[irrelative]

There was a sort of doomsday device built by the Soviets:

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113242...

> If there's a crisis, somebody in the Defense Ministries has to turn it on, so that's the first step. It then tries to find evidence that there's been a nuclear hit on the Soviet Union. If it determines that there has been a hit, then it tries to communicate back to the Defense Ministries. And if it can talk to them, it says, okay, humans are still alive. I don't need to work. I'll shut off.

> But if it can't communicate with them, then it knows there's been a crisis. We've been hit by a nuclear warhead and all the lines of communications with the Defense Ministries have been taken out. So now, we need to bypass all the traditional layers of command authority, and suddenly, the ability to launch a nuclear retaliatory strike is given to some junior official in a bunker.

[Animats]

Oh, Perimetr. That was one of the Soviet Unions's better ideas.

The goal was that the Premier of the USSR was not allowed to have the authority to order a nuclear first strike. Only the Politburo could do that. This was post-Stalin, and the leadership didn't want one person to have too much power.

The USSR earlier had a dual-custody system - the military controlled the delivery systems, but the KGB controlled the warheads. They had to cooperate. Again, no single person could start a nuclear war. This is very Soviet. Padlocks that require two different keys are a popular USSR antique.

The Premier could activate Perimetr in a crisis. But that didn't do much. Only if Moscow were destroyed, for which there are sensors, and the system could not communicate with the underground bunkers of either the leadership or the General Staff, would the system activate. Several locations could stop the process.

Even if triggered by the destruction of Moscow and the silence of higher authority, Perimetr just released the codes that allowed regional commanders to use nuclear weapons at their discretion. It didn't launch an attack automatically, although some articles claim it did.

This is much more restrictive than the US system. The US president has the authority and the codes to launch a nuclear first strike. This was a very real concern in the last days of the Trump administration, enough that the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Speaker of the House met to discuss what to do if attack orders were issued.

[belter]

If you like these scenarios I strongly recommend "Le Chant du loup" (The Wolf's Call) (no spoilers...). Awesome French movie.

[sbierwagen]

Another more recent novel about nuclear war is "The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the U.S.". It describes the Trump administration handling a North Korean crisis poorly, as you'd expect.

One thing I found interesting: the book states that much of DPRK C3 is done over encrypted channels that use civilian cell phone network towers, because they can't afford to maintain a completely separate military communications network like many other nuclear states.

During the crisis, South Korea fires a missile at the Kim family home when Kim Jong Un was known to be observing a missile test elsewhere. But this results in rumors that Kim Jong Un had been killed, resulting in a spike in civilian cell phone traffic and a collapse in service. With communications down, missiles striking official residences, and a South Korea/US wargame happening next door, Kim concludes that a decapitation attack is in progress and goes nuclear.

Fun fact: for several decades the US has had a telephone priority system for government officials. If the book is at all correct, if would be in the US's interests for the DPRK to implement one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Emergency_Telecommu...

[GekkePrutser]

Spoiler ahead (sorry I don't think HN has spoiler tags(

It was a good movie but I really hope that the "no recall possible" thing was just a plot point and not reality. There should always be an authenticated recall option especially before it's launched.

[gorgoiler]

Could you summarise why without any spoilers? I’m intrigued by your suggestion but don’t want internet searches to spoil the movie for me.

[belter]

Trailer here: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1494661657?playlistId=tt7458762...

A French young man has a special auditory skill to identify other Submarines but a knack for messing up things at the worst moment. His commander gets upgraded to a French Nuclear missile submarine as tensions between EU and Russia get increasingly tense. Its not a Oscar winner but just a story very well done.You will have a good time. I liked the characters development and the several crossing stories while keeping the action at a fluid and surprising pace. Perfect movie for a pre-weekend relaxed evening.

[gorgoiler]

Thank you :)