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Cheyenne Mountain Blackout
1/6/00
Mike Hudack
Editor-in-Chief
CNN, ABC, CBS, they were all there at NORAD command deep inside Cheyenne Mountain. United States and Russian Air Force had come together to track nuclear weapons during the turnover to the year 2000.
The risk of accidental nuclear launch had been played down significantly, but the two huge powers were there anyway, just in case. Fortunately human intervention would probably be required for a nuclear launch from either side.
Dr. Strangelove, Are You There?
Concerns were raised months ago about a Soviet "doomsday" device called Perimeter, and it´s y2k-readiness, but apparently this was not a worry. Perimeter was designed in case there were an "interruption of command links to key Soviet leadership [during an attack]," according to Jane´s Intelligence Review. In such a situation nuclear weapons would be automatically launched by the Perimeter system.
Unfortunately there was a problem -- a problem neither the media nor many Executive-branch politicians know about. For three hours Cheyenne Mountain monitoring was at least partially blind.
According to reports issued to both Wired News and ABC, several United States intelligence satellites experienced "temporary blackout" during the y2k changeover. According to sources contacted by OSAll, this meant that part of the former Soviet Union was not being monitored for nuclear launch.
Redundancy and Phones
"The implications are huge," said a former NORAD Air Force officer, who wished to remain anonymous. "There are redundant satellites, but some areas were hit hard by this intelligence blackout [including] one totally blind spot."
OSAll has learned that for at least half an hour NORAD was operating blind, until a satellite could be retasked to cover the blind spot. "We were [scared] shitless," said one enlisted man on duty in the NORAD command center. "They were about to call Moscow, asking for information [on launches]," he explained.
In fact, at the beginning of the twenty-four hour vigil, even the telephone link between Cheyenne Mountain and Moscow wasn´t available. "It wasn´t y2k-related, but it was a problem," said the enlisted man.
Other Satellite Outages
According to both Wired News and ABC News, other US intelligence agencies may have experienced outages, although details were unattainable at the writing of this story.
Both the Department of Defense and Russian military have refused comment. |
