U.S. Sets Secret Date for 1st Anti-Satellite Test in Space : ‘Incentive’ for Soviets to Negotiate

The United States soon will test its first anti-satellite weapon in space in an effort to catch up to the Soviets and persuade them to reach an agreement covering anti-satellite systems, the White House announced today.

Spokesman Larry Speakes said President Reagan formally notified Congress that at an unspecified time no sooner than 15 days from today the United States will launch a rocket-like vehicle from an F-15 fighter in an effort to knock out an old U.S. satellite in Earth orbit.

The test “is necessary to avert clear and irrevocable harm to the national security,” Reagan said. The test, whose date remains classified, “constitutes an incentive for the Soviet Union to reach an agreement on these and other issues” in Geneva.

“The Soviet Union has for many years had the world’s only operational anti-satellite system,” Reagan said. “There is also a growing threat from present and prospective Soviet satellites which are designed to support directly the U.S.S.R.’s terrestrial forces.”

Notice Required

Reagan was required to notify Congress under the Defense Authorization Act, which allows the Administration to undertake three such tests this year.

The law also required a certification that the United States is acting in good faith to negotiate a limitation agreement with Moscow.

The Kremlin has called for a freeze on such “ASAT” testing, but Speakes said it was “disingenuous” of the Soviets to accuse the United States of seeking to militarize space when they have a “monopoly.”

Speakes said the ASAT test will not involve a nuclear explosion but will, instead, fire the missile at a satellite and destroy it without an explosion.

The Air Force has so far conducted two live firings of the missile, but neither involved actual tests against an object in space. Last November, when the last experiment was conducted, the Air Force tested the system’s telescopes and guidance equipment by instructing the missile to lock on to the infrared light emitted by a star.

‘Well Ahead of Us’

“The Soviets are well ahead of us in testing,” Speakes said. “They have prospects for future development that we believe could put us farther behind.”

In addition to a current ASAT system that is operational, the Soviets have a ground-based laser system that could be operational in space by the late 1980s or early 1990, Speakes said.

“The Soviet Union has an effective capability to seek and destroy critical U.S. space systems in near-Earth orbit,” he said.

Although Congress has so far supported research and development funds for the ASAT system, it has balked at approving unlimited tests against objects in space in hopes of achieving limits on such weapons in the Geneva arms talks. Some critics contend there should be no testing at all before the November summit meeting of Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union.

‘More Incentive’

Speakes, noting such criticism, said that, on the contrary, the test will provide “more incentive” for the Soviets to negotiate seriously about space-based weapons.