U.S. Cites Major Soviet Effort in Laser Research

The Soviet Union, despite its attacks on the United States’ so-called “Star Wars” program, is spending nearly three times more on laser research than Washington this year and could have a ground-based laser weapon ready for use against missile warheads in the next decade, the Reagan Administration contended Friday.

Moreover, the Soviets have been outspending the United States on space defense research for 25 years, Administration officials said in unveiling a color brochure on Moscow’s efforts to build space defenses. Some Kremlin leaders even deny that the Soviet Union has such weapons under development.

‘A Great Protector’

The release of the 27-page booklet was part of the Administration’s continuing effort to counter Soviet criticism of the “Star Wars” plan for research on a space-based missile defense system, formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. On Thursday, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev reaffirmed the Soviet opposition to “Star Wars” and confirmed reports that his government has proposed a ban on all space weapons.

But in a speech Friday in Parsippany, N.J., President Reagan vigorously defended “Star Wars” as capable of becoming “a great protector of our people and the people of the world.”

“Demands to abandon a program with real potential for strengthening deterrence and enhancing Western security do not deal with the real issue of peace,” Reagan told a meeting of New Jersey Republicans in remarks that dealt mainly with state GOP issues.

‘Good Faith’ Needed

“What we need are good-faith discussions, and we are seeking to discuss even now with the Soviets in Geneva the vital relationship between strategic offense and defense,” he added in a reference to current U.S.-Soviet arms negotiations.

The brochure, while providing some new information on Soviet lasers, was essentially a compilation of previously released data on Moscow’s program.

In it, the Administration estimated that the Soviets’ present laser research--involving 10,000 scientists and engineers--would cost about $1 billion annually if conducted in the United States.

In comparison, defense officials said, the Pentagon is spending $371 million this year on space- and ground-based laser research as part of the five-year $26-billion “Star Wars” program, which encompasses all types of space defense weapons.

Total Soviet space defense spending--including work on other types of beam weapons, associated pointing and tracking equipment and radars and other sensors--already exceeds the Administration’s request for $3.7 billion next year, said Assistant Defense Secretary Richard N. Perle, who helped brief reporters on the new brochure.

Defense intelligence analyst James McCrery agreed that although the U.S. space defense budget has risen dramatically, it is still outstripped by the estimated Soviet spending level, calculated by rating how much a comparable effort would cost in the United States.

Indeed, McCrery said, Soviet space defense spending has been “several times” greater than comparable U.S. spending each year from about 1960 until 1983, when Reagan called for a space-based shield against nuclear missiles.

Now, unlike the United States, Moscow “has progressed in some cases beyond technology research,” the booklet stated. “It already has ground-based lasers that could be used to interfere with U.S. satellites and could have prototype space-based anti-satellite laser weapons by the end of the decade.”

‘The Late 1990s’

The pamphlet continued: “The Soviets could have prototypes for ground-based lasers for defense against ballistic missiles by the late 1980s,” although such a weapon “probably could not be deployed until the late 1990s or after the year 2000.” A space-based laser weapon could follow thereafter, it said.

Ambassador Paul H. Nitze, the State Department’s chief arms control adviser, told reporters that although controversy has surrounded the “Star Wars” program, Soviet strategic defense efforts--like other Soviet defense efforts--have proceeded “essentially free of debate.” The release of the brochure was intended to focus attention on the Soviet effort, he said.

In addition, Perle asserted that the Soviet purpose is to kill the U.S. effort and “have the field to themselves” again.

At the State Department, spokesman Bernard Kalb said of Gorbachev’s latest proposal: “It is still unclear what the Soviets may have in mind. What we really need is what the Soviets have to say in confidential negotiating channels.”

Reading from a prepared statement, he added: “ . . . While recognizing that the subjects being covered in the nuclear and space talks are certainly interrelated, we have long held the view that progress in one area should not be held hostage to progress in another. If Mr. Gorbachev’s remarks indicate that the Soviet Union is prepared to join us in this view, that would be a positive development.”