Word: norad
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...early warning system is designed to detect the launching of Russian missiles in a nuclear attack on this country. Signals from satellites and radars are fed into a network of computers focused at the North American Aerospace Defense Command Center (NORAD) in Colorado and three other command centers. The information analysed and displayed by the computers is constantly discussed by members of the four commands in "missile display conferences...
November 9, 1979: Data simulating a massive Soviet attack was accidentally fed into the NORAD computer system. Ten jet interceptors took off and the crews of about 1000 Minutemen silos were alerted...
June 3, 1980: A faulty circuit in a NORAD computer caused false messages to be sent to two command posts. Alert bomber crews were ordered to start engines, and the Pacific Command aircraft took...
June 6, 1980: NORAD intentionally reproduced the situation in an attempt to track the fault. Similar events occurred...
...alerts. Their report emphasized that it took only a few minutes to discover that there was no real attack, and that many steps must be taken before a missile can actually be launched. However, during the June 3 false alert the Pacific Command took off after the Commander of NORAD had confirmed that there was no threat. In the words of the report, "There seemed to be an air of confusion...