The F-104 Starfighter—known as the “Widow-maker” Soviet sabotage now suspected...

Press, 7 September 1976, Page 21

The F-104 Starfighter—known as the “Widow-maker” Soviet sabotage now suspected...

By

HELLA PICK.

of the “Guardian.”

The West German Air Force and the Federal Republic’s security services are looking into allegations that the ill-starred Lockheed F-104 Starfighter plane may have been sabotaged by Communist agents when its construction was originally modified to meet German requirements. This startling information Was almost casually revealed by the West German Defence Ministry the day after the 167th Starfighter had just crashed. The Defence Ministry however also added that it had no evidence so far to support the sabotage allega ion. The Defence Ministry was simply replying to an

inquiry from a member of the Bundestag who wanted to know what was being done to follow up an article published earlier this month by a Czech defector, a former agent who claimed that the KGB had succeeded in infiltrating a saboteur who changed the Starfighter construction plans during the time when Fran z-Joseph Strauss was still Defence Minister.

Although an earlier investigation, in 1969, had failed to find any evidence of suspicious interference with the plane, the Defence Ministry had decided to reconsider all the available evidence. The West German Air Force bought a huge fleet

of 915 Starfighters. Since they first began to fly in 1961, there have been 167 crashes, and the plane has become known as Widowmaker, or Flying Coffin. No adequate explanation has been found for the crashes. But West German defence spokesmen have always insisted that the crash rate for these planes has been no higher than for other complex warplanes, and no worse than in Canada and Belgium, which also fly them. The German crashes have seemed so abnormally high only because Germany has a far greater number of these planes than other countries. But the German version of the plane was fitted with

extra components that other countries do not have.

One reason that ht> been advanced for the crashes is that the plane became too heavy as a result of the modifications. Now there is the suggestion that the modifications may have provided an opportunity to Communist agents to make the plane more accident prone. Ironically, this allegation comes just as a West German engineer was caught in the act of handing over information about the Tornado, the Starfighter’s successor, to Soviet agents. When this incident came to light a few days ago, it was assummed that top-secret

plans were being handed over. However, German officials told the “Guardian” that, much to their intelligence services’ surprise, the briefcase contained virtually no classified information, and that they are greatly puzzled by the whole incident. The Tornado is a multipurpose fighter plane suitable for carrying nuclear bombs, as well as for reconnaissance, and is to be produced jointly by Britain, West Germany, and Italy. It is due to go into operation in 1980. There is little doubt that the Soviet Union would like to lay its hands on its plans, just as it would on other new N.A.T.O. weaponry.

West Germany is under no illusions that Communist intelligence services are exceptionally active there; and indeed there have been a growing number of arrests in the last few months. German officials say that these arrests are probably more due to great efficiency in tracking down spies, than to greater Communist activity. However, all this coincides just as Switzerland is also rocking with one of the biggest spy scandals in its history. Brigadier General Jean-Louis Jeanmaire, who has been arrested for supplying Soviet agents with military secrets, has now confessed

that he had been doing this for many years. Since he had access to much of Switzerland’s top secret defence intelligence, this has hit the Swiss establishment to its deepest core. The Swiss usually keep a close eye on the espionage activities of otner countries who use Switzerland as a communications centre. But they obviously counted on the loyalty of their own senior officers. The Soviet Union, not to be outdone in the current round of spying revelations, has let it be known that a senior official of a Soviet trade organisation had been given a long gaol sentence for divulging commercial secrets to West German businessmen who had bribed him with about $lO,OOO. This is only the latest in a series of charges against foreign businessmen who are said to be prying into the Soviet Union’s commercial secrets, or trying to obtain lucrative contracts through bribery rather than fair negotia'tions. But the sums involved seem peanuts to what Lockheed and others of the big Western multinationals have used in the West and the Third World.

Compared to the Netherlands. for example, the Soviet Union’s going rate for bribery still seems unusually low.