U.S., Russia to establish ICBM Y2K center

MOSCOW -- Russia and the United States have agreed to establish a center to monitor their intercontinental missile systems for possible breakdown that stems from the millennium computer bug.

The agreement, signed on Monday by U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and his Russian counterpart Igor Sergeyev, calls for U.S. and Russian military personnel to man the center from late December 1999 to mid-January 2000. They will continuously monitor U.S.-provided information on missile and space launches and will be in voice contact with command centers in the United States and Russia via a Y2K-tested communications link.

Officials said the center will also serve to monitor other defense-related events such as an aircraft flying off course because of a Y2K failure of a navigation or communication system. They said that the prospect of a glitch in the nuclear weapons systems of the two countries was extremely remote.

The center will be located in Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo. The cost of center is estimated at $8 million.