Pentagon tests jet-carried satellite-killing missile

Press, 23 January 1984, Page 8

Pentagon tests jet-carried satellite-killing missile

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States Air Force said at the week-end that it had conducted its first test of a new aircraftbased killer missile to destroy enemy space satellites, but that the results were secret.

It said that the test, in which a six-metre missile had been fired ■ from an Eagle interceptor travelling at an undisclosed speed and height, had been done in California. In later tests, the Air Force said, a second and smaller missile would be fired from the first missile and go into orbit. The smaller missile is to knock down enemy satellites by impact, defence officials have said.

The test puts the United States into direct competition with the Soviet Union,

which already has an antisatellite weapon. The Pentagon (Defence Department) has called the Soviet anti- satellite weapon operational, but some defence sources say that it has been tested only about 20 times, and must still be viewed as experimental. Some arms control analysts warned the United States against going ahead with its test, which had been frequently postponed because of technical problems, out of fear that it would trigger an anti-satellite race with the Soviet Union. The Air Force said that The Eagle had taken off with the rocket under its fuselage from Edwards Air Force Base, near Los Angeles, California, and fired the rocket over the Western Test Range, Van-

denberg Air Force Base, near Santa Barbara, California.

It said that no target had been used in the test, which was only to assess the separation of the rocket from the aircraft. The officials said that other tests would be conducted at unspecified later dates against live targets.

A live target would contain monitoring instruments and be in orbit, and if the test was successful would be destroyed by the second stage missile crashing into it.

The Soviet anti-satellite weapon uses an explosive missile launched by a giant land-based rocket. When the missile draws into a close orbit with the enemy satellite it explodes and destroys it.

The United States and Soviet anit-satellite weapons are aimed at low-orbiting satellites, which include those for surveillance and gathering weather information.

Officials said that the Eagle’s anti-satellite system was expected to go into operation in the late 1980 s, with a total cost of about SUSI. 4 billion (SNZ2.IS billion). The programme was begun in 1978, and, in the absence of any treaty with the Soviet Union banning the weapons, is designed to knock out Soviet satellites which are able to target United States and allied ground forces. When it is.operational, the Air Force plans to have anti-satellite armed Eagles based on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.