Armageddon 1983

Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Fascinating, thanks for that. I'll have a look over the weekend so I can put the sound on.

I bet that's not the only close call that's happened (apart from Cuba '62, of course) - there could have been loads of other incidents that have just stayed hushed up. I remember reading about one occasion when a Soviet nuclear-armed sub lost contact with Moscow during a particular period of tension with NATO; the policy at the time was that under such circumstances, a pre-emptive strike should be launched if the three ranking officers on board agreed it was in the best strategic interests of the USSR to do so. Two of the sub's senior chaps wanted to launch...but the third guy vetoed it.
 
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D

droid

Guest
Not sure if this is the same incident, but apparently that happened during the Cuban missile crisis. it was only the refusal of a Russian sub commander to launch that stopped nuclear war.

Those bloodthirsty Russians, eh?
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
No shortage of paranoid nutters on either side, I think that's pretty clear.

Were subs armed with ballistic missiles in the '60s? I dunno, you could well be right, I can't remember what stage of the Cold War it (nearly) happened in.
 
D

droid

Guest
Of course, but it seems like every time I read about this kind of stuff it was Russian restraint (at some level) that stopped us all from being burnt to a cinder, and its fair to say that the soviets put up with a lot of shit that would've had the Americans opening the silos... U2 spy plane activity in the late 50's/early 60's etc... The Americans would've reacted very violently to similar Russian incursions into US airspace.
 
Dr Awesome

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
Excellent.
Interestingly enough the Russians went to lengths to develop a system called Perimeter which was designed to act as a dead man's switch in the event of a decapitating nuclear strike that took out the Soviet high command.
Apparently, it's still in use.
 
A

alex

Do not read this.
watched this earlier, really good doc.

edit thanks for posting
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Interestingly enough the Russians went to lengths to develop a system called Perimeter which was designed to act as a dead man's switch in the event of a decapitating nuclear strike that took out the Soviet high command."
Click to expand...
Isn't that the thing they have in Dr Strangelove? Which was supposed to be a reductio ad absurdum that went far beyond the levels of stupidity that humans had actually reached. At that point.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
Well, I would have got out of doing my GCSE's anyway.

"This may be the last voice you ever hear..."

"Yay! No school tomorrow!"
 
Dr Awesome

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
IdleRich said:
Isn't that the thing they have in Dr Strangelove? Which was supposed to be a reductio ad absurdum that went far beyond the levels of stupidity that humans had actually reached. At that point.
Click to expand...

Actually I just had bit of a read up about it on Wikipedia (the worlds best sauce of state secrets), and it seems that it isn't actually as crazy as it sounds. Rather than being a true doomsday device, it was (is?) controlled by people on the ground - the idea being that when activated during a crisis it gave permission for guys that were tucked away in a bunker somewhere to launch outside of the nominal chain of command if it certain requirements were met.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Actually I just had bit of a read up about it on Wikipedia (the worlds best sauce of state secrets), and it seems that it isn't actually as crazy as it sounds. Rather than being a true doomsday device, it was (is?) controlled by people on the ground - the idea being that when activated during a crisis it gave permission for guys that were tucked away in a bunker somewhere to launch outside of the nominal chain of command if it certain requirements were met."
Click to expand...
Yeah, I read it too. I take your point. Also, in Dr Strangelove the fatal flaw is that they never notify the US which means that it can't work as a deterrent and in fact is useless for anything except blowing up any survivors in the event of nuclear armageddon. I'm guessing that as we know about this thing the US military is probably aware of it too - though it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't....
 
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