4 ms·

I wonder if there are other, still classified instances where the weapon has almost been launched. If lt. colonel Petrov was aware of the limitations of the ear

I wonder if there are other, still classified instances where the weapon has almost been launched. If lt. colonel Petrov was aware of the limitations of the early warning system then there must have been other faults as well - I bet there have been problems with the early warning system on both sides...

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Ever hear of the bomb the US accidentally dropped on the mainland? When they recovered it, they discovered the bomb had armed itself and that all the safety mechanisms failed except one.
- leeoniya 9y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash
- SilverSlash 9y ago
  What the hell?! How many times are we going to be lucky before something goes very wrong. I hope they are a lot more careful now, and I mean all sides.
  - dbdr 9y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35g
- ams6110 9y ago
  That's why redundant systems are good. It worked as designed.
teel 9y ago
The Okinawa missiles of October was a story that looked like a close call (to me at least!). It was on HN couple of years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10452983 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10452983
aswanson 9y ago
There was an incident in 1979 where a US military center thought Russia was firing.
Gargoyle 9y ago
I recently read the non-fiction book Command And Control by Eric Schlosser. It's structured around an incident when a Titan II missile blew up in its silo in Arkansas, throwing the warhead out of the silo and into the air. Anyway, it uses that incident to go back in history and explain the development of nuclear weapons and how the command and control systems we have today came about. A lot of it was driven to prevent all sorts of near-miss accidents that have happened in the past. We've been really, really lucky. Highly recommend the book, especially for the HN crowd. It's good prose, but gets deep enough into the tech and system details that you come away with a solid understanding of how it all works.
- billh 9y ago
  This was made into a documentary and is currently available on Netflix. If you can spare 90 minutes check it out, it's a hell of a good watch. https://www.netflix.com/title/80107656 https://www.netflix.com/title/80107656

sillysaurus3 9y ago

Ever hear of the bomb the US accidentally dropped on the mainland? When they recovered it, they discovered the bomb had armed itself and that all the safety mechanisms failed except one.

leeoniya 9y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash
SilverSlash 9y ago
What the hell?! How many times are we going to be lucky before something goes very wrong. I hope they are a lot more careful now, and I mean all sides.
- dbdr 9y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35g
ams6110 9y ago
That's why redundant systems are good. It worked as designed.

teel 9y ago

The Okinawa missiles of October was a story that looked like a close call (to me at least!). It was on HN couple of years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10452983 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10452983

aswanson 9y ago

There was an incident in 1979 where a US military center thought Russia was firing.

Gargoyle 9y ago

I recently read the non-fiction book Command And Control by Eric Schlosser. It's structured around an incident when a Titan II missile blew up in its silo in Arkansas, throwing the warhead out of the silo and into the air. Anyway, it uses that incident to go back in history and explain the development of nuclear weapons and how the command and control systems we have today came about. A lot of it was driven to prevent all sorts of near-miss accidents that have happened in the past. We've been really, really lucky. Highly recommend the book, especially for the HN crowd. It's good prose, but gets deep enough into the tech and system details that you come away with a solid understanding of how it all works.

billh 9y ago
This was made into a documentary and is currently available on Netflix. If you can spare 90 minutes check it out, it's a hell of a good watch. https://www.netflix.com/title/80107656 https://www.netflix.com/title/80107656