Oh dear! I’ve launched a nuclear missile.

[Thankyou4calling]

Obviously I haven’t, but with all the talk around at the moment I’m asking

How does it actually happen?

Is there an accepted sequence? A code? A switch?

How many people are involved? Is there a way to abort?

Are the missiles permanently ready to go and aimed at something? Is a warning given to the place it’s heading for?

Does anyone actually know? Surely it cannot be in the hands of one person carrying a briefcase.

Thanks

[Collectingbrass]

Thankyou4calling said:

Obviously I haven’t, but with all the talk around at the moment I’m asking

How does it actually happen?

Is there an accepted sequence? A code? A switch?

How many people are involved? Is there a way to abort?

Are the missiles permanently ready to go and aimed at something? Is a warning given to the place it’s heading for?

Does anyone actually know? Surely it cannot be in the hands of one person carrying a briefcase.

Thanks

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112740/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[Pupp]

Thankyou4calling said:

Obviously I haven’t, but with all the talk around at the moment I’m asking

How does it actually happen?

Is there an accepted sequence? A code? A switch?

How many people are involved? Is there a way to abort?

Are the missiles permanently ready to go and aimed at something? Is a warning given to the place it’s heading for?

Does anyone actually know? Surely it cannot be in the hands of one person carrying a briefcase.

Thanks

It’ll never happen. You know, like the invasion…

[J4CKO]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoops_Apocalypse

[Sway]

AIUI, there's different processes/protocols for different nations.

https://www.forces.net/news/comment-does-britain-r...

I think I'm right in saying the UK is the only nation where a launch could be initiated without any direct involvement of the PM, via the Letters of Last Resort.

[OutInTheShed]

J4CKO said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoops_Apocalypse

I think Trump was clearly a parody of Johnny Cyclops.

[BorkBorkBork]

Thankyou4calling said:

Obviously I haven’t, but with all the talk around at the moment I’m asking

How does it actually happen?

Is there an accepted sequence? A code? A switch?

How many people are involved? Is there a way to abort?

Are the missiles permanently ready to go and aimed at something? Is a warning given to the place it’s heading for?

Does anyone actually know? Surely it cannot be in the hands of one person carrying a briefcase.

Thanks

No warning. If a full nuclear exchange occurs between NATO and Russia it will all be over in a matter of minutes. From the first launch, within 30 minutes the Northern Hemisphere would be a radioactive wasteland.

[Sway]

BorkBorkBork said:

No warning. If a full nuclear exchange occurs between NATO and Russia it will all be over in a matter of minutes. From the first launch, within 30 minutes the Northern Hemisphere would be a radioactive wasteland.

That's a bit of a stretch. For land based missiles, it's about that time for the trip from Russia to US or vice versa. Likely around half that for sea launched.

Then, even relatively close to the impact site, it'll take around 15 minutes for radioactive dust, etc. to start hitting the ground.

There's a hell of a lot of the northern hemisphere that wouldn't be touched directly. So it'll be days/weeks for fallout to start getting to those places.

[BorkBorkBork]

Sway said:

BorkBorkBork said:

No warning. If a full nuclear exchange occurs between NATO and Russia it will all be over in a matter of minutes. From the first launch, within 30 minutes the Northern Hemisphere would be a radioactive wasteland.

That's a bit of a stretch. For land based missiles, it's about that time for the trip from Russia to US or vice versa. Likely around half that for sea launched.

Then, even relatively close to the impact site, it'll take around 15 minutes for radioactive dust, etc. to start hitting the ground.

There's a hell of a lot of the northern hemisphere that wouldn't be touched directly. So it'll be days/weeks for fallout to start getting to those places.

How many missiles do you think will be launched in a full exchange?

In a full exchange some studies suggest over 4000 nuclear warheads would be launched. So, ok, you may not die in 30 minutes, but you’ll have wished you had.

[Sway]

BorkBorkBork said:

How many missiles do you think will be launched in a full exchange?

In a full exchange some studies suggest over 4000 nuclear warheads would be launched. So, ok, you may not die in 30 minutes, but you’ll have wished you had.

I don't disagree.

However the perception that ICBMs fly at the speed of light, and turn an entire planetary hemisphere into a nuclear wasteland in minutes is utter hyperbole.

There's huge areas of the northern hemisphere that wouldn't be targeted at all.

4k warheads, solely targeted at land based targets in the northern hemisphere equals one warhead for every 25 thousand square kilometres...

[HappyMidget]

Sway said:

I don't disagree.

However the perception that ICBMs fly at the speed of light, and turn an entire planetary hemisphere into a nuclear wasteland in minutes is utter hyperbole.

There's huge areas of the northern hemisphere that wouldn't be targeted at all.

4k warheads, solely targeted at land based targets in the northern hemisphere equals one warhead for every 25 thousand square kilometres...

13.6M by road to AWE Aldermaston for me. What are my chances for survival?

[Sway]

HappyMidget said:

13.6M by road to AWE Aldermaston for me. What are my chances for survival?

None, same as me where I am on the South Coast.

I shocked a few people at the start of the Ukraine war when I said that if the four minute warning goes out, I'm running for the door for a dose of instant sunshine instead of trying to deal with the outcome... That's not a life I wish to live.

[DeejRC]

Congratulations, you have just activated a nuclear weapon my friend…

[BorkBorkBork]

Sway said:

BorkBorkBork said:

How many missiles do you think will be launched in a full exchange?

In a full exchange some studies suggest over 4000 nuclear warheads would be launched. So, ok, you may not die in 30 minutes, but you’ll have wished you had.

I don't disagree.

However the perception that ICBMs fly at the speed of light, and turn an entire planetary hemisphere into a nuclear wasteland in minutes is utter hyperbole.

There's huge areas of the northern hemisphere that wouldn't be targeted at all.

4k warheads, solely targeted at land based targets in the northern hemisphere equals one warhead for every 25 thousand square kilometres...

ICBM’s will take no longer than 20 minutes from Russia to the UK. And I’m not sure where you live, but unless it’s on top of Mont Blanc or some other similarly remote location, you’ll be in trouble like the rest of us.

And the resulting nuclear winter will reduce food supply by an estimated 99% in the UK. Like I said, if it happens, you want to be under a warhead. Not in a cave somewhere with your Junior Ray Mears Survival Kit hoping to ‘Rogan’ your way out of it by flexing your triceps and insisting you will only shoot deer with a conker loaded catapult.

[HappyMidget]

Sway said:

HappyMidget said:

13.6M by road to AWE Aldermaston for me. What are my chances for survival?

None, same as me where I am on the South Coast.

I shocked a few people at the start of the Ukraine war when I said that if the four minute warning goes out, I'm running for the door for a dose of instant sunshine instead of trying to deal with the outcome... That's not a life I wish to live.

Reckon if i politely write to Poo Tin he could arrange it to land at 5:35pm on a Monday evening as I pass the main gate just for certainty?

[TDK-C60]

J4CKO said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoops_Apocalypse

Just watched Rik Mayall lead the SAS into the wax works. "What about tickets!"

The solution to unemployment reminds of current UK trade policy.

The complete film is on youtube in 7 parts.

[Sway]

BorkBorkBork said:

Sway said:

BorkBorkBork said:

How many missiles do you think will be launched in a full exchange?

In a full exchange some studies suggest over 4000 nuclear warheads would be launched. So, ok, you may not die in 30 minutes, but you’ll have wished you had.

I don't disagree.

However the perception that ICBMs fly at the speed of light, and turn an entire planetary hemisphere into a nuclear wasteland in minutes is utter hyperbole.

There's huge areas of the northern hemisphere that wouldn't be targeted at all.

4k warheads, solely targeted at land based targets in the northern hemisphere equals one warhead for every 25 thousand square kilometres...

ICBM’s will take no longer than 20 minutes from Russia to the UK. And I’m not sure where you live, but unless it’s on top of Mont Blanc or some other similarly remote location, you’ll be in trouble like the rest of us.

And the resulting nuclear winter will reduce food supply by an estimated 99% in the UK. Like I said, if it happens, you want to be under a warhead. Not in a cave somewhere with your Junior Ray Mears Survival Kit hoping to ‘Rogan’ your way out of it by flexing your triceps and insisting you will only shoot deer with a conker loaded catapult.

Yawn.

Yes, the transit time to UK is less. However, that wasn't your claim.

Yes, the nuclear winter will be st, and no one of sound mind would welcome trying to live through it.

I've said all that, or it's been absolutely obvious from the posts I've made.

However, your original claim of '30 minutes later the Northern Hemisphere will be a nuclear wasteland' is palpable bks.

Just own that you got a tad overexcited, instead of trying to dig yourself out of a hole that isn't exactly a big deal.

[TDK-C60]

What hilariously unnecessary pedantry.

[TTmonkey]

pquinn said:

Don't forget the aircraft launched gravity bombs. Had some interesting chats with a German colleague who could have been deploying them from Tornado.

Not something you can use by accident, and some solidly engineered mechanisms to make sure they won't go bang without permission plus you can forcibly disable the things too if you have to. Plus (apparently) if you accidentally mess with the PAL people *will* know about it and you *will* be invited for a chat.

Pretty sure all the aircraft delivered free fall nukes are long gone. Decommissioned in the 90s. I used to plan their use many many years ago. (World war three nuclear exchange was largely pre planned and had to be replanned every few months).

I had planned one route at the end of the Cold War era where the aircraft had to travel from the far western Germany Tornado base, all the way across what was east Germany, then Poland, to get to the target in Russia.

The aircrew were reviewing the route, low level across Poland, enter Russian airspace. loft attack and a turn back west that was then flown at high level, straight back to base. This was the only way it would work due to the distance and the available fuel for the return.

The Flt Lt navigator said he didn’t like the route, the high level return to base would be suicide, they would be spotted and shot down long before getting home.

I said to him… “sir, you’ve just thrown a nuke at mother Russia. As has all the other aircraft on similar missions. It’s the end of the world. Everyone you know will die, the RAF base you are on right now will be nuked, as will everywhere else. Fly anywhere you want, it’s literally the end of life as we know it if you ever have to actually fly this mission….…..”

He looked at me and the penny actually dropped for him. I honestly don’t think he had thought about the bigger picture before.

[gotoPzero]

Thankyou4calling said:

Obviously I haven’t, but with all the talk around at the moment I’m asking

How does it actually happen?

Is there an accepted sequence? A code? A switch?

How many people are involved? Is there a way to abort?

Are the missiles permanently ready to go and aimed at something? Is a warning given to the place it’s heading for?

Does anyone actually know? Surely it cannot be in the hands of one person carrying a briefcase.

Thanks

In the USA I believe the order will come from one of several sources (president being the obvious one) but lets just say the launch command is sent to the military. The order is then passed down through a network to all the silos etc. Lots of other stuff happens all at the same time but the key bit is the codes arrive at the silos. The other stuff (continuity stuff) is just an attempt at survival.

The blokes in the silos then have to authenticate the codes sent which will be put into the computer to confirm which targets (they wont know) and which launch plan is being used. Various switches are flipped to set the launch up. They then turn a key which activates the silo into launch mode and thats it the missiles go with the instructions that they just gave to said missiles.

IIRC the maximum response time is 15 minutes but the air force test their operations guys regularly and they are sub 60 seconds from getting the code to missiles away. IIRC each silo has 3 independent launch control rooms and only 2 of the 3 are needed to actually launch. In order to keep the crews sharp they run launches on a regular basis but with only 1 crew - this means the crew never really know if its real or not.

The subs are a different problem due to them being much harder to contact. I think the response time for subs is an hour, something like that.

The actual state of readiness will depend what DEFCON level they are at. This is not published "live" so to speak only after changes usually some time later. But on the whole the silos are ready 24/7. The subs, depends on DEFCON and the bombers again depends on the level.

Warnings are not issued to the enemy for obvious reasons. However there is a network to give warnings to certain people. This used to be quite a clever system in the UK. Its not used now and most of the old network has gone. BT used to run it in conjunction with the government. Its been upgraded/replaced.

In the event of an "oops" there is one single direct connection between the USA and Russia. This was / is known as the "red phone". Its not actually a phone, its an email system - prior to that it was similar to a fax using a one time code system. The system is treated very, very seriously and was brought in after the Cuban missile crisis. Its tested once an hour to ensure its always working. Occasionally pleasantries are exchanged such as on the 31st December.

It has been used, usually during regional conflicts to give advanced warnings of military movements.