U.S., Russia To Set Up Joint Y2k Missile Center

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U.S., Russia To Set Up Joint Y2k Missile Center

Updated 1:39 PM ET September 10, 1999

By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Russia will sign an agreement next week for their military officers to jointly staff a center in Colorado as the new year dawns to watch for false warnings of missile attacks sparked by year 2000 computer bugs, the Pentagon said Friday.

Defense Secretary William Cohen and Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev will sign the agreement to set up the temporary center Monday during talks in Moscow to improve military cooperation, a senior Pentagon official told reporters.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said up to 20 Russian officers would be assigned to the "Center for Strategic Stability and Y2K" between late December and early January at U.S. Space Command headquarters at Colorado Springs.

The confidence-building operation will use U.S. early-warning satellites and advanced computers, and could reassure Moscow if Y2K computer problems in Russia mistakenly signaled a missile launch somewhere in the world.

Both Russia and the United States have thousands of long-range nuclear missiles and officials on both sides are anxious to avoid an unlikely but potentially disastrous mistake.

The official, who briefed reporters on Cohen's two-day visit to Russia Monday and Tuesday, cautioned that neither side felt "we are teetering on the edge of a potential false launch or anything of the sort," but that the step was a sign of cooperation.

"And at this time of Y2K transition, were there to be some sort of problem, it would certainly be useful to have our people in direct contact and direct communications with one another," he said.

Formal agreement for the center was reached quietly in late August as U.S.-Russia relations improved following strains over Moscow's strong opposition to NATO bombing of Serbia, the official said.

The center would watch out for any indications of possible missile launches by or against either of the two countries.

"The Russians have agreed that this facility should be established and have agreed to participate in it," the official said. "Secretary Cohen and Minister Sergeyev will be signing the joint statement in Moscow committing the two sides to proceed with this particular effort associated with our wider set of cooperation on Y2K."

Cohen and Sergeyev will also discuss plans for a permanent joint early missile warning center to be established later in Moscow. Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin have already agreed that such a center should be set up.

The two defense leaders will meet at the defense ministry in Moscow Monday to discuss a wide range of issues, including nuclear arms cuts and controversial plans by the United States to establish anti-missile defense system.

En route home to Washington Tuesday, Cohen will fly to the Arctic Circle on northern Russia's Kola Peninsula for a first-hand look at Russia's destruction of submarines at Severodvinsk under arms bilateral arms reduction agreements.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), September 10, 1999

Answers

More PROOF POSITIVE that y2k will be a BITR.

Silly Military/Government doomers.

[sarcasm off]

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), September 10, 1999.


I guess you choose that name for a reason, Cygnus.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), September 10, 1999.

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