‘Mobile Soviet missile’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33665, 15 October 1974, Page 27

‘Mobile Soviet missile’

(By DREW MIDDLETON, of the “New York Times”) NEW YORK.

The Soviet Union, according to well-placed sources in Washington, has developed a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile and has built 151 new silos for emplaced 1.C.8.M.5.

These developments, which could have far-reaching effects on the nuclear balance between the Soviet Union and the United States, have been known in the Defence Department for some time.

They have not been made public, the sources said, because the Defence Department does not wish to appear to be exacerbating relations between Washington and Moscow while the second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks is under way.

The Secretary of State (Dr Kissinger), the sources believe, wants to restrain, through the talks, Soviet development of strategic weapons systems. What has already been done strikes many experts as violations of the spirit, if not the letter, of the 1972 interim agreement limiting development of strategic arms.

The Soviet deployment of a mobile intercontinental missile raises diplomatic and military problems for the United States, the sources said.

Missiles emplaced in silos can be observed by space satellites and verified by other means, and they are vulnerable to missile or bombing attack. An effective, mobile missile creates new problems. Such a weapon could be hidden in forests or in buildings, where it could not be observed by satellites. Consequently, verification of Soviet missile strength under any new agreement would be difficult perhaps impossible; and the true total of Soviet missile strength might be considerably higher than the agreed total. i