Let's All Freak Out About Nuclear War

[simple schoolboy]

This is kind of a weird prep. This prevents thyroid cancer from radio isotopes, but probably only useful if you can leave the affected area (think nuclear reactor meltdown). Where in CONUS would this help you in the case of a nuclear exchange?

[elliseamos]

Bump.

[BurtReynolds]

I knew I shouldnt have moved so close to downtown.

[elliseamos]

Nice knowing you, Burt from the internet.

[JuanHamm]

If there really was a nuclear holocaust I think I'd rather just die than live in a bunker with my radiation pills and dried foods.

[elliseamos]

Is there a vaccine?

[E.H. Ruddock]

Just in time for our trip to Vienna in two weeks

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[bada]

I just hope the sub base is close enough to me that we go in the blast.

[BurtReynolds]

Come on guys it will be fun just give it a chance

[McParadigm]

Just another day of Burt dancing on his own grave.

[Mickey]

"A New Hope: The Vladimir Putin Appreciation thread"

[BurtReynolds]

You can learn a lot from Jean Claude Van Damme movies.

[bada]

Truth. I use the death touch all the time.

[Mickey]

Since some folks have asked about it in the Russia thread, here's a pretty recent survey by a think tank at Middlebury--it seems the decision to launch nuclear weapons does not lie with Putin alone, though of course the degree to which his defense minister and chief of the General Staff are yes-men or functionaries might temper that a bit. There's also an open question as to how much this system has changed since the early 1990s, apparently the last time we got a good look inside the Russian nuclear system.

The authorization to use nuclear weapons (“permission command”) is jointly (“together”) prepared by the president, defense minister, and chief of the General Staff.

The order can be issued two different ways.

Kazbek
The order could be transmitted from one or other of the “briefcases” (Cheget) reportedly in the possession of the president, the minister of defense, and (probably) the chief of the defense staff, or via the Kazbek network.

Kazbek became fully operational in 1985. It supports Kavkaz, a dedicated system of communications between senior government officials designed to operate under the conditions of a surprise attack.

The Chegets also entered service in 1985. These communication devices were conceived as a means of guaranteeing the execution of the launch order (“always”). They are neither necessary nor sufficient to launch nuclear forces.

The “direct command” (launch order) would be sent, via the Chegets, to the units by the General Staff, which holds the codes. At least until the early 1990s, the General Staff and the commanders had to send two different codes to all three branches as an extra layer of authentication.

Three questions remain open:

• What are the exact roles of the defense minister and chief of the General Staff? According to Bruce Blair, until 1991, the permission command was intended to be formed “jointly” by the three leaders. However, he also specifies that the president and the defense minister had to send two separate codes, to be integrated by the chief of the General Staff, who added his or her own code. Valery Yarynich, the author of a reference text on Russian command and control, states that they prepare the authorization “together” (see above); but he also situates the president and defense minister on par as if they would constitute a form of “national command authority” as in the United States, an inheritance of the Soviet Supreme High Command. (He also remains non-committal about the possession of a Cheget by the chief of the General Staff.) If these procedures are still correct, it thus possible that the defense minister acts as a validating political authority (but without whom use would be impossible), and that the chief of the General Staff acts as a validating military authority, without whom use would also be impossible.

https://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-con ... Button.pdf

[BurtReynolds]

What's the nuclear war scenario here, anyway? Putin is more of the cold calculating villain archetype than the crazy loose cannon archetype.

[LetMeSleep]

What's the nuclear war scenario here, anyway? Putin is more of the cold calculating villain archetype than the crazy loose cannon archetype.

Was.

[spike]

I should probably extend my family’s stay in Australia.

[bada]

You already have your nickname for Thunderdome.

[elliseamos]

We had some good times, didn't we?