Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XLIV, Part 1, National Security Policy, 1985–1988

24. Memorandum From the Deputy Director for Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency (Gates) to the Deputy Secretary of State (Dam), the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Poindexter), and the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (Ikle)¹

Washington, March 11, 1985

SUBJECT

• White Paper on SDI

As the debate on SDI proceeds, one subject notably absent from the discussion has been Soviet work on new kinds of weapons—including SDI-type technologies—for strategic defense. Accordingly, we have prepared the attached unclassified background paper describing Soviet work on directed energy weapons and their role in strategic defense.

We have provided the paper to the Defense Intelligence Agency with a suggestion that DIA or DoD consider publication of an unclassified White Paper. In any event, I hope you will find this material useful for subsequent public discussion, regardless of whether the White Paper is published. Needless to say, if we can be of further help, let me know.

Robert M. Gates²
Deputy Director for Intelligence

Attachment

Paper Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency³

Washington, March 5, 1985

Preface

Since the President’s announcement on March 23, 1983, which marked the birth of the US Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a controversy has arisen over it which is concerned not only with the technical feasibility and costs of strategic defense against ballistic missiles but also its impact on the strategic balance between the US and the Soviet Union, on US allies, and on arms control negotiations.

In the past few months, however, lines of argument have begun to be made which involve counterpart Soviet defensive systems. And though we believe that in the planning and development of defensive weapons attention should be directed primarily at the threat posed by the enemy’s offensive systems, i.e., the numbers, characteristics, performance and vulnerabilities of Soviet ICBMs and SLBMs, it is becoming necessary to provide basic information on Soviet defensive, or counterpart-SDI, research and developments. Opponents and proponents alike of the SDI should have a basic understanding and an appreciation of the nature and magnitude of Soviet efforts in strategic ballistic missile defense.

This paper is intended to meet a part of that requirement. It addresses Soviet research and development in directed-energy weapons: high-power/high-energy lasers, particle beams, and the microwave or radio-frequency beams.

“Directed energy” is a term that has become popular in the past decade and is used to refer to three types of beam weapon concepts based on lasers, radiofrequency (microwave) devices, or particle beams:

• In a laser weapon, an intense beam or pulse of visible or invisible (infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma-ray) electromagnetic radiation is aimed at a target by a telescope or other aiming device. The target’s surface may be damaged by explosive shock, melting, or vaporizing; optical components can be damaged and personnel injured or blinded.

• In a radiofrequency (RF) weapon, electromagnetic radiation at wavelengths close to those of conventional radars is aimed at a target by an antenna; electronic components, or possibly the target structure itself, may be damaged or destroyed by circuit overloading or thermal effects.

• In a particle beam weapon (PBW), intense beams of electrons, protons, or atoms are produced by a high-energy accelerator and aimed at a target by magnets. In addition to thermal or mechanical damage, such beams can produce damaging secondary nuclear or X-ray radiation deep within a target.

SOVIET DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS—

Perspectives on Strategic Defense

Key Judgements

○ The Soviet Union is believed to be interested in the development of directed energy weapons (lasers, particle beams, and microwaves) for ballistic missile defense and anti-satellite (ASAT) applications.

○ The Soviet Union has been engaged in research on the directed energy weapons technologies for as long as the United States. Soviet efforts are under the leadership of some of the finest scientific minds in the USSR. The resources the Soviets have applied to these efforts are believed to be greater than those which the United States has applied.

○ In directed energy technologies, the Soviets are in a comparable, or highly competitive position with respect to the United States. In laser technologies, there is an essential equivalence, though the Soviets are pursuing some types of lasers which the US has either abandoned or has ignored for weapons applications. In particle beam and microwave technologies, the Soviets may have the edge over the US in some important areas.

○ The Soviets are believed to have progressed beyond the stage of pure or basic laboratory research in directed energy technologies; the Soviets have begun to develop and test laser weapons. The Soviets already have a ground-based laser capable of damaging some US satellites and which may be used to investigate the feasibility of lasers for ballistic missile defense applications.

○ Hostile Soviet reactions to the US Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and lobbying against the SDI by high-level Soviet scientists must be tempered by the fact that the Soviet Union has not admitted to its own longstanding counterpart research and the most vocal Soviet scientists have themselves been heavily involved in that weapons research.

[Omitted here is the body of the paper.]

1. Source: Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S–I Records: Deputy Secretary Dam’s Official Files, Lot 85D308, Memos to/from other agencies. No classification marking. A stamped notation on the memorandum indicates Dam saw it on March 13. In a March 14 memorandum, Dam replied to Gates: “We very much appreciate your unclassified paper on Soviets efforts comparable to the SDI. It’s most timely and useful. Keep up the good work.” (Ibid.)
2. Gates signed the memorandum “Bob” above his typed signature.
3. No classification marking.