AF Tests New Anti-Satellite Weapon With Shot at Star

The Air Force today conducted a successful test of its anti-satellite system by aiming the weapon at a distant star to meet congressional restrictions, the service said.

The anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon was fired from underneath a high-flying F-15 jet fighter launched from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.

Because the ASAT was aimed at a star, rather than a target satellite in orbit around the earth, it met restrictions imposed last year by Congress.

Those restrictions, strongly opposed by President Reagan and the Pentagon, blocked any tests against a target in space. The ban was imposed at the insistence of the Democrat-controlled House, where it was added to a Pentagon budget bill.

The U.S. weapon is a homing device that sits atop a two-stage rocket carried aloft by an F-15 and then fired. The ASAT then tracks its target and slams into it at high speed.

Today’s shot was the fourth test of the system, including a successful test last Sept. 13 in which an aging satellite was destroyed. The ban was imposed for the fiscal year that started last Oct. 1.

A similar ban against trying to hit specific targets in space was added last week by the House to its version of a Pentagon budget bill for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. But it was not in the parallel measure passed by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Reagan and the Pentagon argue that the U.S. weapon is needed to offset what they say is an operational Soviet ASAT weapon and to force the Soviets to bargain seriously for a ban on ASAT weapons.