USA Today - 11/13/98
WASHINGTON - Concerned that the Year 2000 computer bug could disrupt military early-warning systems, the United States is
reaching out to the world's nuclear powers in an unprecedented effort to avoid an accidental conflict.
Pentagon officials say they are confident that U.S. nuclear command and control systems will be ready for the so-called Y2K
problem, but worry that foreign early warning systems could malfunction and falsely indicate an attack.
"We're working with all the nuclear powers we can have a relationship with, to physically share people," says Marvin Langston, who
directs Pentagon Y2K programs. "Their people will sit in our control centers and our people in their control centers to keep the
communications open."
Efforts are also being made through the State Department and intelligence community to establish "back channel" contacts with
nations that deny having nuclear capability and others hostile toward the United States, he says.
Although plans are not finalized, Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre says he hopes to have some cooperative efforts in place
next year.
"We have agreed we will have a center that will provide resources," says Hamre, adding, "We'll move as fast as we can with the
Russians."
There is general agreement that Y2K - a date-sensitive programming problem that could disable computers after Dec. 31, 1999 - will
not cause missiles to launch mistakenly, but early-warning systems could malfunction. For instance, in January 1995, Russian
equipment mistook a NASA launch for a missile attack.
"We have a huge stake in Russia's early warning systems working properly," says former senator Sam Nunn, who raised concerns
last June.
Russian authorities first focused on Y2K this summer, finding their space-based tracking equipment was likely to fail.
"Up to 80% of all defense ministry systems could be affected," says Sergey Rogov, an adviser to the Russian Duma on Year 2000
issues.
An arms control think tank, British American Security Information Council, issued a report Thursday questioning the Pentagon's
ability to secure its nuclear systems from Y2K distress.
The Government Accounting Office and members of Congress have questioned the ability of the Pentagon, and other government
agencies, to complete all its Y2K efforts before Jan. 1, 2000.
Rogov says that "maybe the Year 2000 problem provides us with the impetus to go into the next century with an entirely different
relationship of our two nuclear forces." |
