| Pentagon racing to
prepare for 2000 |
|
| Nearly everything in
military dependent on computers |
|
By Jim
Miklaszewski
NBC
NEWS |
|
| WASHINGTON, Dec.
31 — If you use a computer at all
— chances are you’ve heard about the year 2000 problem,
the so-called Millennium Bug — a computer glitch that could
lead to shutdowns, lockouts and global panic. The American military
is almost completely reliant on computers and, because of that,
finds itself in a situation both vulnerable and
dangerous. |
EVERYTHING IN America’s military
arsenal — whether it shoots, floats, flies, or marches —
relies on computers.
But a
once-in-a-century computer glitch, known in the Pentagon as the
Millennium Bomb, could bring this mighty war machine to a
halt.
“If we left
things as they are right now the military would effectively shut
down,” said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, who chairs a
committee on the year 2000
problem.
1900 OR
2000?
They would
shut down because most computers use only the last two digits of the
calendar year — so when the year 2000 rolls around,
they’ll read zero-zero as the year
1900. |
|
|
|
In high-risk military operations, that could be
deadly.
“Somewhere,
someplace, there will be people who die as a result of the Y2K
problem,” said
Bennett.
The scope of the
Pentagon’s problem is mind-boggling — all told, 25,000
separate computer systems could be
affected.
“We’re
doing our best but they’re going to be some nasty surprises
because the problem is so big,” said John Hambre, a deputy
Defense Secretary. Aircraft and ships could be sent off course,
cruise missiles may not find their targets, satellite data could be
lost.
THE NUCLEAR
ISSUE
|
|
|
|
|
A priority, of course,
is repairing the computers that control nuclear weapons. Hambre,
though, vows that those programs will be
fixed.
But what about other
nuclear powers? The North American Air Defense Command, deep beneath
a Colorado mountain, will stand watch against a missile attack. The
Pentagon wants to share this early warning information with Russia
and China, because if their computers go blank at midnight 2000,
they could accidentally surmise they’re under nuclear
attack.
“Because of
anxieties about the possibilities of a sneak attack, forces could be
ordered to a higher state of alert level that could lead to
accidental war,” said John Pike, from the Federation of
American Scientists.
$4 BILLION PRICE
TAG
The Pentagon
will spend at least $4 billion to defuse the Millennium bomb and
officials in Washington are confident they’ll do it. But
critics claim they started too late and the fixes won’t be
done in time.
The cost of
failure could be much higher.
If the Pentagon needed any
reminder, it is the 28 American soldiers killed by an Iraqi scud
during the Gulf War. The Patriot anti-missile battery that might
have saved them, failed, in part, because its computer clocks were
out of sync.
It’s
something America’s military leaders are determined to never
let happen again.
|
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