U.S. Disputes Claim That Soviets Shun Research on Space Weapons

The State Department on Monday accused Soviet Defense Minister Sergei L. Sokolov of making a false statement when he said the Soviets are not doing research on space weapons.

“This is untrue and forms part of a continuing, self-serving Soviet propaganda campaign,” said department spokesman Edward P. Djerejian, responding to an interview with Sokolov published Sunday by the official Soviet news agency Tass.

Djerejian also took sharp issue with Sokolov’s comment that President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the “Star Wars” research program on a space-based missile defense system, poses a “greater hazard to peace than the atomic bomb.”

Remark Called Unwarranted

“We think that this remark is unwarranted, given that the research program is an effort to determine whether deterrence can be strengthened and the threat of nuclear war reduced and eventually eliminated,” Djerejian said.

In the Tass interview, Sokolov also said that if the United States proceeds with a “Star Wars” system, the Soviets have “no choice but to take reply measures.”

He said the Soviet Union already has a base of space research, but it is linked to early warning reconnaissance, communications and navigation and “we are not creating strike space weapons and anti-missile defense.”

But Djerejian said: “The Soviets currently possess the world’s only operational ASAT (anti-satellite) interceptor and an operational ABM (anti-ballistic missile) system. As part of their longstanding and vigorous research program, the Soviets have constructed two ground-based, high-energy test lasers with ASAT capabilities.

“By all measures, the Soviet space program has been heavily oriented toward military purposes.”