The Military vs. The Millennium
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Tactical actions officers and other officers in the
Constellation's Combat Direction Center keep track
of all the fighter planes in the vicinity of the aircraft
carrier, on which extensive testing recently took place
to make sure its weapons systems would be Y2K compliant.
Pacific Fleet
winning battle
against time
A carrier and other ships
By Gregg K. Kakesako
perform key systems tests at
sea in advance of Y2K
Star-Bulletin
ABOARD THE USS CONSTELLATION -- The Navy is confident its warplanes will fly, its missiles will fire and that its radar will be able to detect the enemy after New Year's Day 2000.
In at-sea tests off the San Diego coast using the aircraft carrier Constellation and 15 other Navy, Coast Guard and Canadian ships, the Pacific Fleet tested more than 100 systems and reported only minor glitches.
Cmdr. Ann Westerfield, Constellation's combat systems officer, said these tests involved critical communications, engineering and weapons systems.
During the Navy's first at-sea evaluations of potential Y2K impact, the carrier's clocks were reset to New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 1999.
As the date rolled over into the new year, "it was uneventful," said Westerfield.
"Everything worked that was supposed to work; everything happened as it was supposed to happen. The bottom line was that the tests were very successful," said Westerfield.
While Westerfield watched from the Constellation's combat information center on the 03 level directly under the flight deck, the nation's second-oldest warship underwent flight operations.
Four huge steam-powered catapults continued to launch F-18 Hornet and F-14 Tomcat jet fighters, two at a time. Other weapon systems also were unaffected by the date change.
The Constellation, one of 192 vessels in the Pacific Fleet, was chosen because of the remote possibility it will be at sea when the new year rolls over. The Constellation battle group, which stopped briefly here last month on its way to Korea, is supposed to return to San Diego by mid-December.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Four huge, steam-powered catapults are used to launch jet
fighters from the deck of the carrier Constellation. During
recent training exercises, all weapons systems aboard the
carrier were found to be Y2K compliant.
The trials followed several other tests dockside at San Diego and Pearl Harbor on the guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin and the destroyer USS Kinkaid, a frigate and two submarines. Less than 5 percent of Chosin's system is date sensitive and vulnerable to failing when 1999 becomes 2000, said Capt. Tim Traverso, Pacific Fleet Y2K team leader and director for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence.Similar Y2K tests were conducted aboard the assault ship USS Bataan off the North Carolina coast on June 28. Another Y2K test is planned for August on the nuclear carrier USS Stennis off the East Coast.
Capt. David Taylor, skipper of the assault ship USS Bataan, said there was little excitement as the clocks were turned ahead.
"It was like watching grass grow," Taylor said.
Like the Navy, other military commands in Hawaii report that they are more than 95 percent toward reaching Y2K compliance by the end of September and the start of the federal fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
In May, the Navy's Y2K readiness tests included its "weapon of choice" -- the long-range Tomahawk cruise missile used extensively in the war against Iraq and most recently in the Balkans.
A submerged Los Angeles-class submarine successfully launched a Tomahawk at a target site on the China Lake naval land range in Southern California.
The Hawaii Air National Guard, which maintains a squadron of 15 F-15 combat jets, reports that "the vast majority" of its mission-critical systems are Y2K compliant.
Capt. Charles Anthony, National Guard spokesman, said one F-15's mission-planning computer software is being worked on by the Air Force and should be fixed before the end of the year.
All of the Hawaii Air National Guard's vital voice and data links "were ready to go in March," Anthony said.
At Hickam Air Force Base, Maj. Mark Lorenz, deputy commander of the 15th Communications Squadron, said all of its vital satellite communications have been checked and are nearly Y2K compliant.
The military has been spending millions of dollars to check, replace and repair computers, weapons and electronic equipment.
The Y2K problem refers to a past computer industry practice of writing years with just two digits; thus 1999 would be "99."
Because of this digital shorthand, on Jan. 1, 2000, some computer systems and equipment that use microchips might read "00" as "1900."
One of the problems facing island military bases, like Hickam, is that they are dependent on civilian and other military communities for water, sewage and electrical needs.
With a population of 8,000 residents and an additional 5,000 civilian workers, Hickam can be considered a tiny community, which has problems that would match those of Honolulu should the millennium bug become a problem.
But Lorenz, chairman of Hickam's Y2K compliance efforts, said the Air Force recently ran tests to determine if it had enough generators and if they were strategically located to provide adequate power if Hawaiian Electric failed on Dec. 31.
"Regardless if Hawaiian Electric doesn't work then," Lorenz said, "we should have enough backup generators."
But guns, jets, missiles, tanks, submarines and aircraft carriers aren't the only concerns of the military, which has nearly 120,000 personnel and dependents stationed here.
At a recent Y2K video town meeting at Pearl Harbor, which involved sailors and top Navy personnel from around the world tied into one satellite phone call, questions were raised about pay, financial institutions, logistics and integrated systems.
All of the military's payroll here and worldwide is handled by one federal agency -- the Defense Finance and Accounting System. Its head, Gary Amlin, said all payroll computer software was Y2K compliant in March.
He doesn't expect any problems for the nation's 5 million military personnel, civilian workers and retirees come Jan. 1.
But he did recommend that any changes in allotments, addresses, or setting up of new accounts should be done early and not put off until December.
The agency computes the pay of military, civilians and retirees and sends that information to the Federal Reserve Bank, which distributes payments electronically to thousands of financial institutions.
Contingency plans are in place if there are problems, Amlin said.
Military commissaries or grocery stores also are telling its patrons not to hoard.
"We'll be selling groceries, no matter what the year 2000 brings," said Herb Greene, spokesman for the military's 294 commissaries.
"Hawaii will be one of the last places on the planet to see the rollover," says Lorenz. "We'll get to watch Guam go first and then Japan and Europe. "It's a huge advantage to see what, if any, systems will fail.
"Hawaii needs to realize that they get to see the rest of the globe turn over first and whether this is a major problem."
Lorenz also noted that under Greenwich Mean Time or "Zulu" time, which the military sets its clocks by, the new year will begin at 2 p.m. Dec. 31.
"Regardless, we have a contingency plan to back up all our systems (at Hickam) if they fail, whether it'll be Y2K-related or other reasons," he said.
Also working on contingency plans is the Hawaii National Guard."The Guard will have everything it needs to carry out its state mission if the need arises. Everything we need is ready to go," Anthony said.
The National Guard has been tasked as the state agency to provide emergency services, such as medical, power, water and traffic direction if a Y2K problem occurs.
Jennifer Buck, Department of Defense reserve affairs expert on Y2K, said the National Guard has extensive experience with mobilizing during periods when communications are difficult, such as hurricanes.
"We're confident that in the event of problems due to Y2K, the Guard and the Reserve still could be mobilized."
None of the military services in Hawaii reports any problems getting equipment that may depend on date-sensitive computer chips to computer software ready for the year 2000. Weapons check
Most weapons, like rifles, missiles and artillery, aren't date sensitive. Bombs dropped by Air Force and Navy jets generally don't need to know what year it is to explode.
Army: The island's major war-fighters -- the 25th Infantry Division and its reserve elements composed of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade and the Army Reserve's 100th Battalion/442nd -- say Y2K "will have no effect on its ability to deploy and conduct operations in any contingency."
Gregg K. Kakesako
Other dates to worry about in regard to Y2K: Other key dates
