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Dushanbe

During the Cold War considerable concern was expressed in the West about possible directed-energy systems at Saryshagan and Dushanbe that could damage satellites within their range and field of view.

The 1985 National Intelligence Estimate "Soviet Space Programs" NIE 11-1-85J noted "The Soviet potential for applying advanced technology to space warfare missions is substantial. We have strong evidence of Soviet efforts to develop high energy laser weapons: Since 1981, the Soviets have been constructing a large facility on top of a mountain near Dushanbe in the southernmost area of the USSR. It is too early to judge with much confidence what the function of the Dushanbe facility will be, when it might be operational, or what capabilities it will have. However, a directed-energy weapon function — either a laser or a radiofrequency (RF) ASAT weapon — seems most consistent with the svailable. evidence. A somewhat less likely, but still plausible, function is deep space surveillance and/or space object identification. [FOUR LINES DELETED] An alternative view holds that the evidence is insufficient to judge the purpose."

Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger warned of powerful new Soviet lasers on the horizon. "We expect them to test ground-based lasers for defense against ballistic missiles in the next three years," he said in a major speech in January 1987, concluding darkly, "I cannot envision any circumstance more threatening and dangerous for the free world than one in which our populations and military forces remain vulnerable to Soviet nuclear missiles while their population and military assets are immune to our retaliatory forces."

William J. Broad wrote in the New York Times on 28 June 1987 that "According to United States intelligence experts - who spoke to this reporter only after great hesitation and demands for anonymity - the domes of Dushanbe will one day house lasers that will flash their concentrated beams of light effortlessly through the thin mountain air into the depths of space. The question that divides the experts is how powerful the lasers will be - and, thus, their ultimate purpose when the complex becomes operational, probably near the end of this decade.

"''The Soviets are five years behind us on lasers, five to 10 on sensors, and at least a decade on computerized battle management,'' said John E. Pike, head of space policy for the Federation of American Scientists, a private Washington group. ''We're sitting here with something like 140 installed supercomputers. And they've got one that's considered to be at the very low end of the spectrum.''

"Roald Z. Sagdeyev, director of the Space Research Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences ... made an oblique reference to the Dushanbe site, noting that ''some installations'' that might have ''rather volatile lasers'' had become a topic of discussion in the arms-control community. These, he assured his audience, were not weapons but new lasers for tracking satellites. ''At a minimium, Sagdevey's explanation is not obviously wrong,'' said Pike.

Thomas A. Summers, Major, USAF wrote in 2000 that "Despite abandoning the Sary Shagan, the Russians may still be using other possible laser facilities, such as Nurek, Semipalatinsk and Troitsk. Before leaving Sary Shagan, the facility operated ruby and pulsed CO2 laser systems that may have been transferred to other facilities. For instance, the former Soviet Union’s defense weapons facilities at Nurek (about 25 miles southeast of Dushanbe in Tajikistan) and Semipalatinsk may still be in use and house the equipment formerly at Sary Shagan. In addition, in 1989 a US Congressional delegation visited a 1 megawatt high-power gas laser at Troitsk near Moscow that reportedly was linked to former-Soviet laser ASAT efforts as early as 1980."

Subsequently, it was determined that the facility at Dushanbe was actually an Optical Tracking Facility. The Okno system, designed by the design bureau of the Krasnogorsk plant (Chief Designer N. Chernov), was built in Tajikistan approximately 16 kilometers from the Nurekskaya hydro power station. Western experts believed that this was a military laser system. According to the statement of Soviet officials, this was an optronic system for observation of space objects, similar to the American GEODSS.