MOSCOWS' BIGGER STAR WARS DRIVE, WALL STREET JOURNAL - 16 DECEMBER 1986

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100160004-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 22, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100160004-0
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100160004-0
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THE NA1.1. STItl:F:T .11)t'U AI. TITESI)AY, IsECE\IltER 16. I9SK
HV WILLIAM Kevr:ww z
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev re-
cently Intensified his propaganda cam-
paign against President Reagan's Strate?
gee Defense Initiative. decrying it as a "vo-
racious monster" and "fundamentally in-
humane." Accusing the U.S. of an "arro-
gance of power." he said: -Many people
everywhere are legitimately wondering
why, by virtue of what right, should the
whole world be held hostage to the SDI.-
-What we need," he said. "is Star Peace
and not Star Wars."
What Mr. Gorbachev didn't say, of
course, is that strategic defense has long
been an essential part of Soviet military
doctrine and that Russian scientists have
been devising ballistic missile defenses for
more than 20 years. In fact, according to
the Central Intelligence Agency, the So-
viets have outspent the U.S. on strategic
defense since 1110 by a factor of 15 to 1.
The significance of what the Soviets ap
pear Is, be up to is that K reflects a dellber-
ate shift from deterrence. an which the no-
clear balance of power has rested. Is a
war-Oghthlg capability. This In the very
thing they accuse President Reagan of do.
tog with six.
As early as Hit. Marshal V.D. soko-
lovably defined in -Military strategy" the
aim d Soviet strategic dekmes: 'They
have the task of creating an' I rible aye'
ten for the deInre of the entire country.
While. In the last war. K was adfident
to destroy 15%'1 % d the afackng strop
eratlos, now it Is necessary to assure. es-
seatlally. 100% destruction of all attacking
airplanes and mtadks."
'Canderbaluee' Passible
Gen. Nlkolai Takmk y. a member of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences sod former
editor of the Soviet General Staff journal
"Military Thought." added is 2110 that K
was quite possible to "counterbalance the
absolute weapon of attack." Ile tale that
Moscow's Bigger Star Wars Drive
tegse defenses since the early 1nOs. The
CIA says that "over the last two decades.
the Soviet Union has spent roughly as
much on defense as it has on its massive
offensive forces." This Includes building a
"city under a city" In Moscow to protect
tens of thousands of key political, scientific
and military personnel. Secret under-
ground rail lines have even bed con-
structed to evacuate the Moscow elite far
outside the city, the CIA believes.
According to Defense Department and
CIA estimates. Soviet expenditures on stra-
tegic nuclear defenses-apart from antiair-
craft and civil defense-have averaged $15
billion Is SOD billion or more a pen dam
1110. dwarfing America's Investment even
with the Reagan SDI program. And this
be on borders and face outward ma-rely
warning of an attacks. But the Kras-
noyarsk radar Is oriented inward, covering
some 2,500 miles of Soviet territory includ-
Ing key missile fields, and would be useful
in resisting a strike.
The Soviets are also developing compo-
nents of a new ARM system that allow
them to construct individual ARM sites in
a matter of months rather than years. ac-
cording to a Defense Department report. It
estimates that such mobile or component
ARM systems could by the early 19900 be
quickly deployed to strengthen Moscow's
defenses or guard key areas in the western
U.S.S.R. and east of the Ural.
The Soviets have also developed new
surface-to-air missiles and tested them in
'Taken together, all of the Soviet Union's ABM and
ABM-related activities are more significant-and more
ominous-than any one considered individually'-DoD
Russian work has gone in, beyond Inborn-
WY research ow expermwmom
The Soviet Union bet the world's only
operational ABM system, the only opera-
ti" and4oldille IASATI kIllers, and the
only operational grand ben d Imes
aimed at binding satellites in apace and
perhaps apabk d kmtdtk+g out I , a
minks, Soon, be Soviets could "Meek
art" of the ABM Treaty and switch on a
battle-management artwork of radars and
Interceptors covering all of the vital tent'
tory of the U.S.S.R. Such "territorial" de-
fense. it should be soled, was what the
ABM Treaty, for better or worse, was in-
tended to preclude.
Since WI, the Soviets have been up
grading their ABM system aroused Mos-
cow, Installing am tracking and hews
management radars and modernizing Its
missile Interceptors at Its 100 launch sites.
"powerful deterrent forces and an effer Ina gross violation of the IO0?mlffk limit
delenae in the ABM Treaty, the Soviets' silo-based
have
stability Of mutual detertvnce " . been tested. U.S. intelligence officials ex-
This view was rralfinned shortly after "~ "Olem to become fully opera-
the Soviet Union and U.S. signed the Asti-
Ballistic Missile IABMi Treaty In 1112. More significant, the Soviets are build-
Then-Defense Minister Andrei Grechke leg a widespread network of highly -
pills-told the Soviet Presidium that the treaty
'places no WmkatIons whatsoever on the
condw ikig of research and experimental
work directed inwards solvkK the protrken
of defending the country from nuclear ndr
sale strikes." More recently, of course. the
Soviets have Melted upon a much Par
rwer l terpretatios of the treaty In order
tostymie U.S. restareh and developm -
At the same time, they maintain that their
own ARM efforts don't In any way violate
the accord.
The Soviets have spell heavily on stra'
skated radars able ad only to track es,
emy warheads but also to guide ABM ia-
terceptces to destroy these incoming
weapon. Defense Secretary Casper Rein'
berger Said last week that the U.S. has
spotted three new Soviet radars ender con-
stnictlon. brh.ging to 12 the total mother
that appear to be part of a nationwide de-
kme system. The radars are similar to
one near Krasnoyarsk In south-central
Asia; that radar in particular has been
cited as a major violation of the ARM
Treaty. The accord requires that all radars
an ABM-mode ndng their sophisticated
aldefeme radars. Moreover, the Russians
are designing kinetic-energy weapons.
which we the highspeed collision of heavy
metal particles such as tungsten to kill an
logether. all of the Soviet Us-
Ion's ADM and ABM-velated activities are
more signifamt-and more ominous-Wan
any one considered kdWidmally." the De
terse Department report concludes. "Qn-
mulatlvely, they suggest that the US-
SR-Lay be preparing to deploy rapidly an
ARM dekme of Its national territory, car
Crary to the provWas of the ARM
American en ice of SDI contend that
the concern about Soviet strategic defense
In overblown. They say that the Soviet ra-
dar system and surface io-alrlnlsdks are
most likely Intended to stop enemy aircraft
to the l'IA. Husssa has d.'vut.Yd lar greater
resources to this work than the U.S. over
the past decade or noire. Indeed. the So.
vies directed-energy prnl ram is led by
Yevgenty \'Nlkhov. A vice president of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences and deputy di.
rector of the Kurchalov Atomic Energy In-
stitute. He is also chief science adviser to
Mr. Gorbachev. whom he has known since
their days in college together.
"In directed energy technologies, the
Soviets are in a comparable. or highly
competitive, position with respect to the
United States," the CIA says. "In laser
technologies, there Is an essential equlva-
knee, though the Soviets are pursuing
some types of lasers which the U.S. has ei-
ther abandoned or has Ignored for weapons
application. In particle beam and micro
wave technologies, the Soviets may have
the edge over the U.S. In some Important
The Soviets have already begun to de-
velop and test laser weapons. They have
built "over a halt dose," major R&D user
facilities and test ranges, with an esti-
mated 1000 scientists and engineers asp
dated with the user weapon program.
says the CIA. A U.S. raannal pence aatef
hie recently spotted two more large Inner
facilities being bdk on mountaintops near
the Soviet-Afghanistan border. Some am- ..
Iysts belie it that these laser sees may be
used to attack U.S. satellites and could be
upgraded with new tracking radars to
knock out ballistic missiles.
Dlslmfermaum Campaign
The Soviet political leadership and such
scientists as Mr. Veitkhov deny any of this
advanced Soviet SDI work- They maintain
that all Russian efforts are Only "point de-
tentes" around Moscow or other work per,
misted by the ARM Treaty.
Meanwhile. Moscow has pursued an ag-
gressive disinformation and propaganda
against Mr
Reagan's SDI pro
.
rather than ballistic missiles, and this an
permitted uuder the ABM Treaty. llmrther, STM The U.S. Arena Control and Disarm-
am" Assissew
maintain ithat the Soviets really aren't ca-
pable of deploying a Star Wars defense of vim Union has prevented an "honest dis-
w on SDI "by refusing even to sc-
lop-
thelr own. The Center for Defense Infor
mation, for Instance, says that the Soviets iaknowdge that "it by engaged In research'
aren't "competitive" with the U.S. In gies. The Soviet [ advanced strategic sin tee
The position cannot be tak taken
b
d
l
dd
space-
ase
ogies, at a
s
defense techno
"Claims that the Soviets might beat us into
space with an SDI of their own are vastly
overstated and do not justify the current
U.S, development program."
But ientor Soviet scientists have gore
far beyond radars and anti-balitstic mis-
s"" to expand strategic defenses using
new directed-energy technologies such as
users, particle bears and microwaves.
These types of weapons cripple the deli-
ate internal mechanisms of booster
rockets and nuclear warheads. According
seriously. Indeed, it must be understood
for what it Is-a cynical tactic to avoid ac-
countability and to gain a unilateral ad-
vantage over the United States."
Moscow takes seriously the potential for
strategic defense. Kremlin pronounce-
meats to the contrary are only an attempt
to kill off U.S. SDI development while the
Soviet Union gets ready to field its own
mukllayered strategic defense network.
Mr. Kacrric. is a rreraebrr of Ike Joar-
na% s editorial board.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100160004-0
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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100160004-0
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100160004-0