(2012-1010-F) Joint Data Exchange Center and Shared Early Warnings

The materials in FOIA 2012-1010-F are a selective body of documents responsive to the topic of the FOIA. Researchers should consult the archivist about related material. In January of 1995, a team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a long-range rocket from a small island in the Baltic Sea. The missile’s purpose was to study the aurora borealis, but its launch was identified by a Russian early warning radar station as a possible nuclear first strike. A full scale alert was passed all the way to President Boris Yeltsin, who activated his “nuclear keys” and his “nuclear briefcase.” The crisis was averted when radar observers determined that the rocket was headed away from Russian airspace and was not a threat. Following this incident, pre-launch notification and disclosure protocols were re-evaluated by both nuclear superpowers. At the Moscow summit in September of 1998, Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin signed an agreement to share information on the launching of ballistic missiles. The implementation discussions that followed the summit were bogged down however in technical details, and were ultimately suspended in the Spring of 1999 as a result of Russian objections to the NATO air campaign during the Kosovo crisis. The dire possibilities of the Y2K computer glitch issue provided a second chance at U.S. / Russian collaboration on sharing missile launch information and a small practical demonstration of the way it could be operated occurred from December 21, 1999 to January 16, 2000. Eighteen Russian military personnel were stationed at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado and worked with their American counterparts at a temporary missile monitoring center. This small experiment in sharing information worked well for both sides, and the Y2K computer issue did not present any problems for the world’s nuclear forces. The success of this collaborative arrangement led to further discussions of a more permanent system, and efforts to implement the 1998 agreement were revived. When Presidents Clinton and Putin had their first face-to-face meeting in June of 2000, they signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to establish a Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) in Moscow “to ensure the uninterrupted exchange of information on the launches of ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles.” The agreement specified the information to be exchanged, the location of the center and other legal and administrative arrangements. Six months later, in December of 2000, the United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, signed a follow up Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), specifying in greater detail how the JDEC system for exchanging notifications of missile launches would operate. Records responsive to this FOIA include memoranda and emails between National Security Council staffers, drafts of the memorandum of agreement and the memorandum of understanding, reports, cables and emails concerning the negotiations over the establishment of the Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC), press reports concerning the Shared Early Warning (SEW) system and other administrative reports of internal interagency working group meetings. The majority of the records related to this FOIA case are closed for national security reasons.