SOVIETS IMPROVING NUCLEAR ARSENAL, CIA OFFICIAL WARNS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301210009-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/21 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301210009-3
6 en vim LOS ANGELES TWES
-- 27 June 1985
Soviets Improving Nuclear A
CIA Official Warns
?JEly DON SHANNON, Times Staff Writer
STAT
WASHINGTON?Amid Demo-
c tic protests that the Reagan
A4mlnistration was using the CIA
to promote piOlic support for in-
cr?d defense spending, two
-ranking intelligence officials
told a Senate subcommittee
Wednesday that the Soviet Union
is Modernizing and strengthening
its entire strategic nuclear arsenal.
"By the mid-1990s, nearly all of
the Soviets' currently deployed
intercontinental nuclear attack
for?land- And sea-based bal-
listW1mi1les and heavy bomb-
ers?will be replaced by new and
improved systems," the officials
told the Senate Appropriations de-
fense subcommittee.
In a rare public appearance,
Robert M. Gates, deputy director of
the CIA, and Lawrence K. Gersh -
win, an expert in Soviet strategic
weapons, said that the Soviets will
improve their ability to destroy
hardened U.S. missile silos and will
improve the quality of their sub-
marine- and bomber-launched
missiles.
Soviet/Make 'Major Strides'
They said that the Soviets have
"made major strides in preparing
for the deployment" of two new
mobile, land-based intercontinen-
tal missiles?the SS-X-24, which is
deployed by rail, and the SS-X-25,
which is deployed by road. They
said that the SS-X-25 will be
operational late this year and the
SS-X-24 in 1987.
The Soviets, who now have
about 9,000 intercontinental nucle-
ar warheads, have the "capability"
of increasing that total to 21,000 by
the mid-19908, Gates and Gershwin
said. But that would violate the
SALT II treaty, and the intelli-
gence officials said the Soviets
have remained within that treaty's
limits thus far.
The two officials emphasized
that the Soviets are continuing to
work on elements of an anti-ballis-
tic missile system resembling the
U.S. "Star Wars" program, still in
the research stake, to provide a
shields' against 'Morning nuclear
missiles.
STA-T
Although both Gates and Gersh-
win repeatedly rejected senators'
requests to say whether the Soviets
are ahead of the United States in
any field, Democratic Sens. Wil-
liam Proxmire of Wisconsin and
Gary Hart of Colorado accused the
Republicans who control the com-
mittee of staging the testimony to
bolster White House requests for
higher defense appropriations.
"Your appearance here seems to
be more political than anything
else," Proxmire told Gates after the
official had said that CIA estimates
of the annual growth in Soviet
military spending, earlier put at
2%, have risen to between 3% and
4% in the last few years. Hart
warned of the "danger, when, from
the left or the right, you begin to
make ideological what ought to be
totally professional."
Sen. John W. Warner (H-Va.)
replied that senators from both
parties had asked for the public
briefing. "The alternative is leaks,"
Warner said.
"I won't address the motives of
the White House," Gates said.
"This briefing has been given on a
classified basis, and we were asked
by the White House if we could
provide an unclassified presenta-
tion."
Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) seized
on the officials' reports that the
Soviet Union is emphasizing mobile
missiles to criticize the Adminis-
tration's plans for deploying MX
missiles in hardened Minuteman
silos. "We're in the same old hole,"
Glenn said.
Although the intelligence of
did not directly reply, Gersh-
win acknowledged that fixed tar-
gets will be "in trouble" as Soviet
missiles gain in accuracy.
in Part - Saniti7ecl CODV Approved for Release 2013/05/21 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301210009-3