Plan to Continue ASAT Testing Reported

The Air Force, unwilling to abandon the development of its new satellite-killer missile, has devised a plan for continued testing of the weapon despite severe congressional limits on the scope of experimentation, sources said Thursday.

The Air Force’s plans for the so-called ASAT, or anti-satellite, missile have yet to be approved by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, said the sources, who refused to be identified.

But the service wants to proceed with two and possibly three tests between now and Sept. 30 “to maintain at least some momentum for the program,” according to a source.

Congress Bans Testing

The Air Force had planned to conduct at least two tests of the ASAT missile this year by firing it at special balloon targets circling Earth in low orbit. However, in approving the Pentagon’s fiscal 1986 budget in December, Congress flatly banned any tests of the missile against objects in space through Sept. 30.

The new Air Force plan calls for honoring the congressional ban by conducting tests in which the missile’s guidance system would lock on the infrared heat generated by stars, instead of sending it to collide with targets.

Such tests would be designed to assess how well the missile works while flying through the atmosphere without moving into space, the official said. The heat generated by flight through the atmosphere could affect the missile’s heat-seeking sensors, “and that’s a legitimate concern,” he said.

A similar test was conducted last year.

The ASAT is a small missile designed to be launched from an F-15 jet fighter. Once fired, the missile flies into space and uses a sophisticated guidance system to lock on an orbiting satellite and then destroy it by impact.

Destroyed Satellite

The weapon has been tested only once against an object in space, when it successfully tracked and destroyed an aging research satellite on Sept. 13.

Despite that success, congressional Democrats have attacked the program. They maintain that the Reagan Administration is not doing enough to negotiate a ban on such weapons in talks with the Soviet Union and note that the Soviets have refrained from testing their own anti-satellite missile since 1983.

The Administration responds that the Soviets can afford to refrain from testing because they possess the only operational system. Development of an American counterpart will help deter the Soviets from using their version and improve the negotiating atmosphere, Weinberger has said.