Secret test irks America

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 8

Secret test irks America

NZPA-Reuter Washington The Soviet Union has testfired a new stratgeic submarine missile which radioed key' information in code, thus preventing the United States from fully monitoring its performance, Carter Administration officials have said.

The second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty bars encoding missile test telemetry or otherwise deliberately concealing vital data on missile developments. Although that treaty is still before the United States Senate, Administration officials said the United States has made it clear to the Soviet Union that it expected the Soviets to abide by its anti-con-cealment terms pending ratification. The new test, which has been kept secret for several weeks, could reopen ah argument over whether the new S.A.L.T. II treaty limiting strategic ... nuclear weapons can be satisfactorily verified to’ prevent, cheating. Opponents of the treaty have attacked it, in part, on verification grounds. Administration officials said that the new missile had the capacity to carry larger nuclear warheads than present submarine-launched Soviet missiles and was powered by solid fuel instead of the more-corrosive liquid fuel previously used in such weapons.