A chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons detection system is disclosed that comprises an array of spatially-disparate hazardous material sensors that all feed into a centralized system control center. This enables the embodiment to receive and coordinate in one place all of the hazardous material sensors spread over a wide area, and, therefore, enables an alarm to be quickly issued in the event of a real attack. The illustrative embodiment also incorporates a mechanism to reduce the probability that a false alarm will be issued. In particular, the illustrative embodiment requires that at least 2 stations report an alarm for the same hazardous material within an interval of time. This prevents a false alarm from one hazardous material detection station from issuing a false system-wide alarm. This is based on the assumption that a real attack is more likely to be detected by stations that are near each other than by stations that have no proximity.