Russia Says U.S. Radar Violates ABM Treaty

The Defense Ministry says that a powerful U.S.-built radar station located in Norway just 60 kilometers from the Russian border is being used to spy on Russian ballistic missile launches.


American and Norwegian officials counter that the 40-meter radar station in the Norwegian town of Vardo is innocent of any such espionage functions. Instead, they say, it is used to track man-made debris floating in orbit, so that satellites can be steered clear of wreckage drifting their way.


Among those who agree the Russians have the stronger case is Theodore Postol, a professor and an expert on missile-defense early warning radars with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Postol expressed sympathy for the complaints of the Defense Ministry that the radar at Vardo is a violation of the 1972 U.S.-Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.


"The Russians' concern is perfectly valid," Postol said in a telephone interview. "[The Vardo station] violates the spirit of the ABM Treaty."


That 28-year-old treaty forbade Washington and Moscow from trying to build missile defense systems against nuclear attack. But in recent months the Clinton administration has announced its desire to construct just such a defense shield - while the Russian government stands in firm opposition.


The Vardo station is now being drawn into that international debate. According to an official statement released by the Defense Ministry, the radar station is actually two arrays: a smaller, weaker one set up in 1988 called Globus I and a larger one called Globus II. The statement says Globus II was constructed in the United States when Globus I proved too weak to track all of Russia's ICBM tests, and that, after testingin 1995 at California's Vanderberg Air Force Base, it was transported to Norway and handed over to Norway's Defense Intelligence Service.


A Russian general, who asked not to be identified, said in a telephone interview that the Vardo station is "the last link" in a chain of radars deployed across Europe, Greenland and the United States that together will allow a future U.S. national missile defense system to home in on and destroy Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles in flight.


"We find it unacceptable that this radar is operating," the general said, adding that it was "especially outrageous" given that the United States demanded that Moscow abandon construction in the mid-1980s of a powerful radar system near Krasnoyarsk, arguing that this Siberian radar array violated the ABM treaty.


Leonid Ivashov, head of the Defense Ministry's International Cooperation Department, told reporters last week that he is confident that the Vardo radar station's "main goal [is] to be involved in the ABM system." Ivashov added, however, that his agency did not plan to ask the Norwegian side for rights to inspect the radars.


U.S. and Norwegian officials have insisted the Vardo station is used only for tracking space debris. Norwegian Defense Minister Eldbj?rg L?wer seemed to leave the door open for speculation, however, in a statement released to the press last month. While L?wer described the Vardo radars as debris monitors, she also said in her statement that she could not comment on "the radar's capacity and task in connection with intelligence" as those capacities and tasks remain classified.


A U.S. Department of Defense official said in a telephone interview earlier this month that the Vardo station "is not and is not planned to be an element of any missile defense."


The Russian general countered, "Had they indeed wanted to monitor space junk, they would have built such a radar somewhere near the equator - and not in the Arctic, next to our Plesetsk [Cosmodrome] and Northern Fleet."


MIT's Postol agreed it would make more sense to monitor space debris from a radar located closer to the equator. He also said most early missile warning radars tend to have a secondary mission of tracking space debris.


Plesetsk, the nation's busiest cosmodrome, is operated by the Strategic Nuclear Missile Force and is used for launches of satellite-bearing rockets into space and for the test-firing of ballistic missiles. The Northern Fleet operates most of the nation's nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles.


Postol said Globus I was capable of detecting the test launch of a Russian ICBM, while Globus II's powerful signals indicate it is capable of tracking both warheads and decoys and collecting detailed radar signature information over 10 or 15 minutes of flight. He said that information could in turn help the United States construct a tighter shield against hypothetical incoming Russian ICBMs.


Postol suggested the United States and Norway should either agree to "tear down" Globus II or at least promise to shut it off during test launches of Russian ICBMs.