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Soviet Union [USSR] Objectives in Space
Soviet interest in space, both for peaceful and for military
use, has been intense since the 1950s. During talks on limiting the
military use of space, Soviet negotiators have tried to block
development of defensive and offensive United States space systems.
At the same time, the Soviet Union has conducted extensive research
in military space-based technologies.
Negotiations
Attempts to limit the military use of space began soon after
the Soviet Union rejected President Dwight D. Eisenhower's l958
proposal to prohibit all military activity in space. The rejection
was understandable because the Soviet Union had just launched the
first artificial earth satellite, Sputnik, and was interested in
deploying military reconnaissance satellites. In l963, however, the
Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty with the United
States and Britain, prohibiting the explosion of nuclear weapons in
the atmosphere, and in l967 it became party to the Outer Space
Treaty, which banned the deployment of nuclear weapons in earth
orbit and on celestial bodies.
In March l977, President Carter, concerned about Soviet
resumption of antisatellite tests, called for talks about banning
antisatellite (ASAT) weapons. Although the United States pressed
for a comprehensive ban on such systems, the Soviet Union was
unwilling to dismantle its operational ASAT in view of the heavy
and still growing United States dependence on reconnaissance
satellites. After three rounds of negotiations, the talks were
suspended in December 1979 after the Soviet Union invaded
Afghanistan.
In international and bilateral forums, the Soviet Union tried
to derail advanced space defense plans. In l981, 1983, and 1984,
the Soviet Union, anxious to prevent deployment of a United States
ballistic missile defense system in space, submitted three separate
draft treaties to the United Nations. Each treaty proposed to ban
weapons stationed in orbit and intended to strike targets on earth,
in the air, and in space. The treaties would have blocked the
development of a space-based ABM system and precluded military use
of vehicles like the space shuttle. In March l985, bilateral talks
on space and space weapons limitations between the United States
and the Soviet Union opened in Geneva. In early l989, the Soviet
Union had not achieved its principal objective in the talks--to
derail the SDI.
Data as of May 1989
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