Senate Votes Today On A.B.M. System

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32060, 7 August 1969, Page 13

Senate Votes Today On A.B.M. System

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 6. The United States Senate votes today on President Nixon’s controversial defensive nuclear missile system, only hours after the announcement of plans to deploy new multiple-warhead missiles soon after next May.

The Senate voting margin looks like being razor-thin, supporters of the anti-ballistic missile scheme predicting that they will gain a narrow victory. As the long debate on the A.B.M. system approached its end, the Pentagon’s weapons research director (Mr John Foster) yesterday forecast the completion of multiple-war-head nuclear missile tests next May. He told a House of Repre-

sentatives sub-committee on foreign affairs that he expected the Soviet Union to be ready to install similar missiles some time in the second half of next year. Mr Foster said that the United States needed to be able to spread out its warheads “so that one Soviet defensive nuclear burst cannot destroy several American warheads or a whole cloud of decoys.” He was appearing before the sub-committee to oppose resolutions calling for suspension of warhead testing. Some members of Congress feel that the continued testing of the weapons would be an escalation of the nuclear arms race.

Those against the A.B.M. system base their opposition on claims that it would not work, and that it would cost several times as much as present Pentagon estimates. They also argue that to begin deployment would endanger prospects of a nuclear arms agreement with Russia. Supporters of the system counter that world peace would be threatened without it, and they cite the expected deployment of Russian multiwarhead missiles. I Senator John Sherman [Cooper, a liberal Kentucky i Republican who has been leading the year-long campaign against the system in the United States, claimed that his forces have 50 votes in the 100-seat Senate. Senator John Tower, a Texas Republican who has

been the Nixon Administration’s chief spokesman during the Senate debate, predicts a 51-49 vote for the proposal.

The vote is due to take place some time after 8 a.m. New Zealand time, on Thursday.

Polaris Missiles (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 6. Twenty-eight of the 41 nuclear-powered Polaris submarines already have missiles capable of carrying three warheads each, according to Pentagon sources. With 16 missiles aboard each submarine, this means two-thirds of the Polaris fleet could attack an enemy with 1344 warheads. Key members of Congressional committees are said to have known about the multiheaded nature of the Polaris A 3 missile for years. The warheads would hit one target.

But Washington sources say some critics of the Pentagon may choose now to use the A 3 as an argument against the Administration’s proposal announced today, for a new generation of weapons called M.l.R.V.—Multiple Individually Targeted Re-entry Vehicles, which would hit targets hundreds of miles apart.