FOIA
REDS RESUME TESTS OF SPACE A-VEHICLE
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP70B00338R000200180033-1
Release Decision:
RIFPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
December 19, 2016
Document Release Date:
January 12, 2006
Sequence Number:
33
Case Number:
Publication Date:
October 8, 1968
Content Type:
NSPR
File:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 CIA-RDP70B00338R000200180033-1.pdf | 81.65 KB |
Body:
I~l,~. 1~ ~.~.C1..il..~.fi/i.a-7 IL-7
By George C. Wilson
Waahineton Poat Staff Writer-
'vehicle for putting a nuclear
weapons carrier in partial
orbit, it was learned yester-
The Soviet Union has re-
sumed its testing of a space
ay.
Toss, the Soviet news
agency, announced the shot as
Cosmos 244 without indicating
its military nature.
But the flight path of the
rocket-launched from Tyura=
tam Oct. 2-left no doubt in
the minds of space experts
here. that it was a Fractional
Orbital Bombardment System
shot, or FOBS.
In a FOBS mission the
rocket goes into space and
then comes back down to
earth without completing a
whole? orbit.
Cosmos 244 returned to
earth in this fashion in the
13th test of the system. Pre-
sumably no bomb was aboard.
The United Stabes and Rus-
sia have signed a treaty "note.
to place . in orbit around the
earth any ~abjects carrying nu-
clear weapons or any other
hinds of weapons of mass dies-~
tructian . "
The testing of vehicles like
FOBS, even though it is de-
signed . to carry bombs into
space in the time of year, is
not forbidden by the treaty.
But Pilitary leaders see the
latest .FOBS test as fresh evi-
den~e that the Soviet Union
has designs. on the high
ground of outer space. ?
A question the next' Presi
dent will have to answer is
whether the U.S. must take
stronger eounber-measures to
combat the Soviet. military
space trends.
The last time the Russians:!
launched a FOBS was about
five months ago, o~n April 25,
1968.
U.S. military analysts be-
lieve FOBS is designed ? to
,knock out American bom lber
bases in a war. The rocket sys-
tem would send an H-bomb
down on the base from space.
A-FOBS rocket would fly to
the United States, under this
scenario, Eby Making hhe long
way around the earth h~o avoid
detection by A~mertcan radio;
watching Russia from Green+
lan
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