Yourdynamites backaways were asking for numbers; here are some answers:

http://www.detnews.com/1999/nation/9904/03/04030072.htm

U.S. Military Is Under The Gun to Vanquish Y2K Bug

[ For Educational Purposes Only ]

Saturday, April 3, 1999

By Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times

U.S. Military Is Under The Gun to Vanquish Y2K Bug

Even as U.S. military forces lead the NATO offensive against Slobodan Milosevic, they also are preparing to do battle with another dangerous foe: the Y2K bug lurking in the computers that run much of the military's high-tech weaponry.

Government agencies large and small are struggling to avert the Y2K computer bug, but nowhere are the stakes higher and the problem more technologically daunting than at the Department of Defense.

With personnel, equipment and facilities spread at 660 locations around the globe, the Defense Department uses 1.5 million computers and 28,000 computer systems -- some of which date from the computer equivalent of the Pleistocene era and are highly bug-vulnerable.

Everything from nuclear weapons to the reservation system for tee-times at base golf courses is dependent on computers.

One reason the United States has become the world's most powerful military force has been its ability to harness computers to collect and disseminate mountains of information and to ensure that firepower can be directed swiftly and accurately.

But critics both inside and outside the Pentagon worry that the DOD's success with computers is also a potential Achilles' heel, and that the Y2K bug could become the chance of a lifetime for an adversary to land a sucker punch on U.S. forces or allies and thus win a victory of enormous propaganda value.

Under this nightmare scenario, the Y2K bug lashes out on New Year's Eve and "blinds" a portion of the military's computers, and suddenly, U.S. warplanes, Tomahawk missiles, early-warning devices, surveillance systems, and information-needy combat troops become useless.

To ensure this does not happen, the Department of Defense is hip-deep in an unprecedented $3 billion computer repair and replacement program.

After a sluggish beginning, the military's assault on the enemy lurking inside its computers has begun to gain ground -- but not enough to satisfy critics in Congress and a private-industry watchdog group.

To get his bureaucratic troops moving, an exasperated Defense Secretary William Cohen last year issued an unusually blunt order declaring Y2K a threat to national security.

"This isn't just a computer-geek issue, this is a war-fighting issue, and I'm holding you responsible for it," Cohen told his top deputies.

With Cohen's boot-to-the-backside for motivation, military forces are spending much of this year in mock-warfare Y2K exercises, including the first at-sea Y2K test for a naval battle group, staged off Southern California.

"Saddam Hussein and the others have to realize that there is no good time to attack, no window, no opportunity, no hole in which the Navy is not prepared to respond, and Y2K doesn't change that," said Capt. Timothy Traverso, the top Y2K bug-chaser for the Navy's Pacific Fleet.

Traverso's upbeat assessment came at the end of the Y2K drill for the aircraft carrier Constellation and 13 ships that constitute its battle group, a force that may be patrolling the Persian Gulf next December and enforcing the "no-fly" zone in Iraq.

During a 14-day Y2K readiness test, the ships' computerized clocks were repeatedly rolled ahead to the Dec. 31 witching hour -- in what is called a "midnight crossing." The goal was to test the numerous patch jobs Traverso has ordered in the 160-plus Y2K vulnerable systems in the battle group.

Navy brass wanted to assess the battle group's ability "in a Y2K environment" to detect hostile ships and aircraft; launch and retrieve F-14 Tomcats, F-18 Hornets and other warplanes; and fire a full range of computer-controlled weapons, including Tomahawks.

To create a "stressed environment," a general alarm was sounded during one phase of the test, sending 5,000-plus sailors aboard the Constellation scurrying to battle stations. Traverso judged the exercise a success, although some systems remain to be tested before the battle group deploys in June.

"It was like herding a soccer field full of cats at the beginning, trying to figure out all the systems," said Mark Boose, the civilian expert hired to direct and assess the effort. "I think we've got 'em corralled now though."

Congressional critics, such as Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif., want to believe Pentagon officials when they say that "mission-critical" systems will be repaired with time to spare. But Horn and others say more tests and more proof will be needed before they are satisfied.

As late as November, Horn, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, graded the military's Y2K performance as worthy of only a D-minus. In February he upgraded that to a C-minus.

On Wednesday, Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, announced that DOD was one of several federal agencies that failed to meet the March 31 deadline set by President Clinton to have all mission-critical systems fixed. Among the 156 DOD systems still in need of Y2K proofing, Bennett said, is the mission-planning system for the F-117A Stealth fighter.

U.S. armed forces have already learned a tragic lesson about what can happen when highly computerized weaponry malfunctions or personnel fail to move fast enough to correct computer glitches.

An after-action analysis blamed a computer glitch for the failure during the Persian Gulf War to shoot down the Iraqi Scud missile that slammed into the Army barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Because two computer clocks were not synchronized, the radar system computer did not communicate with the fire-control computer.

The Scud attack killed 28 American soldiers, the largest single American loss in the war. Software to correct the clock problem was available but not installed.

U.S. officials are worried that a Y2K foul-up could lead to a nuclear war if the Russians computerized early-warning systems fail, and out of panic, the Russians are tempted to launch a missile strike.

In both the U.S. and Russian missile forces, the decision to launch a missile is made by human beings, not by computers, and thus the chances for an accidental, preprogrammed launch is considered virtually nonexistent. There is a greater chance, however, that the Russians could launch because of bogus information from their computers.

To keep the Russians from making such a horrific miscalculation, the United States has offered to build a facility at a missile command center at Colorado Springs so that Russian personnel on site could receive immediate notification of missile launches and relay that information to Moscow. The proposal came in the wake of a meeting in September between Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

After NATO airstrikes began against Serbian targets, the Russian news agency quoted military officials in Moscow as vowing not to cooperate with the U.S. missile-warning plan -although U.S. officials hope they will reconsider once hostilities end.

The U.S. military was pioneering the use of computers when civilians were still stuck with paper and pencil. But many of the systems are vulnerable to glitches and incompatibilities, plus DOD computers must interface with numerous private computer systems, including those of 800 banks for the military's payroll and purchases.

The services, including some combat units, were admittedly slow to assess the magnitude of the Y2K problem, in which time-sensitive computers can misread 2000 as 1900 and either shut down or spit out inaccurate information.

Top priority has been to ensure that computers involved with nuclear weapons have been rid of Y2K problems. DOD officials have assured Congress that the task has been completed -- both for land-based missiles and the Trident submarines.

But only a third of the military's computer systems are covered by the high-priority designation of mission-critical. A report by the Office of Management and Budget said that only half of the thousands of nonmission-critical systems have gotten the repairs needed to make them Y2K-compliant.

Copyright 1999, The Detroit News
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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999

Answers

What an amazing, cram-filled mind-blowing article! Many of the things the Forum has speculated about and discussed are revealed here! Whoa!

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

Top priority has been to ensure that computers involved with nuclear weapons have been rid of Y2K problems. DOD officials have assured Congress that the task has been completed -- both for land-based missiles and the Trident submarines.

Uh, I think they're still working on the Tridents.

From Commerce Business Daily, March 30, 1999 PSA-2313

TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND SYSTEM PRODUCTS FOR YEAR 2000 (Y2K) COMPLIANCE OF LAUNCHER SUBSYSTEM EQUIPMENT

Category : (Maintenance, Repair and Rebuilding of Equipment) Address : Director of Strategic Systems Programs, 1931 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202-3518 Sol. no. : Contact : Thomas L. Heilig, SPN-62 (703) 607-5362; Contracting Officer, Gerard F. Miskelly, SPN-60 (703) 607-5361

POC Thomas L. Heilig, SPN-62 (703) 607-5362; Contracting Officer, Gerard F. Miskelly, SPN-60 (703) 607-5361 Provide technical support and system products for Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance of launcher subsystem equipment. SSP intends to negotiate this requirement with Northrop Grumman Marine Systems, Sunnyvale, CA, the only known source having: (1) fundamental knowledge of the TRIDENT launcher system and its hardware production, (2) extensive knowledge of the SSP alteration policies, (3) detailed knowledge of fleet schedules to allow conversion of equipment to proceed without adverse impact to fleet usage of such equipment, (4) ability to provide engineering expertise in the conduct of Launcher Nuclear Safety and security studies, and (5) program management with sufficient knowledge and experience to coordinate the many facets of the TRIDENT launcher subsystem. Security Clearance required. See Note 22. ***** Posted 03/26/99 (W-SN313026). (0085)

-- B (beendere@donedat.com), April 05, 1999.

"... Government agencies large and small are struggling to avert the Y2K computer bug, but nowhere are the stakes higher and the problem more technologically daunting than at the Department of Defense."

Do you all agree with that? The stakes are pretty high for the electrical grid to stay up. Weigh the consequences ...
WHAT DO YOU THINK DESERVES THE HIGHEST PRIORITY, THE HIGHEST STAKES OF WORKING ??

"... With personnel, equipment and facilities spread at 660 locations around the globe, the Defense Department uses 1.5 million computers and 28,000 computer systems -- some of which date from the computer equivalent of the Pleistocene era and are highly bug-vulnerable. ... "

There's some numbers, stated here concretely.

" ... Everything from nuclear weapons to the reservation system for tee-times at base golf courses is dependent on computers. ... "

" ... Defense Secretary William Cohen last year issued an unusually blunt order declaring Y2K a threat to national security."

Oh my, almost every sentence of this article is grist for discussion.

Reactions, folks !?!

If this had come out last December, it would have gotten over 100 replies and been analyzed to smithereens. Gotta read it again ... and again ...

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

Good grief, B, you posted military phone ##s! Can't one get in trouble for that? I meant ##s of computers v.s. ##s of "systems" -- a subject debated on this Forum for months. Oh dear ... this is an alarming thread.

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

" ... One reason the United States has become the world's most powerful military force has been its ability to harness computers to collect and disseminate mountains of information and to ensure that firepower can be directed swiftly and accurately. ... " This article is compelling because, unlike so many others, it seems to point out just how indispensable computers have become. Here it is saying outright ... One reason... become...most powerful...ability to harness computers..."

"... But critics both inside and outside the Pentagon worry that the DOD's success with computers is also a potential Achilles' heel, and that the Y2K bug could become the chance of a lifetime for an adversary to land a sucker punch on U.S. forces or allies and thus win a victory of enormous propaganda value. ..."

There's the fear of terrorism again, laid out more explicitely. Of course after the latest bombings more angry ppl will be noticing this :(

" ... Under this nightmare scenario, the Y2K bug lashes out on New Year's Eve and "blinds" a portion of the military's computers, and suddenly, U.S. warplanes, Tomahawk missiles, early-warning devices, surveillance systems, and information-needy combat troops become useless. ..."

Surprised this was allowed to be printed! Loose lips --> we've talked about it on the Forum but the general public probably has never considered all this, especially since the news has been, "We're fine, we're OK, we're 99% done, no problem, ignore the whackos..."

" ... To ensure this does not happen, the Department of Defense is hip-deep in an unprecedented $3 billion computer repair and replacement program. ..."

More #s, $3 Billion.

Woke up thinking about this article. Will just keep on solo-exclaiming my astonishment -- been reading about Y2K for almost a year now and this article is unique!

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

Leska,

This article confirms what many on this forum have speculated about for months. Thanks for the post.

-- Nabi Davidson (nabi7@yahoo.com), April 05, 1999.

Leska & B - both good catches!

B -yep, those are trident submarines they're talking about. hmm...wonder what happened to their last project manager?

Leska - your question is valid -vis a vis priorities: fixing the electricity or the defense dept first - but will only be answered by default, since none of the current crop of bureaucrats have the guts to take the responsibility for prioritizing the problems.

still more fun in the year -1

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 05, 1999.

Thanks Nabi + Arlin! The article is so meaty! I should have given this thread a much more exciting title ;-)

Posted it to csy2k as "Cram-Filled INCREDIBLE Military Y2K Article" but nobody there has responded either.

Gonna just read it again and keep babbling my amazement on this thread ...

Personally I've believed for a long time that all our troops and equipment from all over the world should be brought back to the US by October 1, 1999. Wish it had been sooner -- might have kept us out of mischief and horrible mistakes.

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

The Detroit News article is an abridged version of a Friday piece in the Los Angeles Times. In case anyone wants the original link, here 'tis: U.S. Military Wages War on New Enemy: Y2K

In the LA Times version, they quote Mr. Hamre talking about software and woodpeckers:

"If we built houses the way we built software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization," Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Hey, Ed, they're listening now! 8-}]

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), April 05, 1999.

Arlin said,

"Leska - your question is valid -vis a vis priorities: fixing the electricity or the defense dept first - but will only be answered by default, since none of the current crop of bureaucrats have the guts to take the responsibility for prioritizing the problems."

ROFL. Is this a great country or what? I will repeat: the one subject that deserves MORE secrecy, not less, is readiness of Defense Department. I would rather our true adversaries had to guess at our military readiness .....

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), April 05, 1999.

BigDog, I was wondering how this article passed the happy-face gatekeepers and editorial constraints; after all, we're at war and this info, unlike the electrical grid (because it directly drastically affects every resident), actually might merit a pause before printing. Can only think the DoD is further along than any suspect and may be sending trial bombballoon feelers out to see who might be tempted to "take advantage" of any perceived weakness.

If that is not the case, the world has really turned topsy turvy.
"No, we won't give you any daily-life pertinent info on Y2K; only [should be during war] highly classified military information." ?????

A lot to think through in that article. Mac, thanks for the link.

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

Well said BigDog. Our adversaries already know too much. The only way Russia was able to build a nuke was to get the info from us.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), April 05, 1999.

Maria --- .... or China, eh? But why go there and end a rare, amicable moment among us Your-done-for-ites!

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), April 05, 1999.

Some posts here seem to assume that all critical DOD operations are independent of the electrical grid. I wonder if that's the case.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), April 05, 1999.

Tom, the military too is dependent on the electrical grid. But the welfare of the United States is more dependent on the well-being of its millions of cityzzzzzns than on the military.
*That's* what surprised me about the phrase "nowhere are the stakes higher" -- I think maybe the electrical grid is most important.

What do you all think?

If the military gets itself Y2K AOK and is able to continue bombing away $$$$$$$ non-stop and killing killing killing and the electrical grid in the USA goes down and 100000000s die of thirst, starvation, fires, hazmat accidents, explosions, other country's nuclear "mistakes," cold, exposure, radiation, environmental poisoning, violence, looting, riots, mobs, rapes, muggings, beatings, dislocations, disease, epidemics, plagues, mayhem --- is the US still just fine because the bombs are still flying overseas?

Is there an official definition of what is most important to a country?

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

"660 locations around the world" Wonder if they counted in that handful of secret bases like area 51, which technically do not exist. Wonder if the actual number might not be 666?

-- speculator (just@wondering.if), April 05, 1999.

*Many* more than 6 "uncounted"

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 05, 1999.

Do you think area 51 is one of the mission critical systems? What would happen if it weren't remediated? Uh oh.

BigDog, the list grows... China, Vietnam... One of the main reasons (besides the physical terrain) we had such a tough time over there was their ability to find out our plans before our troops did. Their intelligence uncovered so much of our tactics, we didn't have a chance. I learned this from the Air Force during OTS.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), April 05, 1999.

Another article, not nearly as chock-full as the first one on this thread, but interesting none-the-less:

[ For Educational Purposes Only ]
http://www.msnbc.com/news/256510.asp

Weapons Lab Computers Shut Down

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 6  Security concerns and fear of espionage have forced the Energy Department to suspend use of classified computers at three of the nations top nuclear weapons labs.

THE SHUTDOWN affects the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, DOE spokesman Chris Kielich said in Washington, D.C.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson ordered the shutdown as part of an overall initiative to improve cybersecurity, Kielich said Monday.

Security checks have escalated at Los Alamos since reports surfaced last year that a lab employee might have committed espionage in the 1980s.

Wen Ho Lee, who was fired from the lab March 8, became the target of an FBI investigation in 1996. Lee, a Tawainese-born American citizen, has not been charged with any crime.

He reportedly was put in charge of updating computer software for nuclear weapons in the spring of 1997, less than a year after the FBI began investigating whether China obtained U.S. secrets during the 1980s that gave it the technology to create miniaturized warheads.
China has denied that it engaged in nuclear espionage.

Last week, the Energy Department said that three of the governments 12 nuclear weapons facilities, including the weapons lab at Los Alamos, received a less than satisfactory security rating for last year.

Los Alamos lab spokesman Jim Danneskiold said the security shutdown could affect 2,000 employees. Lab director John Browne said he will review worker self-assessments and decide if the computers can come back on.
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Cyber security, Cyberterrorism, Y2K, upgrades, glitches -- looks like the computer world in .gov + .mil is getting more complicated, more frought with dangers and concerns.

Only recently have the honchos realized that cyber infrastructure is crucial to America's viability and well-being. That any attack on it is tantamount to "an act of war" ...

Hope they are really focused on Y2K, taking it seriously, working away feverishly, brainstorming out of the box and drilling contingencies for every possible imaginable disruption.

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 06, 1999.

Answered by Carol Moore in D.C. on csy2k this morning:

<<< Thanks for posting that...read just before was going to post the following, but still want to know...
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Anyone know web sites with info about expected impact of Y2K on U.S. non-nuclear forces: ships/aircraft, conventional weapons, supply lines, military base operations here and abroad?? Also on contingency plans.

FYI Good Y2K and nukes sites are:

The Bug in the Bomb http://www.basicint.org/y2krept.htm
Nuclear Information and Resource Service http://www.nirs.org/
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation http://www.napf.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/about/index.html
Physicians for Social Responsibility http://www.psr.org/
Nuclear Control Institute http://www.nci.org/home.htm
http://www.year2000.com/y2karticles >>>
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Thanks Carol! If you search the Yourdon Forum archives under "Military" and "Government" you may find tidbits of what you are looking for. Good luck. There are informed people reading this Forum who may know some answers, but they have been quiet lately. Maybe they will be inspired to clue us all in?

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 06, 1999.