 Soon after, it reported that five missiles had been launched.Convinced that a real American offensive would involve many more missiles, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Air Defense Forces refused to acknowledge the threat as legitimate and continued to convince his superiors that it was a false alarm until this could be confirmed by ground radar.Able Archer 83 was a command post exercise carried out by NATO military forces and political leaders between 7 and 11 November 1983.