DOD to monitor bases worldwide

The United States and Russia have installed seven redundant communications links between national leaders in Washington and Moscow to ensure communications during the Year 2000 rollover, according to a message from the U.S. Defense Attache Office (DAO) in Moscow obtained by FCW.

Redundant links also will run between nuclear command and control centers in the United States and Russia to ensure that commanders can keep in constant touch during the transition.

Senior military and civilian officials in Russia and the United States believe such communications are essential to head off any false information introduced into nuclear command and control systems.

Russian officers will be stationed in the Center for Year 2000 Strategic Stability in Colorado Springs, Colo., the headquarters of the U.S. Space Command. The center will exchange information with Moscow through re-activated analog teletype systems as well as newly acquired satellite circuits through the global constellation operated by Inmarsat, according to the DAO message.

The Defense Information Systems Agency has beefed up its defensive information warfare capabilities to preclude attacks by hackers planning to take advantage of any possible systems holes or failures caused by bad date code over the New Year. Navy Capt. Mark Villerreal, DISA's assistant deputy director for operations, declined to go into details on the agency's hacker defense efforts.

The Navy has taken "increased measures" to guard against information systems attacks over the New Year, according to Cmdr. Pete Hildreth, the Year 2000 co-coordinator at the Navy Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii. PACFLEET has tested its systems to resist hacker attacks during the date change, Hildreth added.

The Army will activate a Year 2000 coordination cell in its Pentagon command center on Dec. 28, and it will remain staffed around the clock at least through Jan. 4. The Marine Corps is activating a UHF satellite communications voice network Dec. 28 as a backup to the command and control network it typically uses to deploy forces during times of crisis.

"In typical military fashion, we are planning for all sorts of contingencies," said Col. Kevin McHale, director of the Marine Corps' Year 2000 Project Office.