Like Einstein said, 'I don't know what WW 3 will be fought with, but WW 4 will be with sticks and stones'.
- NOVEMEBER 24, 1961: In the 50's the US built series of early warning radar systems which were designed to detect Russian nuclear strikes. These radar systems were directly linked to SAC and NORAD from where the US could coordinate a full scale nuclear assault.
SO, what happened? Nov 24, 1961, all comms between the radar sites and SAC 'went dark’, signaling an attack. Also to worsen the situation, phone lines connecting SAC to NORAD were dead. Then three radar sites disappeared from the map. Immediately B-52 bombers were scrambled. Radio contact was eventually, made with a B-52 fleet on airborne alert over Alaska, who confirmed it was a false alarm.
SO, what caused it? It turned out that all radar sites and phone lines were routed from a single relay station in Colorado, which had overheated and shutdown.
SEVERITY LEVEL: 2 - OCTOBER, 1962: The Cuban missile crisis was at its height also it was the COLD WAR era. A guard at Duluth Sector Direction center spotted a shadowy figure climbing the security fence which prompted the guard to activate the ‘sabotage alarm’.
SO, what happened? The ‘sabotage alarm’ set off additional alarms at all surrounding air force bases. Well at one base, Volk Field, in Wisconsin, the wrong alarm went off signaling start of WW 3. Given that the Cold War paranoia was at an all-time high, USA was at ‘DEFCON 3’ for the first time in its history and bomber crews were at full readiness. A squadron of nuclear armed F-106 interceptors were dispatched. Only by the timely intervention of a car racing down the runway, flashing its light was the planes prevented from taking off.
SO, what caused it? It turned out that the wiring at Volk Field was not done properly. The ‘sabotage’ siren had been mixed up with the ‘WW 3’ siren that signals start of ‘WW 3’. Funny thing, the shadowy figure turned out to be a curious bear.
SEVERITY LEVEL: 3 - NOVEMEBER, 1979: America and Russia are fighting proxy wars in Afghanistan, South America and Southern Africa, tensions are high.
SO, what happened? Pentagon, NORAD and SAC watched with horror as patterns of a Soviet nuclear attack appeared on their screens. US minutemen ballistic missiles received a preliminary launch warning from their launch control centers and started working through the launch sequence. The entire US top military officials were convinced they were under full scale Soviet nuclear attack. The entire continental air defense forces were put on alert and a number of planes launched. The President’s ‘doomsday plane’, the National Emergency Airborne Command Post, also launched.
SO, what caused it? A technician had carelessly loaded an attack simulation tape into the system by mistake.
SEVERITY LEVEL: 4
- JUNE 1980: Just about 7 months after the Nov. 9, 1979 incident, US experienced another false alarm.
SO, what happened? Normally, America’s missile alert system at NORAD would display” ‘0000’ ICBM detected, ‘0000’ SLBMs detected!” Well on June 3, 1980, the display showed that two missiles had been launched. The President was informed and an immediate meeting of US top military advisers was scheduled. Nuclear bomber crews were almost dispatched and the Pacific Command’s Airborne Command Post almost launched. Luckily it was quickly apparent that the threat was a false alarm.
SO, what happened? A less than 50¢ worth computer chip had failed, causing the error.
SEVERITY: 2
- SEPTEMBER 1983: The Russians had recently developed a highly accurate missile launch detection system based on satellite monitoring.
SO, what happened? 26 Sept., 1983, Russian missile detection system reported multiple ICBMs had been launched from the US. The detection system relied on a series of Russian satellite monitoring the horizon for silhouettes of American ICBMs. Thankfully, due to the decision of one man, Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov who took the warnings to be false alarm saying, “when people start a war they don’t start with just five missiles”. Soviet military chairman Yuri Andropov, his boss was well known for his mistrust of the US and it’s highly likely that if Petrov had decided to make the warnings valid, the Soviets would have been provoked into attacking.
SO, what caused it? The false alarm was due to naturally occurring phenomenon around the autumn equinox. Russian satellite, the sun and the US missile fields aligned at exactly the wrong time. Here is Petrov’s explanation in greater details. “The satellite can give false reports if it’s at a certain location relative to the earth wider specific atmospheric conditions. It can mean that the American territory functions as a mirror, reflecting the sun’s beams. This is extremely difficult to calculate since the sun is at least 36,000 distant from the observation post, and it’s moving, and so is the earth, which is not round but slightly pear-shaped. This also has to be taken into consideration.
- JANUARY 1995: On Jan 25, 1995, scientists in Norway launched a BRANT XII rocket from the Andoya Rocket Range to study the aurora borealis over the Svalbard region.
SO, what happened? The rocket trajectory showed that it was going to land close to Russian territory, also the rocket used the initial stage of a refined US tactical missile. The estimated flight time to Moscow was under ten minutes, leaving the Russians early warning center little time to decide whether WW 2 was imminent. The next day, Boris Yeltsin, Russian president stated that he had activated his nuclear football. The early warning control and command center switched to combat mode. For about ten minutes, Russian was armed and ready to end the world in a fiery flame ball of death.
SO, what caused it? Norway had informed thirty-five countries of its intended experiment including the Russians. Although Russian Gen. Staff Chief Mikhail Kolenikov told the press that “no precise time for the launch was given”, the letter itself demonstrates that the information provided along with coordinates for the launch site and the rocket’s predicted landing zone. A more likely explanation being that the communique was lost and thus not relayed to radar operators at the Olenegorsk early warning station.
SEVERITY: 1