Russia Missile Forces Pass Y2K Test

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http://news.excite.com/news/ap/991228/13/int-y2k-russia-missiles

Russia Missile Forces Pass Y2K Test Updated 1:31 PM ET December 28, 1999

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's nuclear arsenal and its defense satellites are fully prepared for a trouble-free transition into the year 2000, the head of the Strategic Missile Forces said Tuesday. Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev said the military command was not worried about the possibility of temporary radar blackouts or an accidental nuclear launch.

"Today one can confidently declare that the software of the force ... is absolutely ready for the year 2000," said Yakovlev, chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, which control the country's nuclear weapons and military satellites.

Both Russian and U.S. officials say that an accidental missile launch is highly unlikely, and they will be consulting each other over the New Year to make sure nothing goes wrong. The bug could cause older computers that read only the last two digits of a date to mistake 2000 for 1900 and produce false information or freeze up.

Strategic Missile Forces spokesman Ilshat Baichurin said the military command had been preparing for the bug for almost two years.

"The chief command of the force already at the beginning of last year developed a clear program of transition to the new millennium ... and has been consistently implementing it," Baichurin said.

Also Tuesday, top officials of the Russian space program said computers at ground control and aboard the troubled Mir space station will not be affected by the millennium change.

The news agency ITAR-Tass quoted the ground control center chief engineer, Mikhail Pronin, as saying that "vulnerable elements of the computer system have been upgraded."

Russia has been slower to address the millennium bug than many other countries because of the government's money crunch. Some Western experts have predicted electricity and telephone services may stop working because of the glitch.

While Russian officials have assured Washington they expect no major problems, John Hamre, the U.S. deputy secretary of defense, said earlier this month that there is no way to be absolutely sure if the Russian military will have significant problems come Jan. 1.

A group of Russian military officers will join American counterparts at a Center for Y2K Strategic Stability in Colorado Springs, Colo., starting Dec. 28 to share missile early-warning radar data.

The purpose is to reassure both Washington and Moscow that neither side misinterprets any missile-related activity or radar failures around the globe during the Y2K rollover.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 28, 1999


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