U.S. Puts Soviet ‘Star Wars’ Cost at $150 Billion

The Soviet Union has spent $150 billion on its own “Star Wars” missile defense system and it is “preposterous” for Russia to demand restrictions on the U.S. program, the director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency said today.

Kenneth Adelman told a news conference that the Soviet demands for “severe restrictions or crippling” of the Strategic Defense Initiative program, popularly known as “Star Wars,” are blocking substantive progress at the U.S.-Soviet nuclear and space arms talks.

“It is ridiculous,” he said. “It is preposterous and makes these negotiations very difficult.”

The Soviet program began long before the SDI project, Adelman said.

Ground-Based Lasers

“It has cost them $150 billion so far, which is 10 to 15 times the U.S. effort so far,” he said, noting the Soviet program includes ground-based lasers and about 100 missile interceptors around Moscow.

Adelman called on Moscow to apply its declared policy of glasnost, or openness, to the Geneva arms talks, because without it “progress in arms control will be limited, if not thwarted.”

“The clock is ticking in this (Reagan) Administration,” he warned. “We don’t have much time left.”

Speaking earlier to the 40-nation U.N. Disarmament Conference, Adelman also noted Moscow’s denial of having the equivalent of an SDI program.

“We know this denial to be false,” he said. “We know it is extensively engaged in exploration and development of these technologies.”

$1 Billion a Year

Soviet research on laser technology, Adelman said, involves “about 10,000 scientists and $1 billion a year.”

Adelman told the news conference that there has been procedural progress at the superpower arms talks because negotiators are “putting down areas of agreement and disagreement in an organized manner.”

But there has been no substantive change in the Soviet position.