Blind Eyes In The Sky
The Defense Department admitted on Tuesday that it suffered a notable Y2K computer breakdown: the loss for several hours on New Year's Eve of a ground station that processes information from spy satellites. On New Year's Eve, Pentagon officials had issued repeated assurances that the Y2K bug did not impact any U.S. defense systems.
Senior officials on Tuesday denied that the failure put the U.S. in danger.
"It was a significant event, but fortunately it had insignificant consequences," John Hamre, the deputy secretary of defense, told a news conference. He declared the Pentagon's Y2K preparations a success and defended the $3.6 billion computer fixes as a necessary and prudent investment.
"We had no problems with any of our forces deployed anywhere," Hamre said.
The only significant problem, he said, was the loss for several hours Friday evening of a computer system used to process data from a group of reconnaissance satellites. After a back-up system was put to use shortly before midnight EST, more than half of the incoming satellite data could be processed, he said.
Some data was lost but at no time was U.S. national security in jeopardy, he said.
Citing secrecy rules, Hamre declined to reveal more details. He said the normal system was back on line by Sunday night.
Hamre said this marked the first time the Pentagon has ever publicly acknowledged a breakdown in the spy satellite system it uses to keep watch on the world. Satellite operations are among the closest kept secrets; for many years even the name of the agency that manages them -- the National Reconnaissance Office -- was a secret.
Hamre said the problem was reported this time because it was caused by a Y2K bug and the Clinton Administration had committed itself to being open about problems caused by the year-end rollover.
On Friday evening, after the satellite system broke down, Pentagon officials repeatedly told reporters the military had experienced no Y2K-related computer problems anywhere in the world. Hamre said this was because he and others in the Pentagon did not learn about the satellite problem until later.
In any case, he said, the loss of satellite data processing would not have been reported publicly until a backup system was operating, in order not to reveal the vulnerability to potential adversaries.
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