Soviet Spy Ship Activity Grows Off West Coast

The Soviet Union has sharply increased its efforts to gather electronic intelligence off the U.S. West Coast in the past two years, Navy intelligence analysts said Friday.

To the Navy, the eavesdropping activity has raised questions about Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s commitment to relaxing tensions with the United States. But some private analysts believe that the Soviets may be seeking political and industrial intelligence, not military secrets.

In each of the last two years, the Navy’s analysts said, specially designed auxiliary general intelligence ships, or AGIs, were present about two days of every three just outside the territorial waters of the United States, which extend 12 miles from shore. There the ships can listen in on political, industrial and military information relayed by satellite.

During the early and mid-1980s, by contrast, the Soviet ships listened off the nation’s West Coast on average fewer than one day in 10, according to Adm. David E. Jeremiah, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

“There has been a significant increase in Soviet AGI activity in the Pacific area since 1986,” said Lt. Cmdr. Robert Anderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. “This intelligence collection activity has included an increased presence off the U.S. West Coast, especially off of Southern California and the Hawaiian Islands.”

Expected to Return

Not since February has an AGI ship been spotted off Southern California, Anderson said, although he added that the Navy expects the spy ships to return to the Southern California coast “in the near future.” A spy ship was operating near Hawaii as recently as Friday, Anderson said.

Over the last two years, Navy analysts said, the spy ships have focused on Southern California, which is home to several of the nation’s top aerospace and high-technology manufacturers.

More than half of the nation’s missile and space business is located in California, as is three-quarters of the nation’s microchip industry. Southern California is home to much of that business, and few commercial areas rely more heavily on satellite communications to carry on business.

Also Listen to Ships

In addition to their electronic eavesdropping activities, the Soviet spy ships observe the movement of U.S. ships and try to listen in on their internal and ship-to-shore communications.

Analysts at the Pacific Fleet’s headquarters in Pearl Harbor say that the activities of the Soviet spy ships appears to fly in the face of other Soviet Navy developments.

Since 1985, Naval intelligence analysts have documented a sharp downturn in Soviet ship movements in the Pacific. The Soviets maintain that since 1985, they have reduced the size of their Pacific fleet by 55 ships.

Consequently the increased operations of Soviet spy ships has raised suspicions among some Navy analysts about Gorbachev’s motives. Adm. Jeremiah and other senior Navy officers have called for continued vigilance against the Soviet Pacific fleet.

More Benign Explanation

But some private analysts offer a more benign explanation for the Soviet activity: That the ships are collecting Western reaction to Gorbachev’s political initiatives and industrial data that could prove valuable in the Soviet leader’s economic restructuring campaign.

“This is part of an overall increase in the Soviets’ collection of signals intelligence in recent years,” said Desmond J. Ball, a specialist in Soviet intelligence collection at the Australian National University. “In this case, the Soviets appear to be gathering a lot of technical and industrial intelligence that comes down from satellite downlinks.”

The information--culled from satellite-borne telephone conversations and from the electronic chattering of fax signals and data transmissions--may prove even more valuable to Soviet industry than it is to the Soviet military, Ball added. At a time when Gorbachev is intent on reinvigorating the Soviet civilian economy, such information could play a vital role, he said.

Finger on Political Pulse

“Second, Gorbachev sees the need for greater sensitivity to Western reactions to his moves,” Ball said. By stationing listening ships off the United States on a more regular basis, he said, Gorbachev can keep a steady finger on the American political pulse.

The increased intelligence-gathering efforts may have some indirect benefits even to the United States.

“I don’t see the Russians coming across the beach in Santa Barbara,” said Alvin Bernstein, chairman of the U.S. Naval War College’s department of strategy in Newport, R.I. “Let them find out how good we are, then we won’t go to war.”

Bernstein argued that an upsurge in intelligence-collecting activity might be the Soviet military’s natural response to having to trim their fighting forces. A smaller and more defensively oriented military, which Gorbachev has vowed to build, must focus major resources in learning the intentions and the capabilities of the adversary, said Bernstein.

“Instead of being prepared for all comers, you focus on who could be coming to get you,” Bernstein said. “There is that trade-off.”

At the same time, Bernstein said that the Soviets were “losing a lot of political capital that they might otherwise gain by increasing surveillance at a time when they’re making a big point of drawing down their ships. With one hand they’re taking away, with the other they’re adding.”

Whatever the significance of the lurking Soviet ships, there is little that the U.S. Navy can do to stop them.

“Beyond 12 miles (off the coast), it’s international waters, and they’re perfectly legitimate there,” Anderson said. “Obviously you take measures to reduce what they can collect, but you can’t deal with the fact that they’re there.”

Soviet AGI ships spent about 250 ship-days off the West Coast and Hawaii in each of the last two years, Navy analysts said. On some days, more than one ship may have been active.

By contrast, the spy ships logged only about 30 days a year in the Pacific during the earlier years of the decade.

The Soviets have a fleet of 62 spy ships, though only 10 are of the three newer classes of intelligence ships that are uniquely designed for the eavesdropping mission.

According to Ball, the Soviet spy ships most often seen off the U.S. West Coast are of the Balzam class, of which versions were built in 1980, 1982 and 1984. The three main masts of the ships bristle with antennae that swivel to get the best reception and their distinctive spherical radomes--huge white balls that house satellite antennae--are a tell-tale sign of their mission.