Rumor Doctor blog archive
Does NORAD have a "WarGames" computer?
Published: August 16, 2010
If you’re old enough to remember the last decade of the Cold War, you’re probably familiar with the 1983 Matthew Broderick movie “WarGames,” a heartwarming tale about a computer that learns the futility of nuclear war by playing tic-tac-toe.
In the movie, the North American Aerospace Defense Command puts a computer in charge of all of its nuclear missiles. Of course, the computer tries to start a war with the Soviet Union.
Almost 30 years later, Colorado-based NORAD still gets questions about whether it has a “War Operation Plan Response” computer, aka the WOPR.
“Some people will ask kind of jokingly,” said NORAD spokeswoman Stacey Knott.
But there are other people are more serious because they aren’t familiar with what the military does, “So they came back and they almost ask it apologetically,” she said.
Knott lets people know that things are a little different than in the movie.
NORAD does have an extensive computer system, but the computers do not have control over missiles or aircraft, nor do they think and learn, Knott said.
The actual computers don’t have tic tac toe either.
“Most of our personal work stations up there have Windows computers, but unfortunately the government usually comes and takes off all the games,” she said.
And the coup de grace: No one at NORAD says “Confidence is high” when tracking incoming missiles.
“If the team gets a reading, they call to see if the sensor that picked it up is operating properly and is getting a ‘valid’ reading,” Knott said in an e-mail.
THE RUMOR DOCTOR’S DIAGNOSIS: There is no supercomputer inside Cheyenne Mountain that controls nuclear missiles. Matthew Broderick’s legacy is a lie.
UPDATE ON KANDAHAR POO POND: Shortly after The Rumor Doctor debunked the legend that a Special Forces soldier swam in the cesspool at Kandahar Air Field to win a bet, a reader said the person who took the plunge was actually a Romanian man who won $2,000 by swimming in the poo pond, but he had to go home with serious health problems.
But a spokeswoman for Kandahar Air Field poo-pooed that tale too.
“We have checked out this story with both the Romanian staff in [Regional Command-South] and the Romanian [Defense Ministry],” said Cmdr. Amanda E. Peterseim. “There is no truth to this rumor.”
E-mail The Rumor Doctor at:
jeffrey.schogol@stripes.osd.mil
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