Gaps in Radar Coverage : Soviet Defense Flaws Cited in Teen-Ager’s Flight to Moscow

Western experts have discovered how Soviet air defenders failed to intercept West German pilot Mathias Rust as he flew over the heavily guarded western Soviet Union to Moscow’s Red Square, the newspaper Die Welt said Tuesday.

Rust, 19, is being held in a Moscow jail after flying his light plane into the Soviet Union without permission on May 28, landing almost at the door of the Kremlin.

Die Welt, which gave no source for its information, said Soviet defenses monitored the flight for 22 minutes after Rust entered Soviet airspace and Leningrad area authorities ordered a MIG-23 aircraft up to intercept him.

It said the fighter eventually found Rust’s light plane and radioed that the plane was probably of Finnish origin. The MIG then returned to base and two other fighters of the same type were ordered up to “secure the airspace.”

Flew at Very Low Altitude

But Die Welt said they did not find the violator and, since no Soviet early warning radar plane was operating in the area at the time, it disappeared from ground radar screens.

Rust flew on to Moscow unmolested because the Leningrad area command had no fighter aircraft capable of finding and dealing with him as he flew to Moscow at very low altitude and failed to send up combat helicopters suitable for the job, the newspaper said in an account released ahead of publication today.

Moreover, it failed to inform Moscow’s extensive defense of the incident, Die Welt added.

It said the circumstances of the air defense breakdown were explained to the ruling Soviet Politburo on May 30, leading to the firing of Defense Minister Sergei L. Sokolov and the Air Defense commander, Marshal Alexander I. Koldunov.

Die Welt said Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev had since written to allied state and party leaders, explaining what had happened and what changes had been made as a result in the Soviet military leadership.