DoD Secretary John Hamre refers to the Y2K bug as "the El Nino of cyberspace." During a recent interview, he responded to questions about what is being done to prevent future computer chaos. The military has more than 25,000 computer systems, of which about 3,000 are deemed "mission critical." So far, defense officials have fixed about one third of mission critical systems, and another 800 are in the process of being replaced. "We still have about 1,200 systems that are crucial to our operations that are not yet fixed, and we have only 18 months left." About $1.9 billion is allocated for fixing the military's computers, Hamre said, but one of the hardest problems is finding programmers. He related stories of "American companies hiring programmers from Ireland and flying them back and forth on weekends so they can see their families." He added that the U.S. actually changed immigration laws to allow 90,000 computer experts to immigrate to the United States this year.

Hamre admits he foresees some awkward moments due to what he calls "the embedded chip problem." They could cause problems through the department in the numerous off-the-shelf products bought in the last 5-8 years. "We're going to have some surprises that we can't predict right now." Pentagon leaders are also concerned about the Y2K affect on Russia. The U.S. wants to set up a joint early warning center to share information should the Russian systems fail. "If the Russians go blank on January 1st, in the year 2000," said Hamre, "they're going to be sitting right next to Americans who are looking at their systems and saying, 'Don't worry, you can look at ours.'"

Defense against modern-day weapons of mass destruction was another topic at the 15th Nato Conference. DoD has expanded funding for the Cooperative Threat Reduction programe aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons in Russia, and defense officials would like to extend the program to help eliminate chemical weapons. In a move to consolidate more than a dozen treaty and threat reduction efforts, a single agency was created aimed at reducing chemical, biological, and nuclear threats. Pentagon leaders recently began a mandatory vaccination program to protect service members. It was predicted that voluntary vaccinations will eventually be offered for all Americans. Under the new program, specially trained National Guard teams are being placed at strategic locations around the United States to identify, diagnose and contain suspected chemical and biological terror attacks. A new generation of rapid diagnostic equipment that can identify chemical and biological agents within minutes is also being created. By the end of the year the Pentagon will assign responsibility for America's homeland defense to a designated commander in chief. Up until now, the U.S. has assigned regional commanders in chief for the entire world, except the former Soviet Union and North America. Continental U.S. air defense is assigned to U.S. Space Command, but ground defense was never assigned a commander in chief. Because civilian sites may be targeted, homeland defense is now considered a military mission.