catalog of space objects, the
tellite Situation Report.
$ On Nov. 2, most of these cir-
stances were repeated. A
rge vehicle, launched from
uratam at a 49 degree angle,
on broke into at least 40
eces. Russia did not .acknowl-
ge the launching and it was
tered in the American catalog
ly after delay.
The third unusual launching
me on Nov. 28. This time Rus-
understand.
tans for lunar flights.
One
among
reason for concern
the experts here is a
observers here have long ex-
named a manned Russian flight.
b
1
feeling
that the United States
y
omaments made privately
tists to Americans
i
en
is entering another period in omit sc
international space meet-
lit
hi h it
an
ma be underestimat- O t ber indi-
I
y
o
c
c
w
gin Madrid in
ing the Soviet Union's commit- sated that such a flight would
ment to space exploration. This, rome soon-possibly in late
the experts say, occurs period- anuary or early February.
ically, particularly when there t' The Soviet scientists even
tokingly told their American
is a. long gap between Russian tpounterparts not to worry about
manned flights. ossible budget cuts for the Na-
It has now been 20 months ional Aeronautics and Space
since the last Soviet astronauts j&dministration because "We
ill help you out with that
I were sent aloft in the two-man hortly after the first of the
flight by Voskhod 2 on ear."
March 18, 1964. The Russians j This flight, if the Soviet hints
have apparently not practiced Tiean anything, would involve
rendezvous and docking - at iree to six men. The experts
ere have thought for more
mian a year that the next Rus-
an flight would involve a
limber of astronauts. ti
THE NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, 8 December 1966
'I% t with manned vehicles-. s
-tte United States has in thi
'gmini program.
These two facts have been'
taken by some as an indication
that the Soviet Union intends
' to skip manned lunar explora-
71tion and concentrate on manned,
earth-orbiting space stations
4-and later manned flights to
'Mars and Venus.
U.S. Lag Recalled
7. It was a large venicie, uuL
of nearly so large as the three
13-ton Proton vehicles that had
een put into orbit as probable
fj,)rerunners of a multimnan
1*space bus."
5a announced the shot, naming
e craft Cosmos 133, but it did
t disclose the angle of inclina-
on, which is usually given for
Cosmos satellite.
S It was the first spacecraft in
dine months to fly at the alti-
des used for most Russian
a anned flights. If Cosmos 133
I the first test of some new
hicle intended to carry men-
mething to rendezvous with a
roton craft, perhaps-more
manned flights will probably
ecede a manned mission.
Five test vehicles preceded
e first Vostok manned cap-
les. Only one test flight each
eceded d the two Voskhod
fights, apparently because
oskhod was a simple adapta-
on of the already-proved Vos-
k.
The September and November
Iunchings may be tests pre-
ding new shots to Mars, since
arm opportunity to launch to
at planet occurs in the next
w weeks. Also they may have
`M~me military significance that
l ss not yet been recognized, the
ialysts here say.
Approved For Release 2006/11/13: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080046-7