Warning and Informing the Public

Warning and Informing the public

During the Cold War, warning and informing the public about when an attack was likely, where they had occurred and when it was safe to go out was a crucial part of the Civil Defence planning. This was handled by the now defunct UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) [1] and Royal Observer Corps (ROC).

The UKWMO had a number of key roles:

Issuing warnings of an attack
Locating exactly where explosions had occurred, the type and strength
Issuing weather advice based on fallout

Radiation is currently monitored by a system known as NERIMNET/RREMS [2] which replaced a system known as RIMNET. The MOD had an information sharing system called NERIMS which one user describes as "a classified MoD programme deployed throughout the UK/overseas providing 24/7/365 support and information exchange across military and civilian organisations in the event of a defence related nuclear emergency." However this too has been replaced and combined into the single RREMS monitoring information system.

This system is primarily designed to monitor background radiation should an overseas nuclear incident occur (like Chernobyl) but according to the Government (referring to the old system):

[3] "Would RIMNET be able to deal with the effects of a nuclear strike on the UK? It may, depending on location and severity of the strike, but RIMNET has not been designed for this purpose. RIMNET would however, be used to assist the MoD response to such an occurrence."

So the question is clearly this. Whilst RIMNET was not designed for the purpose of fallout monitoring, is the new RREMS system any better for it? Considering the MOD combined nature of the project, one should probably assume it is. Electromagnetic pulse is the key factor here because a nuclear strike wipes out much of the electronics, so any technology designed to deal with the aftermath, must be protected from EMP.

In terms of detonation detection (also something the ROC was responsible for - aka building up a map of which cities and locations had been hit), we can only assume that this would now be handled by a Satelite based system [5]. However that is purely a guess.

BBC broadcasting

The BBC (the key being British!) is the backbone to our emergency broadcasting network. Until recently it was responsible for the National Attack Warning System (NAWS) which enabled the AM transmitters to provide a warning service and post-attack radio broadcast in the event of a war.

According to the Government: "The declining value of the AM platform is best displayed in the case of the National Attack Warning System (NAWS). The use of the BBC Radio 4 LW frequency to broadcast emergency information nationally in the case of a nuclear attack or similar disaster was formalised through the NAWS arrangements between the BBC and the Cabinet Office. However, as a result of the limitations of this system in the present day, from the falling numbers of LW receivers in homes, to the delay incurred from having to restore transmitters following an attack, the Cabinet Office has since cancelled their NAWS arrangements with the BBC." [8]

The latest iteration of national warning is the UK Emergency Alerts system [6]. This is designed to get the message out quickly, but as a surprise attack is quite unlikely, there should be more general protection and advice prior to any event. We would most likely be warned to have batteries and a radio on standby and hope that our location wasn’t affected by EMP!

This was used on the 6th December [6] to alert Western Wales to a Red weather warning alert for Storm Darragh. What makes this interesting is the ability to localise messages (assumedly based on Cell masts).

The BBC do still have their bunker at Wood Norton and it may well have been upgraded in recent years to work with DAB (their "emergency broadcast facility" certainly has (whereever that is)).

During the Cold war, the assumption had been that regional BBC transmissions would be broadcast from each regional bunker. How much regional BBC broadcasting could be cobbled together from the safe sites of the Regional government is an unknown. Whilst the BBC has a lot of emergency plans in place, the post strike BBC broadcasting concept is a whole nother level!

For wider discussion of this, please see this Digital Spy link with much debate on what different organisations are able to do. [7].

Civil Defence today

Warning and Informing the public

BBC broadcasting

References/Links