Heres an update on some fairly recent discussions on the Russians monitoring NORAD in Colorado --- this is even scarier than some of the original stories. Also, it has some mis-information. If I remember right, Russia has about 4,000 nuclear missles, not 2000. And we have less (active) than the 2,000+ mentioned here. But the gist of it is this: never has there been such an "opportunity" for the Russians, if they choose to use it.

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Russians in US to avert New Year nuclear war

By James Langton in New York

A RUSSIAN delegation will arrive at one of America's top secret military bases this week in an attempt to ensure that the Millennium does not herald nuclear Armageddon. The Pentagon has made the unprecedented decision of allowing Russian military experts to observe its intercontinental ballistic missile monitoring centre buried deep in the Rocky Mountains on New Year's Eve.

America fears that Russia's antiquated computers could fall victim to the Millennium bug and either falsely register an attack by missiles from the United States and its allies or, worse, accidentally launch one of its own warheads.

Even with the end of the Cold War, the former communist giant still has about 2,000 missiles ready to launch at a moment's notice - as President Yeltsin warned America last week in response to Bill Clinton's criticism of the Russian bombardment of Chechnya.

If the Kremlin's own early warning systems collapse at midnight on December 31, it is hoped the delegation will assure Moscow that America's missiles are still in their silos.

The Russians will be observing the joint US and Canadian Norad (North American Aerospace Defence Command) space and air defence command system buried deep inside Cheyenne Mountain near Denver, Colorado.

They will not be allowed inside the highly classified centre, which is protected from nuclear blasts by millions of tons of granite and thick steel doors. Instead, America has hastily constructed a temporary "Centre for Strategic Stability and Y2K" at a US Air Force base 10 miles away.

"The concern is that satellite systems and radar might have problems and cause Russia to go blind," said Major Mike Birmingham, a spokesman for US Space Command, which runs Norad.

The Millennium bug is caused by old computers wrongly reading the year 2000 as 1900. The US military has been working on the problem since a test in 1993 briefly caused Norad to shutdown. The Pentagon is now confident that its systems will work on January 1.

But Russia's turbulent politics and economic woes mean that less work has been done there. A collapse of the Russian military command system could be highly dangerous and there are fears that electrical problems could cause some missiles to catch fire in their silos. Under an agreement signed last month, up to 20 Russians will spend two weeks sharing data from Norad headquarters with their American counterparts. Using a hot line, they will be able to act as Moscow's eyes and ears if things should go wrong back home.

At its heart are steel rooms, including a 10-man command centre. It is approached through a tunnel in the side of the mountain, which ends after a third of a mile in 25-ton steel doors designed to withstand a direct blast.

US officials know only too well the possibility of accidental catastrophe. In 1980, monitoring screens apparently showed 2,200 nuclear missiles from the former Soviet Union streaking towards America.

As B-52 bomber crews prepared to head into Russia, senior advisers were one minute from advising President Jimmy Carter to launch a retaliatory strike when they realised that the attack was non-existent. The fault was later traced to a computer chip costing 30p inside a Nova 840 computer, which had wrongly started tapes for a military exercise.

Russia has also had its scares. In 1995, the routine launch of a Norwegian weather rocket was mistaken for an incoming nuclear missile.

Some experts have called on both countries to deactivate their nuclear weapons on New Year's Eve. But Washington has refused, arguing that if systems did fail, the race to restore them could be even more dangerous.The US has 2,300 missiles in a state of constant readiness. Along with Britain's fleet of Trident nuclear submarines, they have been tested and cleared as Y2K compliant.

The situation in Russia is much less certain. Publicly, Moscow is insisting that its computers will not fail. But a Russian government report last August estimated that at least half of its operating systems and all of its software programmes would experience problems with the Millennium bug.

According to Western consultants working in Russia, the government has now abandoned attempts to fix the problem in time and is concentrating on emergency strategies to deal with the repercussions. The worst of these could be a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster that would contaminate millions with deadly radiation.

More likely are widespread power cuts as the electricity grid fails in the depths of the bitter Russia winter. In addition to causing thousands of deaths, such catastrophic glitches could provoke civil unrest and further weaken the authority of President Yeltsin.

America is so concerned about the situation that it has earmarked millions of dollars to repatriate embassy employees and their families over Christmas and the New Year. They will not be allowed back until the State Department has given the all clear.

Posted for free use purposes only!

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), December 11, 1999

Answers

Jon,

Do you have a URL for this?

Based on the relatively modest amount of information that I'm aware of, there are at least a couple of aspects of this article that are exaggerated, if not downright untrue.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), December 11, 1999.

Sorry, Ed. I knew as soon as I posted this I forgot something.

The easiest link is at Freerepublic.com, their latest posts.

The original is at http://www.telegraph.co.uk, but you have to register (free-I think) and go through a couple links.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), December 11, 1999.

A nice relaxing read before bedtime.

Right.

Notice how it doesn't talk about our men stationed over there. Because they don't have a special reciprocatory place over there.

An imbecile thing to do, have them come over here. They are not to be trusted, and the event certainly is not to be trusted.

-- this cannot be real (wake@me.up.fast), December 12, 1999.

So US taxpayers can now see their NORAD system up close and personal; all we have to do is defect to Russia! Oh, and if (can't resist) US taxpayers want to own a home/property, they can move to China where US tax dollars buy single family homes for the citizens. No shift in power here, no way!

I just never thought I would read an article like this...

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 12, 1999.

Oh, and can someone break it down for this peon, exactly how a Soviet IN NORAD is NOT a security risk? (and don't patronize me with that "he is a Russian not a Soviet" BS...)

Good thing we Americans aren't troubled with having to understand the complex issues of national defense and Department of State policy, oh my tired little head.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 12, 1999.

Link: Russians in US to avert New Year nuclear war

Interesting.

"They will not be allowed inside the highly classified centre, which is protected from nuclear blasts by millions of tons of granite and thick steel doors. Instead, America has hastily constructed a temporary "Centre for Strategic Stability and Y2K" at a US Air Force base 10 miles away."

"According to Western consultants working in Russia, the government has now abandoned attempts to fix the problem in time and is concentrating on emergency strategies to deal with the repercussions."

Ed... can you expand on the things you find that are likely exagerations or worse?

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 12, 1999.