Russia Fires Test Missiles
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Russia conducted two test flights last week of SS11 intercontinental ballistic missiles, tipped with the first multiple re-entgy vehicles ever fired by the Soviet equivalent to the U.S. Minuteman, Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird said Wednesday.
Laird said the Russians launched both flights Friday from the south central Soviet Union. He said the missiles flew 5,750 miles to the Pacific Ocean, where a U.S. ship watched three "objects" from each ICBM plunge into the planned target area.
In an unscheduled news conference Laird also disclosed a test flight Aug. 18 of an SS13 ICBM—another Russian missile similar to the Minuteman—to an impact in the Pacific target area 575 miles northwest of Midway Island. He declined to give any further details about this test
Prior to the double SS11 test Friday, the only Russian firings of multiple re-entry vehicles had been conducted with the SS9, the world's biggest ICBM.
The latest version of America's Minuteneman, the Minuteneman III, carries a multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle MIRV warhead. Air Force missile men deployed the first 10 of these weapons in June.
Laird declined to speculate whether the triple payloads lofted by the SS11s were actual weapons or experimental rockets or whether they could be guided toward separate targets. He said defense experts are still busy studying information gathered during the flights and at the target area.
"If they deploy this kind of object and if it does have three weapons it would accelerate their number of targetable warheads by three times. We know they have well over 700 SS11s in being"
Laird said a possible strategic reason for putting triple warheads on these missiles would be to overwhelm an antiballistic missile system.
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The Russians had five of their own missile support ships in the target area, other Pentagon officials reported.
"This number of Soviet instrumented support ships in an impact area is believed to be unprecedented and suggests a buildup of instrumentation capabilities," a spokesman said.
Demo Platform Boosts Docking
TOPEKA (UFI) — The State Democratic Party Platform revealed Tuesday in Topeka full endorsement of Gov. Robert Docking's stand on campus unrest, the right to vote for 18 year olds, and a plan to base the Kansas income tax on a percentage of the federal tax paid.
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