Russians ‘will have laser ship by 1990’

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 6

Russians ‘will have laser ship by 1990’

NZPA-Reuter Washington The Pentagon has inadvertently revealed that the Soviet Union will have an orbital space complex capable of launching laser beam attacks on ground, sea and air targets working by 1990. This prediction was first made by Richard Delauer, the Defence Under-secretary for Research and Engineering, during testimony at a closed-door'"session of the House Armed Services Committee last week.

Jt was then repeated by Ken Kramer, a member of the House of Representatives, during a public committee hearing soon afterwards where it was recorded by a reporter from the “Army -Times,”;on unofficial publication dealing with military news. According to Mr Kramer’s'

statement, as published in the journal, Mr Delauer told the committee: “We expect a large, permanent,' manned Soviet orbital space complex to be operational around 1990 ... capable of effectively attacking ground, sea and air targets.” This forecast represents a huge advance over previous official assessments of Soviet preparations for space warfare. Until now it' was widely believed -that Soviet efforts were mainly concentrated on developing space-based lasers to attack American satellites rather than ground targets. ,

There’.'was no immediate ■ comment from the Pentagon on Mr.'Delauer’s reported statement. But the United ■ States'is known'to be work- ’ ing on space-based laser and particle-beam weapons as an anti-ballistic missile defence

and- as satellite killers

Only $U5218.3 million — less than 1 per cent of the defence budget — is earmarked for space defence in the 1983 financial year. There has been speculation that Mr Delauer’s forecast was deliberately leaked to gain 'support for a bigger space warfare programme. America and the Soviet Union agreed in 1967 not to use space for nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. But both nations have been working for years on space-based ' weapons which could be used to destroy nuclear-armed missiles before they reach their target' or destroy the other side’s communications and detection satellites. The Soviet Union is believed to have made particularly big strides in this field in recent years.