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From: Hans.Moravec%CMU-RI-ROVER@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: ASAT
Message-ID: <15826@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Jan-84 08:15:43 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15826
Posted: Sun Jan 22 08:15:43 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 05:39:13 EST
Lines: 39

n066  1524  21 Jan 84
AM-WEAPONS
Air Force Flight Tests ASAT Missile
By JEFF GERTH
c.1984 N.Y. Times News Service
    WASHINGTON - The Air Force announced on Saturday that it had
conducted the first test in flight of an advanced missile designed to
destroy satellites.
    The missile was fired from an F-15 fighter plane at Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California. The test involved only the booster and
booster guidance system and did not involve any target, the Air Force
said.
    Cmdr. Jeffrey S. Rink, a Pentagon spokesman, said details of the
test and test results were classified and would not be disclosed.
    The anti-satellite missile was launched from an F-15 flying out of
Edwards Air Force Base in California, the Air Force said. The test
took place over the western test range of the Air Force's Western
Space and Missile Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
    While the Air Force has conducted what it calls ''captive-carry''
tests over the past year, that is, taking the missile aloft attached
to the F-15, the test on Saturday involved the first actual firing of
the missile.
    The test of the missile, the U.S. Air-Launched Miniature Vehicle
Anti-Satellite (ASAT), seems likely to increase the debate over
weapons in space.
    In the past, such advocates as Dr. Herman Kahn, who headed the
Hudson Institute before his death last year, argued that ''clean
wars'' could be fought in space. Supporters have also said the Soviet
Union has been testing an anti-satellite technology for some time.
    Almost immediately after the test a group of scientists denounced it
as a dangerous escalation of the arms race.
    The scientists issuing the statement, who have been critical of the
technology in the past, included Henry W. Kendall, chairman of the
Union of Concerned Scientists; Jerome H. Bethe, a Nobel laureate in
physics; and Dr. Richard Garwin, a physicist at the International
Business Machines Corp.
    
nyt-01-21-84 1815est
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