5 ms·

For those in this thread that speculate about hitting this or this before reacting: nuclear weapons take a certain time to reach a target and retaliation would

by thu 10y ago

For those in this thread that speculate about hitting this or this before reacting: nuclear weapons take a certain time to reach a target and retaliation would happen before _any_ nuclear explosion occurs.

hga 10y ago
In the MAD era, there was the theory that we (the US) had a sufficiently robust retaliatory infrastructure that we could ride out the first wave of a first strike and only launch, or in the case of bombers give the PAL codes to arm the warheads to the crews, after the first nuclear explosions happened and were sufficiently confirmed. Launch on Warning was always recognized as an inherently dangerous doctrine.