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The warning said attack.
He judged it a false alarm.
In 1983, Soviet early-warning equipment reported American missile launches. Officer Stanislav Petrov judged the signal to be a false alarm, which it was.
An alarm still needed
a human judgement.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Stanislav Petrov · Wikimedia contributors
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Reviewed: 2026-09-30