Pentagon: Y2K bug won't bite defenses

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jan 15, 1999 by ROBERT BURNS

81 percent of 'mission critical' systems compliant.

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WASHINGTON -- All computer systems deemed critical to U.S. national defense, including those that warn of a missile attack, will be safe from glitches many expect when 1999 turns to 2000, Defense Department officials said Thursday. "We will be 100 percent ready by the end of the year," Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said in announcing that as of Dec. 31, 1998 the Pentagon had certified 81 percent of "mission critical" computer systems were ready for the arrival of 2000. President Clinton had asked all government agencies to reach the 100 percent ready mark by March 1999. The Defense Department will be at the 93 percent mark by then, Hamre said. The Defense Department "went into hyperdrive" with its Year 2000 work after realizing last August that it was moving too slowly in preparing the approximately 2,300 crucial computer systems, Hamre said. In all, the Pentagon has about 10,000 computer systems. Hamre said minor glitches are likely to crop up Jan. 1, 2000. "I think it's going to clearly be in a category of nuisance," he said. "I'm very confident we won't have major problems." The Y2K problem begins when computers try to add or subtract dates using only the last two digits of the year -- 00 in the case of 2000 -- which may confuse computers into reading the date as 1900. The bill for fixing the Pentagon's computers and testing them will reach $2.5 billion, Hamre said. Special attention is being given to computer systems that affect the U.S. nuclear arsenal, he said. Hamre said that in December the North American Aerospace Defense Command ran a three-day series of about 30 simulated missile attacks to ensure its Y2K-compliant computer systems would run properly in providing attack warning and assessment. "In every case, the systems worked as designed," he said. Some individual nuclear systems, including Trident submarines carrying nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, already are certified as ready for 2000, he said. By the end of this year, all other U.S. warfighting commands worldwide will run their own tests to evaluate the completeness of Pentagon computer fixes that affect them, Hamre said.