Soviets’ Flying Laser Weapon Lab Destroyed

The Soviet Union’s space weapon program suffered a major setback when fire destroyed its only airborne laser weapon laboratory earlier this year, the private International Defense Review (IDR) monthly magazine said today.

The laser laboratory was part of Moscow’s equivalent of the American Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars” project, the magazine said.

Quoting informed Washington sources, the Geneva-based IDR said that “in the eyes of the U.S. military intelligence and research and development community, this loss could represent a major blow to the Soviet development program.”

The magazine, which specializes in military equipment and strategy, said the Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft that housed the laboratory was destroyed by an unexplained fire on the ground late in May or early June.

Prototype Weapon

The heavily modified aircraft served as the platform for a prototype laser weapon intended for use against satellites or attacking cruise missiles, the magazine said.

The magazine said the laser program was begun several years ago and, assuming successful development, limited deployment could have started early in the 1990s.

The Soviet Union has denied that it has a space weapon program and called on the United States to abandon its Star Wars project at superpower negotiations on space and nuclear arms.