A Terrifyingly Unchecked 7 Minute Launch Window.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Going on 70 years and there hasn't been a large war between nuclear powers once.

In many cases there almost certainly would have been a war if the nuclear weapons weren't there.

a reply to: ForteanOrg

Man I didn't have to get 2 paragraphs in..

There is a 7 minute launch window....

Ain't no convening any big meetings of bigwigs in 7 minutes..

I'm assuming that is the "in the best case scenerio , if the president wants to do it the right way. Here are the steps..."


I will still be reading the rest of the article.

a reply to: Ohanka

Oh no? You do not count the proxy war in the Middle East?

Because I sure as hell do.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Nope. I do not.

I do wish we would stop our warmongering in the Middle East though. That'd be nice.

a reply to: Ohanka

There hasn't been a big contested Regiem change or invasion either..

How long you think that lasts???

9 nukclear powers presently and every new administration in every one of those nuclear powers is a dice roll till we get a hitler.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

But this example here of a president just going crazy and launching , with the present lack of a check is just as likely..

No, its not.
Nixon stated once, " I can walk to that phone, pick it up and utter a command and in 30 minutes twenty million people will be dead."

No, Mr. President, you can't.

But a 14 cent chip failure almost did the same thing, running a simulation that nobody knew about , almost causing a real response to a simulated attack via computer error.

As far as conquering the world that is ongoing right now, the warmongers hoping everyone will go along quietly...

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: JoshuaCox
Imagine how terrifying it would be to think of the fact that we did have a President that was suffering from Alzheimer's while in office..... during a Cold War with the Soviet Union.

Even more terrifying... Imagine an old witch that cackled after saying 'we came, we saw, he died' with her finger on the nuclear button, she would probably call it a 'reset button'.

Hillary isn't president , get over it and stop using her as a crutch

Jesus it's worse than "Obama , but Bush" syndrome and it's only 6 or 7 months since he took office

a reply to: TrueBrit

It's unavoidable.

There will have to be the inherent risk involved with having a human in charge unless we want to entrust that responsibility to a machine.

originally posted by: watchitburn
There will have to be the inherent risk involved with having a human in charge unless we want to entrust that responsibility to a machine.

I nominate Skynet.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

You would think so but sadly no..


That's what I meant to type everytime I said Secretary of State earlier actually.. was secretary of defense.

The radio lab interview was with like clintons Secretary of defense and he was who said he was nowhere in the process.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

Just ignore it please.

a reply to: watchitburn

Yea but how about just a couple more than just one fir total metal breaks and such..

originally posted by: JoshuaCox
You would think so but sadly no..


That's what I meant to type everytime I said Secretary of State earlier actually.. was secretary of defense.

The radio lab interview was with like clintons Secretary of defense and he was who said he was nowhere in the process.

The mandate is that the Secretary of Defense must comply with the President's orders and I think that is where his statement comes from. However, the Secretary of Defense can decline if he thinks it is unwarranted and this also does not alleviate the 25th Amendment aspect.

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: JoshuaCox
Imagine how terrifying it would be to think of the fact that we did have a President that was suffering from Alzheimer's while in office..... during a Cold War with the Soviet Union.

Even more terrifying... Imagine an old witch that cackled after saying 'we came, we saw, he died' with her finger on the nuclear button, she would probably call it a 'reset button'.

Hillary isn't president , get over it and stop using her as a crutch

Jesus it's worse than "Obama , but Bush" syndrome and it's only 6 or 7 months since he took office

I'm not using her as a crutch.
Why didn't you mention my use of Reagan....
or didn't that trigger you?


Anyway, the OP is all about being terrified over the ability of a President to launch nuclear weapons. I posted what else might be thought of as terrifying in the way of a President and the button.

There are safe guards..

Subs... you think sub captains are not tuned in to whats going on in the world, they get an order to launch and we were not on a wartime footing I bet they say no.

Bombers, takes days of preparation to get nukes ready, uploaded and launched. (I know this for a fact from my military time)

Silo's (this I admit to having the least amount of knowledge on) but based off what I know in the Navy, and USAF, I am going to wager you need to have a software package uploaded before the missiles can be launched.

I feel pretty safe in saying that unless we are already on a wartime footing (see Def Con 1 for example) there will be no launch in 7 minutes.

With a WAG, that is part of the reason for the Def Con system 3 you set up to get nuke ready, 2 nukes are uploaded and ready to go, 1 time to end the world.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I bet a sub captain could but appearntly the order for land bases it goes traighr to a private...(not really a private, but the equivalent)

This was the previous Secretary of defense saying this.

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: TrueBrit

There will have to be the inherent risk involved with having a human in charge unless we want to entrust that responsibility to a machine.

They've been able to automate the entire process since the late 60s.

They decided it was a bad idea.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Apparently Reagan had Alzheimer's and dementia while still in office, and during times when there were heated tensions between the two biggest nuclear powers.

a reply to: watchitburn

There are inherent risks, that is true. You can mitigate them by having no one in sole command of anything, and everything done by the peoples will, or not at all. That would be much better, especially where something like this is concerned.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

I could be wrong...I am 3 years inactive.

But the Air force just recently finally decided to let enlisted people pilot the reaper drones, the sticking point (wife is enlisted aircrew, and she works with a boat load of officers when she flies and this is what they said) is the Air force did not want enlisted people pulling the trigger on munitions. IF what they said is true it seems unlikely they would have an enlisted member with a finger on the button.

Now a private or sgt might be in the chain of passing the information (like receiving the coded information and verifying the encryption code before handing it to the officers), but the guys and gals in the silos with the ability to push the button are officers. (or they were last time I read up on it)