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On this day, June 6, 1980, the Strategic Air Command was again alerted that the Soviet Union was attacking the US. [View all]
Apparently it was the same component that had failed three days earlier. The folks at IT tried to replicate the conditions that had brought about the earlier false alarm, and they succeeded.
Nuclear weapons, AI, and the June 1980 US false alarms
{snip}
6 June 1980
In response to the 3 June incident, NORAD took some measures, such as communicating with all users, analyzing the data, and installing some "software trap" (whatever that means). At the same time, it also placed computers back to the 3 June configuration [NRD] and tried to "duplicate the error ... hoping to reproduce the erroneous data" [HGR]. Whether as a result of these efforts or by happenstance, the error did appear again.
The 6 June timeline is more confusing. HGR says that the first erroneous reading was displayed at 3:38pm, probably Eastern Daylight Time. The NRD account places the first display at 19:49. Not only the time zone is different, but the minutes are different as well. Since the absolute time doesn't matter that much, the description below will follow the NRD times.
{snip}
{snip}
6 June 1980
In response to the 3 June incident, NORAD took some measures, such as communicating with all users, analyzing the data, and installing some "software trap" (whatever that means). At the same time, it also placed computers back to the 3 June configuration [NRD] and tried to "duplicate the error ... hoping to reproduce the erroneous data" [HGR]. Whether as a result of these efforts or by happenstance, the error did appear again.
The 6 June timeline is more confusing. HGR says that the first erroneous reading was displayed at 3:38pm, probably Eastern Daylight Time. The NRD account places the first display at 19:49. Not only the time zone is different, but the minutes are different as well. Since the absolute time doesn't matter that much, the description below will follow the NRD times.
{snip}
Ironically, three years to the day before “WarGames” opened nationwide, this unsettling nuclear false alarm happened at NORAD:
In his 2016 book “Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War,” @fmkaplan revisited this episode, adding that when Reagan finished, he asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Vessey, “Could something like this really happen?”
Surprisingly, “WarGames” was not inspired by the major nuclear false alarms at NORAD on Nov. 9, 1979, and at NORAD and SAC on Jun. 3 and 6, 1980. It originally concerned a dying Hawking-like scientist and his relationship with a smart, rebellious teenager.
Link to tweet
Today in 1980, at 2:26am EDT, warning displays at the Strategic Air Command suddenly indicated that a Soviet SLBM attack on the United States was underway, first showing 2 and then, 18 seconds later, 200 inbound missiles. SAC ordered all alert air crews to start their engines.
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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1665024416865034241.html
Launch officers for 1,000 Minuteman ICBMs were also alerted to be ready to receive an Emergency Action Message (a coded launch order). Three minutes later, duty officers at NORAD determined this was a false alarm because early-warning satellites and radars indicated no attack.
Before that happened, however, Gen. William Odom, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski’s military asst., called him at home, telling him 220 Soviet SLBMs were hurtling toward the United States. Brzezinski told Odom to call back with a confirmation and the likely targets.
This is according to former CIA Director Robert M. Gates’ 1996 memoir, “From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War,” the only place where this anecdote—as recounted by Brzezinski to Gates—appears.
{snip}
NMCC {the National Military Command Center} terminated the conference at 2:57am. The entire incident lasted 31 minutes. A subsequent investigation traced the cause to a defective 46¢ integrated circuit in a NORAD communications multiplexer, which sent test messages on dedicated lines from NORAD to other command posts.
Tue Jun 4, 2024: On June 3, 1980, the Strategic Air Command was alerted that the Soviet Union was attacking the US.
Mon Jun 5, 2023: On June 3, 1980, the Strategic Air Command was alerted that the Soviet Union was attacking the US.
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