Could Break ‘Star Wars’ Shield at Fraction of Cost, Soviets Say

The Soviet Union said today that it could neutralize the proposed “Star Wars” anti-missile shield for as little as 1% of the cost of the American program.

The official Novosti press agency printed a list of possible countermeasures against President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars,” warning that “the Soviet Union will find an answer which will be effective.”

The countermeasures include “space mines” to disable U.S. orbital stations used in the program, obstacles in the path of the U.S. orbits, “dummy launchings” of missiles to confuse the defenses and coating missiles to deflect the attacking U.S. laser beams.

The Soviet Union has already tested a kind of “space-mine” weapon that is fired into orbit, guided close to a satellite and then exploded.

“There is another effective way of replying to an American space-based ABM system--increasing the number and improving the combat characteristics (accuracy and yields) of Soviet offensive arms,” Novosti said.