Almost 90 percent of the British Navy's vital computer systems, including those that control its nuclear missiles, are still not protected against the so-called millennium bug, according to a leaked defense ministry review.
Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) said that more than 80 percent of crucial computer systems in the defense ministry headquarters still needed checking to ensure the computers would not malfunction at the turn of the century.
The CND said the admission in the defense ministry review came despite two years of work aimed at meeting an original deadline for fixing the faults of 31 December 1998, which would have allowed for 12 months of tests.
"This information gives me no confidence that nuclear weapons systems will be ready to handle the millennium bug," said CND chairman Dave Knight.
"Unless every single system is fixed, anything could be affected, from the timer on ovens in submarines to early warning systems that raise the alert about incoming nuclear missiles," he said.
The CND called for an immediate statement by the government and said Britain and other nuclear states should remove their nuclear warheads from warships and store them ashore to ensure their safety.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the review revealed that the ministry did not have enough skilled staff to check its computer systems. No comment was available from the defense ministry.
Copyright© 1998 Reuters Limited.
