CONCERN ABOUT AMERICAN LASER TEST.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Tarasov said yesterday that there is "increasing concern" in Moscow that the U.S. might be developing an anti-satellite capability. He was commenting on an October 20 experiment in which the U.S. Army’s Mid-Infra-Red Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) at White Sands, New Mexico, illuminated an obsolete Air Force satellite. A Pentagon spokesman said that the event did not violate any treaty and was not an attempt to destroy the satellite but only to test whether such laser illumination could damage its equipment. While confirming that the two test firings did hit the targeted object — a camera aboard the satellite — the spokesman said that the results of the test were still being determined. Tarasov observed that, in the past, both the U.S. and Russia had shown restraint in this field. He also warned that the development by the U.S. of anti-satellite weapons could "sharply change the strategic situation." (Russian and Western media, October 20-21)

U.S. Lowers Estimate of NATO Costs.