The Briefing Room
General Category => Military/Defense News => Topic started by: SPQR on December 01, 2013, 01:58:14 am
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For nearly 20 years, the secret code to authorize launching U.S. nuclear missiles, and starting World War III, was terrifyingly simple and even noted down on a checklist.
From 1962, when John F Kennedy instituted PAL encoding on nuclear weapons, until 1977, the combination to fire the devastating missiles at the height of the Cold War was just 00000000.
This was chosen by Strategic Air Command in an effort to make the weapons as quick and as easy to launch as possible, as reported by Today I Found Out'
The Permissive Action Link (PAL) is a security device for nuclear weapons that it is supposed to prevent unauthorized arming or detonation of the nuclear weapon.
JFK signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160 in 1962 that required all nuclear missiles to be fitted with a PAL system.
But nuclear experts claim the military was worried about the possibility of command centers or communication lines being destroyed in real nuclear war, stopping soldiers getting the codes or authorization to launch missiles when they were actually needed.
So they simply left the security code for the weapons as eight zeros, getting around the security safeguards.
Dr. Bruce G. Blair, worked as a Minuteman launch officer between 1970 and 1974. He has written several articles about nuclear command and control systems.
In a paper called Keeping Presidents in the Nuclear Dark, he wrote that Strategic Air Command 'remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders.'
Incredibly, he also writes that the vital combination for America's nuclear deterrent was even helpfully noted down for the officers.
'Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialed into the panel,' Dr Blair wrote.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2515598/Launch-code-US-nuclear-weapons-easy-00000000.html#ixzz2mBUaVe8P
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It is amazing that most nuclear armed nations do not have a PAL system.For instance, the Navy has resisted fitting its nuclear arms with permissive action links. I do not think that the Russians,Chinese,Indians,North Koreans and Pakistanis have these PAL arming fuzes.
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Now, everything pre-programmed by the computer from the target selection to yield selection before the missiles fly. Of course the proper code must be given and the keys must be turned at the same time. This is call the "two man rule".
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Quite a contrast with the secrets kept well for 50 years after WWII, versus today.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wdjgL40wc4
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Now, everything pre-programmed by the computer from the target selection to yield selection before the missiles fly. Of course the proper code must be given and the keys must be turned at the same time. This is call the "two man rule".
Usually the fuze is set before hitting the target. Land based missiles are the most reliable missiles in the strategic arsenal. Land based missiles and bombers have a redundancy and reliable communications with the National Command Authorities.
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This is my favorite though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96A0wb1Ov9k