Libya Installing 150-Mile-Range Soviet Missiles

Soviet-made SAM-5 long-range antiaircraft missiles are being installed in at least two locations in Libya, and the United States has protested the action to Moscow and been rebuffed, Reagan Administration officials said Friday.

“This clearly exceeds any legitimate security requirements the Libyans have,” said State Department spokesman Charles Redman. “This is a significant and dangerous escalation in the Soviet-Libyan arms relationship.

“We have made clear (to Moscow) our concern about this escalation and Soviet support for an irresponsible and erratic regime,” Redman said. Asked about the Soviet reply, Redman said, “The Soviet response did not address our concerns.”

Deployment of the missiles--which U.S. officials expect will be manned by Soviet troops--increases the already high tensions between the United States and Libya, which has been a major preoccupation of the Reagan Administration.

Precautionary Plan

Administration sources disclosed that precautionary military planning was initiated last summer to counter Libya if it attacked a neighboring North African state or was shown to be responsible for a major terrorist incident.

But a Pentagon analysis of possible direct U.S. military action against Libya painted a bleak chance of success and effectively argued against it, sources said.

A senior Administration official said this week that the military plan was never completed or submitted to the White House for action.

The SAM-5, though a relatively old and slow-flying ground-to-air missile, can hit targets 95,000 feet in the air and has a range of about 150 miles, which could enable it to knock down U.S. reconnaissance aircraft including sophisticated AWACS radar planes, but not high-performance fighters. The Soviets have previously given the Libyans other SAM anti-aircraft missiles, but none with a range of over 40 miles, and none that provided the same capability to knock down U.S. reconnaissance planes flying over the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya considers its territorial waters. The United States regards the gulf as international waters.

1981 Dogfight

In August, 1981, two U.S. F-14 fighters shot down two Soviet-built Libyan fighters after a brief dogfight over the gulf.

SAM-5 missiles have the theoretical capability to down fighter planes but are considered by military sources to be of relatively limited value when employed against such high-performance aircraft as the F-14.

Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle East arms specialist, said of the Soviet delivery of the SAM-5 misiles: “It’s a low-cost way of bugging the hell out of Israel, Egypt and the United States. SAM-5 is a museum piece, a symbolic gesture. It moves very slowly and is jammable.”

However, Administration officials consider the installation of the missiles symbolically important because they bolster Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s challenge to U.S. interests in the region and escalate the Soviet commitment to his government.

On an Oct. 10-12 visit to Moscow, Kadafi sought but failed to obtain a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union, assistance in building a nuclear reactor and a more favorable treatment for repayment of his $4-billion to $5-billion debt to the Soviets.

One U.S. official said that discussions between Kadafi and his Soviet hosts were “acrimonious” and that the Soviets gave the Libyan leader “a dressing-down” for his support of terrorist activities.

Despite the difficulties on this visit, one source said Kadafi left with a general statement of support from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It is not clear whether the deal for acquisition of the SAM-5 missiles, which Libya has been seeking since 1983, was struck at this Moscow meeting.

Military sources said the missiles began arriving at the Libyan port of Misrata in November. A U.S. arms specialist said that one of the sites at which the missiles are being deployed is the old U.S. Wheelus Air Base on the outskirts of Tripoli, which Kadafi took over after coming to power in 1969. A second site was said to be near Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast in eastern Libya. A third site, which is not fully confirmed, was said to be at the oasis of Kufra in southeast Libya near the Egyptian border.

Sources said that the first SAM-5 missiles could become operational within five months and would be manned by Soviet crews. Reports differed on the number of missiles that would be deployed, ranging from 36 to 54.

ABC News and columnist Jack Anderson both reported in November that Libya was receiving Soviet SAM-5s, but Friday’s statement by the State Department’s Redman was the first official confirmation.