'DRAMATIC' SOVIET WEAPONS BUILDUP SEEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100460004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100460004-9
- ~_ WASHINGTON TIDIES
~'?? 27 June 1935
`Dramatic' Soviet weapons
buildup seen
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Two senior intelligence officials tes-
tified yesterday that the Soviet Union is
continuing a large-scale strategic weap-
ons buildup that could lead to the deploy-
ment of 16,000 to 21,000 Soviet nuclear
warheads by 1994.
There are an estimated 9,000 war-
heads in the Soviet arsenal.
Deputy CIA Director for Intelligence
igence
Robert Gates and National Intelligence
Officer Lawrence Gershw,n told a joint
Senate hearing that new Soviet w
en oyment~ while not dramatic in
scale eventually will replace all current
tTA}egic forces with modern and less
vulnerable mobile weapons.
Neither official would comment on the
implications of the Soviet buildup for the
U.S.-Soviet nuclear weapons balance.
But Mr. Gershwin stressed that the
Soviet buildup, especially advances in
mobile ICBM efforts, has progressed at
a constant pace.
"It's dramatic in that there is a lot
going on:' Mr. Gershwin said of new
Soviet weapons deployments.
The CIA officials said Soviet defense
u[d.probably grow at a rate
of 3 percent to 4 percent of the Soviet
gross nationalproduct per year over the
next five year,, Last year the Soviet GNP
was 2.35 trillion.
Yesterday, the House approved $292
billion for the U.S. defense budget in a
move that essentially freezes defense
spending at current levels with no
allowance for inflation. It is about $10
billion below the Senate budget passed
three weeks ago, which lets spending
increase at the predicted inflation rate.
The unusual testimony by the intel-
ligence officials was criticized by some
Democratic panel members, who
charged that the report on Soviet weap-
ons "politicized" the intelligence commu-
nity in an effort to garner public support
for the Reagan administration's defense
spending request.
The administration had requested a
5.9 percent increase in defense spending
beyond inflation in an initial budget
request of $322 billion.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman
of the Defense appropriations subcom-
mittee that held the hearing, countered
the Democrats' charges by saying the
hearing was the result of bipartisan
requests for a declassified version of
briefings held earlier this year. The hear-
ing was also sponsored by the Senate
Armed Services Committee.
He described the intelligence estimate
as "things about the Russians we know
(and] they know, but the public doesn't
know"
The two officials were asked by Sen.
William Proxmire, D-Wis., to explain the
difference between a previous estimate
showing an estimated 2 percent annual
growth rate in Soviet weapons spending
and the levels presented at the hearing.
Mr. Gates defended the intelligence
estimate, admitting t at Soviet spending
leve s are i tcu t to etermine accu-
ra e .
"What we do know is what we see on
the roun , r. Gates sai in a reference ?
to rote t ence anal sis of satellite photo
ra s.
Sen. James McClure, R-Wyo., a vocal
critic of administration arms control
policies and a key supporter of yester-
day's hearing, said the latest intelligence
estimate shows "a serious missile gap"
between the United States and the Soviet
Union.
He said the report is one "indication
that the Soviet Union plans to break out
of the SALT II and ABM treaties."
Mr. Gershwin testified that though the
latest estimate does not judge it "likely"
the Soviets will deploy a nationwide anti-
ballistic missile system, "the Soviets
could deploy such a system in the next
few years"
He said that by the end of the decade
the Soviets will have deployed all the
components necessary for a nationwide
ABM system, including a network of six
large early-warning radars and a new
system of fast-acceleration ballisitc mis-
sile interceptors.
"Our evaluation is that by the 1990s
they could have in place a fairly large
ABM system;' Mr. Gershwin said. "They
have provided for the option."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100460004-9