SOVIET BREAKTHROUGH IS REPORTED IN WORK ON AN ANTI-MISSILE BEAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP95B00915R001000510015-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2003
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: May 3, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved Fo~lease 2003/06/20 :CIA-RDP95B0091001000510015-2
~ Sy^Idi !o Tre :cew Yart T:m>_~
~I:,.SHINGTON, May 2-The magazine
Aviation Week and Space Technology
said today that the Soviet Urion had
achieved a breakthrough ir_ high-energy
physi^s "t'rat may soon provide a direct-
' ed-e.^.ergy beam weapon capable of neu-
tralizing the entire I}nited.States ballistic
!missile force."
' The weekly .publication, which is well
~ irforned on weapons systems, added that
j m addition to the "charged-particle beach
device," the Soviet Union was also
preparing to test a High-energy laser
j beam in space to knack out satellites.
A Pentagon ~ statemen? issued late this
~ afternoon said -that it was only a remote
possibility that the Soviet Union was on
the verge of producing the new beam
i weapon. The statement said:
"Senior officials of the Department of
Defense do not believe that. the Soviet
Union has achieved a breakthrough in
research which could soon provide a di-
rected-energy beam wea.pan capable of
f neutralizing ballistic missile weapons.
Based on all information now available
E to the U.S. intelligence community, this
i possibility is considered remote."
"They're Working on Samethirib
A Pentagon official termed the Aviation
Week' articte "highly speculai.ive," but
added: "There is a possibility this is hap-
pening."
"There's no question they're working
un something," he said, referring to the
Russians.
+The report, by Clarence A. Robinson I~~-iews of Maj. Gen. George iie2gan~
Jr., Aviation Week's military editor? said i recently retired chief of Air Force intelti- ,.
that the .charged-particle beam device Qence, who has maintained for years that i,
was designed to destroy United States I the Russians were developing a cY:arged-
ballistic-missile warheads. Development ,particle beam weapon and were attam.ng
tests, tiie report vent on, are being eon- superiority in all other weapons systems.
ducted in Soviet Central Asia. - Describing the new weapon, the maga-,
An editorial accompanying the article zinc's report said: "A charged-partee;i
said that south a Soviet technical break- .beam weapon focuses and projects atomic;
through in ~ high-energy physics could ? particles at the speed of light which could
checkmate "this. country~s strategic dot- ~ be be directed from ground-based sites
'
triine.
The hard proof of eight successful
Soviet tests of. directed-energy beam
weapon technology gives new and over-
riding urgency to bring these develop-
ments into the public domain," the maga-
zine said.
Tests and New Radar Cited
Aviation Week said that several recent
events had persuaded a number of United
States analysts that the weapons were
nearing the prototype stage:
Eighi successful tests of directed-energy
beam weapon technology; preparations to
launch the high-energy laser aboard a
spacecraft; the opening of anew test site
at Azgir, and the. deployment of large
over-the-horizon radar systems in the
northern Soviet Union to track and detect
United States intercontinental ballistic
missiles.
Most of the beam testing is taking place
at a research center about 35 miles south
of the city of Semipalatinsk, in Soviet
Certral~_Asia, the report said.
In large. part the article and accompa-
nying editorial reflected the controversial
;ir;tospace to intercept and neutralize [nu-
clear missiles]."
It added: "Bot}t the U..S.S.R. and the-
U.S. also .are investigating the concept _
of plar_ing charged-particle beam .devices ,'
on spacecraft to intercept missile war-'
heads in space."
NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 1977
Approved For Release 2003/06/20 :CIA-RDP95B00915R001000510015-2
 Approved For R~se 2003/06/20 :CIA-RDP95B00915~1000510015-2 ~~~~~~,,~~~
~~ ~~ ~~ -
The Soviet Union has achieved a technical brc~ik-'
throug}t in high-energy physics application that:-may
soon provide it,with adirected-energy beam weapon
capable of neutralizing the entire -United States
ballistic r;~issile force and checkmating Chis country's
strategic doctrine.
These developments are described in detail in this
1SSUe by AVInTION WFFK. & SP~1CG TtiCiINOLOGI'
Military Editor Clarence A. Robinson, Jr., in the
story beginning on page 16. There are those in the
ofi~icial intelligence bureaucracy who will challenge
our judgment in printing these facts on those
Watergate-worn grounds of "nalion:il interest." ~VC~c
hove been following .this story for more- than a year
and have in fact refrained from printing it, earlier
because of what were then legitim~itc matters of
intelligence security. ~13ut those considerations no
longer exist.
The hard proof of eight successful Soviet tests of
directed-energy beam weapon technology gives new
and overriding urgency to bring these developments
into the public domain and rip the-veil of intelligence
secrecy so that this whole matter of vital national
urgencyand survival will-finally be brought to 'the
att_cntion of the President of these United States, the
Congress and the citizens of this republic ~ whose
future is at risk. [n all of the previotas four years that
these Soviet developments have been known to the
oll`icial intelligence community,~they have been stilled
by a conspiracy of skepticism and silence and never
once penetrated to the highest decision-making coon-.
cils of this country.
Ye~hnal?qy Leap Veri~i~d
The incredible story of how the Soviets leap-
. frogged a generation of high-energy physics tech-
nology and developed. a workable experimental, ri~odcl
of a directed-energy beam wcdpon now has been
largely verified by the successive?Soviet tests of Semi-
palatinsk and Azgir and the brilliant work of a small
group of extremely young physicists in this country.
The fact that -this country still has a chance of
avoiding a crippling technological surprise that could
' render its entire strategic missile force inclTcctiyc is
due to the courageous, dogged and perceptive work of
a handful of U. S. Air Force intelligence specialists
who polarized 'around the leadership of Maj. Gcn.
George Kcegan,..lr., recently. retired chief of Air
- Force intelligence (nw~~sr.Mar. 28, p.' 38).
We do not suggest any formal conspiracy to
suppress the mounting evidence of ?a massive Soviet
research, dcvcl'opment a.n.d industrial push aimed at
the goal of an anti-ICBM directed-energy beam
weapon.' Rather it was a combination of smug Amcr-
ican assurance that the Soviets were simply not
capable of out-reaching us in any technological race
and the intellectual arrogance of elderly scicnfsts
who through the ages have spent their twilight. _. cars
proving that the next generation of preakthroughs is
"impossible." .
in modern times, we have thc_continuing examples
of Dr. Vanncvar Bush, who thundered that. the ICf3M
was a technical impossibility, and the assortmi:nt of ~~
?scientists in the Eisenhower era who firmly believed
that man-ncd spaceflight should be abandoned
because the human system could not suruive its rigors.
It was a similar group of high-energy physicists, some
heavy with Nobei laurels, who encouraged the nautra]
technical illiteracy of the Central Inteliigcncc Agency
to discount. the steadily growing stream of Soviet
developments and to Icad the bitter intramural bottles
that suppressed the evidence from higher government
councils for crucial years.
There is still considerable debate over the real
significance dF-the, Soviet tests at Semipalatinsk