Russian Counter To Polaris Ready

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30110, 19 April 1963, Page 9

Russian Counter To Polaris Ready

(NZ-P-A.-Reuter—Copyright)

NEW YORK, April 18.

The Soviet Union has at least one fully operational antimissile installation already in place near Leningrad, the New York “Herald-Tribune” reported today. The installation was believed to be capable of shooting down the nuclear-tipped intermediate range American Polaris missiles that are the main component of the American balance of power, a Washington correspondent reported.

However, there were doubts about i t s effectiveness against the intercontinental United States Minuteman missile, the dispatch added.

It was presumed that the Russians were capable of building more anti-missile sites, the dispatch said. The United States has no such operational system although it is experimenting with the Nike-Zeus “missile killer.”

Nevertheless, the dispatch added, the Kennedy Administration did not believe that the Soviet Union was appreciably ahead in the antimissile field or that it had made a spectacular weapons breakthrough. News of the Soviet antimissile installation became known yesterday after it was the subject of secret testi-

mony given to Congress oy top American defence officials, the dispatch said. The “Herald-Tribune” said the anti-missile missile situation was one of several major points being debated in the United States Defence Department.

One other was a possibility of withdrawing the promise already made to France to supply it with American KCI3S aerial tankers This could provoke a political

crisis far more severe than the dashing of British hopes over the Skybolt missile, the dispatch said. However, no decision had yet been reached.