Soviet computing technology smuggling

Initially the Soviet Union focused on mainframe computing technology, particularly the IBM 360 and 370.[5] Between 1967 and 1972 much effort went into reverse engineering what they "acquired."[6] Their first IBM-like machine was based on a 360/40 smuggled in via Poland. The second Soviet-built machine was from a 370/145. Their focus subsequently shifted to super-minicomputers. Failure in 1983 to import a VAX-11/782[1] did not stop their efforts. "Reverse-engineered and copied Apple IIe parts" brought microcomputers to the Soviet Union; it also brought computer viruses too.[6] IBM PC compatible computers were also smuggled in.[3]

Production of Iron curtain mainframes, at one point, was estimated to be 180 per year.[6]

The failure of the Soviets to acquire a VAX-11/782, a dual-processor variation of the VAX-11/780, the original VAX, unraveled much of their smuggling system. U. S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger made a public display of the system, about which The Washington Post headlined "Seized Computer Put on Display" in later 1983.[4] The computer had been exported from the United States to South Africa,[7] from which it was to clandestinely be reshipped; it was seized "moments before its scheduled shipment to the Soviet Union."[4] Weinberger stated at a news conference that the VAX was intended for assisting production of "vastly more accurate . . . and more destructive weapons."

Like the 360/40, the smuggling process involved multiple shipments. The 360 had been disassembled and placed in a large number of suitcases. A smaller number of "huge containers of parts" held the 782. The latter's route involved transhipping, some more than half via Sweden, others via West Germany.[8] A U.S. official describe potential "military uses, including the operation of a missile guidance system."

The exact configuration was not released even by over a year later: APnews, which noted that the smuggling operation was spread across ten countries, cited $1.1 million as the system's price[9] The Los Angeles Times described the same system's price as $1.5 million.[10] The New York Times wrote "between $1.5 and $2 million."[8]

Another VAX-smuggling attempt, five years later, involved a VAX 8800; this too ended in a failure.[11] This time also, the computer involved was a dual-processor system. American government wiretapping revealed that some of the parties involved considered even settling for a VAX 8700, a uni-processor system.[12]