RSF@SU-AI.ARPA (06/11/84)
From: Ross Finlayson <RSF@SU-AI.ARPA>
a030 0234 09 Jun 84
PM-Space Conference,540
Official: Soviets Copied U.S. Space Shuttle
By SCOTT McCARTNEY
Associated Press Writer
DALLAS (AP) - The Soviet Union has developed its own space shuttle
the easy way: by copying the American orbiter, a former high-ranking
Defense Intelligence Agency official says.
Retired Lt. Col. Thomas H. Krebs, former chief of the DIA's space
systems branch, said Friday that the Soviets will launch their space
shuttle within a year or two.
''We've seen the (Soviet) orbiter and it's identical to ours,''
Krebs said in his first public speech since leaving the military in
January.
Krebs said military experts believe the Soviets simply bought a copy
of space shuttle blueprints, then improved on the designs by adding
engines to the external fuel tank, boosting the vehicle's lifting
power.
It was a faster, cheaper way of developing an orbiter, he said.
''The space shuttle was totally unclassified. Anyone could buy a set
of plans. However, no one has been able to find the requisition,'' he
said.
Krebs, now research director for a Washington-based space education
and lobbying group called High Frontier Inc., said his remarks were
based on recently declassified information about Soviet space
capabilities and contained no classified secrets.
In Washington, DIA sources who spoke only on the condition that they
not be identified said they knew nothing specifically about the
Soviets getting shuttle blueprints.
Krebs addressed a conference on space sponsored by the National
Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative Dallas-based think tank.
He said the Soviet Union is far ahead of the United States in
development of space-based weapons capable of destroying satellites
and ballistic missiles, having already developed two land-based laser
beam weapons that can destroy satellites in low orbits.
The weapons are in the testing stage, he said, and are not fully
operational.
''The Soviets are trying to dominate space and, in fact, have
already done so at low-altitude orbits and are working on the
high-altitude orbits,'' Krebs said.
The conference included a debate on President Reagan's ''Star Wars''
initiative to develop high-technology space defenses.
John Pike, associate director for space activities for the
federation, argued that high-technology defense systems involving
orbiting ''killer satellites'' are too vulnerable to provide a
reliable defense.
''If we proceed with the president's program, we will junk arms
control and lead ourselves down what I and my associates think is a
dangerous and uncertain road,'' Pike said. ''Strategic defense (in
space) is a mirage.''
Reagan in March proposed a $50 billion program to develop space
systems in the next decade.
''We're not out to find a niftier way to fight a war in space. We
can prevent nuclear war by using space for defensive purposes,''
argued former Army Gen. Daniel Graham, president of High Frontier.
Graham, saying no defense system would be perfect, estimated that a
''Star Wars'' defense could destroy 95 percent of Soviet missiles
launched in a massive nuclear attack.
''We would go from mutually assured destruction to mutually assured
survival,'' he said.
ap-ny-06-09 0534EDT
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