ES SENSITI 8013421 ' THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ' 5111 WASHINGTON D C 20101 JuneD 1980 nST m ME IORANDUM FROM HAROLD SUBJEC T M MS mR s 5 I FOR THE PRESIDENT BROW v A' False Missile- Alerts ' - I think that 'the following background Informati ls J ielpful in providing a context for an weri ng que tions about the recent false -missile alerts U ' b 1 Mor eover there are abo1 1t' 50-60 Soviet test launches - Because of the nature of these e vents ' for example the -tracks artf generally in a direc_tion that makes them non- threatening they a e q'llickly dismissed during a conference every year of d uty -officers at NORAD SAC Am-fCC and NMCC -A few of the m however 'm ay persist long enough or 'be of such a nature that ' SAC takes precautionary actions for survival such a s alerting ' crews 'or s t arting engines f8f ' In the1950s and 1960s we had nuclear-armed SAC pompers o on airborne alert Our strategic warning system is good enough ' ' tQd'ay to allow us time to flush our bombers for survivabili ty o ' so we now eep them on ' ground alert A necessa ry conseque'nce of this mode of operation however is that he alert status of the bomber force ust be elevated on any missile warning indication however unlikely the false alert scenario which geneTClte'd the warning may turn oilt to be in retrospect U Against this b ckground I recommend that we emphasize the following general points in response to questions about the recent fal 's e alerts - Sec Def ' 12J '1-13'- 012 Soc Dar Cont r_ XQ9014 - - ---- Becahse of short times of missile flight a semi automated' warning system is necessary to integrate and display information from multn e sensors and provide it quickly to the'National Command Authorities for decision The automated parts of our warning system may generate - ambiguous or misleading indications from time to time U 0 Fully recognizing this pOSSibility the Defense Department_ has consequently made human safeguards an integral element 1 i of the overall warning system v We are confident that these safeguards will catch all false-alerts no matter how they 7' - are generated - - 32 9 '6 False alerts may occasionally result in some precautionary measUres for survivability but the steps taken to date are X-far short of the airborne alert of-bdmber aircraft that was continuously in effect 15-20 years ago U 0 There is no chance that any irretrievable actions would be - taken based on ambiguous computer information U ' Jo-The incidents on June 3 and-June 6 were Caused by errOrs generated in a NORAD communications'device minicomputer 'which resulted in false indications of a missile attack - The minicomputer is used to transmit data from NORAD's 2-main computer to other command centers- NORAD's main - computer receives warning data from sensOrs such as satellites and radar -which actually monitor missile- -launches and flights 'The sensors themselves never registered a missile attack nor did'the main computer indicate an attack 'Consequently the false indication was recognized by the appropriate people in the'militaryj _command centers within 2-3 minutes U a 9 Our response during both incidents was in accordance With planned procedures 'What occurred were the initial prey cautionary measures to prevent our bombers and-command aircraft from being trapped on the ground 72 measureS' which do not represent even the beginning Of a retaliatory atta6k Within the first two-minutes SAC alerted-its aircraft crews as a precautionary measure and instructed them to start their engines This procedure is frequently practiced as part of our training 'Nothing irreversible was done in our response to the false-warning U 0 Although we believe the_immediate cause of these incidents has been isolated to a particular device the Department of Defense has assembled a task force of highly respected computer systems and communications experts to conduct a thorough examination of our NORAD attack-warning system U cc Secretary of State STANDING ALONE THIS PAGE This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu