Soviets leap ahead with killer satellites

Press, 1 November 1977, Page 8

Soviets leap ahead with killer satellites

By ALAIN RAYMOND, of A g e n c e France-Presse (through NZPA) Paris The possibility of waging war with satellites has already moved beyond the pure science-fiction stage, but the Soviet Union is the only power to have sent up a killer satellite to destroy an orbiting one. Both the United States and the Soviet Union are looking for the best , ways to knock" out an opponent’s eyes and ears — his observation satellites for spying and communications. Without such technology in orbit, a general staff could no longer flash orders to its troops, strategic submarines, nuclear bombers, or intercontinental missile silos. The United States has not yet tested any anti-satellite system, but may have one in two years.

The Soviet Union last week carried out another in a series of such tests, and the Pentagon announced officially in Washington that the hunter had apparently been on target and brought down its prey. The killer was Cosmos-

960, launched on October 26 to track down Cosmos-959, which had been sent up five days earlier.

According to the Pentagon count, the Soviet Union has held seven tests since’ last year, three of them being considered successful. According to American Defence Department sources, the Soviet Union carried our 16 satellite-interception experiments with its Cosmos series between 1967 and 1071. The tests began again after a five-year lull.

Over the years, the Soviet Union has particularly refined the precision of rendezvous in space — essential for manned flight, of course, but also for military interceptor missions. As far as is known from j American sources, the Soviet technicians have two ways o f destroying target satellites: by collision and by buckshot fire. Whether the hunter is of the kamikaze type or fires a volley of metallic marbles, the deadly encounters take place thousands of kilometres per hour far from Earth.

Other methods of destruction, such as laser beams or

waves of atomic particles, are under study.

Since September 23. the Americans seem to have decided to do sorfiething about the Soviet lead in antisatellite satellite technology.

The United States Air Force signed a SS9M contract with the Vought Corporation in Dallas for study and construction of a satellite-killer. The device should be operational in two years, and is believed to work on the collision principle. The weapon, launched from the ground or from a plane, would streak to interception altitude by its own rocket power, when it would zero in on its target with a highly sensitive heat-detec-tion system capable of dealing with space conditions.

The satellite itself would be a cylinder about 30cm. long and 20cm. in diameter, packed with the latest sophisticated electronic know-how. Within the next two years the Americans are also expected to be planning to equip their military satellites with alarm systems to tip off ground stations if an intruder is coming too close or is clearly attacking.