nuclear-news

Possibility of terrorists launching a nuclear missile?

…..protocols have not changed since the end of the Cold War. America still keeps its missiles on launch-ready alert. In this posture, the bias is on ensuring that the missiles can be fired, rather than on making sure they are not launched accidentally. That’s a dangerous posture as we now live in an era of terrorism and cyber warfare.

Could Terrorists Launch America’s Nuclear Missiles? – TIME, Bruce Blair , 12 Nov 10, The Air Force calls the situation “Launch Facilities Down.” On Oct. 23, a Wyoming-based squadron of 50 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) — enough firepower to kill some 20 million people — lost computer communications with their human controllers for 45 minutes.

When news of the incident broke, the ensuing political debate focused on what effect the outage might have had on America’s readiness to fight a nuclear war. But the more important concern should be that for the better part of an hour, the safeguards that protect against unauthorized launch of America’s missiles were compromised. And that elevated the risk of the world being plunged into a nuclear war that none of the nuclear-armed states intended. (Read “Can Obama Make Progress on Nuclear Security?”)

………..there’s a lot more reason for anxiety over the Wyoming incident than there is over this week’s “mystery missile” off California. Nuclear missiles are, after all, worst-case weapons, doomsday bombs. And as we have learned to our dismay over the years, we are seldom as crafty as our adversaries. (See pictures of Hiroshima after the bombing.)

……protocols have not changed since the end of the Cold War. America still keeps its missiles on launch-ready alert. In this posture, the bias is on ensuring that the missiles can be fired, rather than on making sure they are not launched accidentally. That’s a dangerous posture as we now live in an era of terrorism and cyber warfare. (Graphic: The Nuclear World.)

When the Wyoming rockets went off-line on Oct. 23, the remote underground launch centers that control them lost their ability to detect and cancel any unauthorized launch attempts………

the U.S. needs to finally relax the hair-trigger alert status of its nuclear forces, and convince the Russians to do the same. Our last two presidents campaigned on promises to “de-alert”, but neither pursued it after assuming office. Last week at the United Nations, 144 countries, citing concern about unintentional nuclear war, passed a resolution calling upon the United States and Russia to reduce the operational readiness of their nuclear forces. (The U.S. voted against the resolution; Russia abstained). The latest Launch Facilities Down incident in Wyoming is a reminder of why the hair-trigger alert status of its nuclear arsenal could make America more, rather than less, vulnerable to the threats of the 21st century…..

Could Terrorists Launch America’s Nuclear Missiles? – TIME

November 12, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons