National Emergency Alarm Repeater

Research and testing for the NEAR program was developed in 1956 during the Cold War to supplement the existing siren warning systems and radio broadcasts in the event of a nuclear attack.

Despite this advantage, upon the introduction of the Emergency Broadcast System, stockpiled NEAR repeaters were destroyed by their respective manufacturers.

The United States Army argued that in the age of intercontinental ballistic missiles a civil-defense warning system should be capable of warning 90% of the population within 30 seconds after a signal is given by the national civil-defense center in Colorado Springs.

The devices would be set off in an emergency by altering the regular AC signal being generated and transmitted by the local power companies.

[2] An episode of the PBS television program History Detectives[1] suggested that problems with NEAR might have included limited instructions on what to do when an alert was received and the device's inability to provide information on what exactly was happening.