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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 1618.PDF
566 FLIGHT International, 19 August 1978 US anti-satellite programme moves ahead FOLLOWING President Carter's call for a firmer response to Soviet killer- satellite developments, US Defence Department officials are debating the extent to which any American reac tion will affect negotiations towards Salt (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) agreements limiting the use of space for military purposes. The Defence Department is moving rapidly toward ground tests of an air-launched inter- cepter, and will test warhead con figurations within the next 18 months. The Vought Corporation intercepter, now being developed under a $58-7 million contract, could be launched by a solid-propellant booster from a high speed aircraft flying at high altitude. Carried to the vicinity of the target, the warhead would separate and home on the satellite. Development funds for a laser system rose from $2-6 million in fiscal year 1977 to $9-8 million in 1978 and $14-5 million in 1979. The three basic killer-satellite systems now under re view are expected to absorb $586 million of Defence Department funds. By 1980 test results will have provided a solid basis for the next step. If the Russians fail to agree on the limita tions requested by the United States, the Defence Department will go ahead with second-generation tests of the type now being carried out by the Soviet Union. Design and development of a suit able US target vehicle is well under way, with funds going from $6-7 mil lion this year to $7-9 million in fiscal year 1979 and an estimated $15 mil lion in 1980. As a hedge against pos sible problems with the Vought inter cepter the Defence Department is spending $5 million this year and a similar sum in 1979 for design of a killer satellite based on existing space craft technology. The satellite would weigh up to 680kg and operate in the same way as the Soviet killers, which are first placed in orbit before rendezvous with or high-speed fly-by of the target. The direct-ascent Vought intercepter would be capable of a more rapid response. Defence Department officials believe that the killer satellite could be de ployed as an interim measure pend ing the start of development of the direct-ascent vehicle. The Defence De partment plans to carry out a series of war games in order to show the Carter administration how killer satellites could fit in with US and Nato strategy. Administration officials believe that killer satellites would have little application short of an all- out nuclear conflict. The Soviet Union is not expected to disable US or Nato satellites in a limited confrontation of the type that could flare up, for example, in the Middle East or Africa. Such an attack would suggest a desire to counter a strategic response, since most military satellites provide warn ing information or communications for long-range nuclear forces around the world. Alternatively, say Carter administra tion officials, ground stations receiving information from military satellites would be prime targets for Soviet attack in the opening stages of a major conflict. It would thus be more economical for each side to knock out the other's ground facilities than to direct killer satellites at the many military spacecraft now in use. It has also been observed that the Soviet killer-satellite tests conducted so far appear to threaten Chinese satellites more than the spacecraft of the United States. For the immediate future, the administration believes that a US killer-satellite system would increase East-West stability. The Russians would be less likely to initiate an attack, it is reasoned, if they were sure of a reciprocal response. The US National Security Council (NSC) re view of current space projects recently asserted that "while the US seeks verifiable, comprehensive limits on AN Earth satellite station has been completed at Goudji in the Central African republic of Chad by the Tele- space consortium (Thomson-CSF and CIT-Alcatel). The station was inaugu- anti-satellite capabilities and uses, in the absence of such an agreement the US will vigorously pursue develop ment of its own capabilities." It con cluded: "The US space defence pro gramme will include an integrated attack warning, notification, verifica tion and contingency reaction capa bility which can effectively detect and react to threats to US space systems." The NSC's Space Policy Review Committee has also prompted the Defence Department to seek means of "hardening" civilian satellites against attack. Nasa is being asked to- con sider ways of protecting the major satellite systems of the future from Soviet killer satellites. The Defence Department is worried that the com munications satellites which it now leases from civilian organisations could be quickly put out of action in a future conflict. The Carter adminis tration believes that it is better to adopt a "war footing" mentality now than to wait until the Soviet Union is able to eliminate a large part of America's worldwide communications network. rated on June 15. Equipped with a 14 • 5m-diameter antenna, it handles telephone, telegraph and telex com munications via Intelsat satellites. page 571 •- Intelsat terminal for Chad
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