HC Deb 13 May 1986 vol 97 cc544-5
6. Mr. Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the most up-to-date information available to him about progress by the Soviet Union's research and development programme for space-launched weapons systems.

The Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Mr. John Stanley)

I refer my hon. Friend to the paper that I have placed in the Library entitled "The Soviet Ballistic Missile Defence Programme". I refer my hon. Friend also to the United States Government's assessment in "Soviet Military Power 1986," a copy of which is also in the Library.

The Soviet Union has a long-standing and broadly based research and development programme relevant to space-based weapons systems and is the only country to have already deployed an anti-satellite weapons system.

Mr. Chapman

In the light of that reply, does my right hon. Friend not regard it as the height of hypocrisy for the Soviet Union's leadership to condemn the United States strategic defence initiative research programme as destabilising? If we are to have verifiable, balanced, multilateral disarmament, which we all want, is it not incumbent on the Soviet Union to come clean and be open and honest about its own star wars programme?

Mr. Stanley

I certainly agree that there is no basis on which the Soviet Union can criticise the United States for an extensive research programme on ballistic missile defence, because the Soviet Union has been engaged on such a programme since the 1960s. The Soviet Union possesses and is upgrading around Moscow the world's only system of active anti-ballistic missile defences, which employs nuclear-tipped missiles capable of destroying targets beyond the atmosphere. It has an operational anti-satellite system, and it is conducting substantial programmes on advanced technologies relevant to ballistic missile defence, including high-powered lasers, kinetic energy and particle beam weapons and heavy-lift space launchers. In fact, since 1976 the Soviet Union has conducted more than twice as many launches as the rest of the world put together, 80 per cent. of them military in nature.

Mr. Wilkinson

Taking account of the Soviet Union's space and science budget, most of which is devoted to military purposes, such as research and development into strategic defence systems, is not the overall military capability of the Soviet Union much greater than one would estimate, judging by those defence expenditure figures which are made public?

Mr. Stanley

The Soviet Union certainly has an enormous research and development programme. Over a long period it has carried out a major research programme into the possibility of a strategic defence system.

Mr. James Lamond

If we know as much as that about the Soviet Union's space research programme, is it not surprising that we claim we cannot verify whether the Soviet Union is testing nuclear bombs?

Mr. Stanley

I think the hon. Gentleman is aware that scientifically that is a quite different proposition.