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No, the situation is that the security is something you are rather than something you have. To initiate a launch against PRC, Russia would have had to fake bei
by manicdee 6y ago
No, the situation is that the security is something you are rather than something you have.
To initiate a launch against PRC, Russia would have had to fake being the President and the entourage including various military brass who would have been able to confirm the identity of the elected official.
Thus the nuclear launch codes served the same purpose as red mercury.
- sgt101 6y agoThis isn't how the launch orders are issued. Submarines do not have a voice channel to the president, or to the military command. They receive coded signals that instruct them to take particular actions. Creating the appropriate coded signal is a fundamental part of the launch control chain. Also if the president is killed, and the vice president and the head of the senate... eventually the question is "who has the codes" - if it was "something you are" then the first thing that an adversary would do is kill the are and then follow up as they pleased while the c&c system flailed.
- manicdee 6y agoThe codes used to signal submarines are demonstrably not the “nuclear launch codes”. The military hierarchy is established and chain of command is already established for contingencies like “who gives orders when the top brass are assassinated.”
- sgt101 6y agoNo - they are not the launch codes, but the submarines need a launch authority. Apart from the ones that listen out for The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and then open a letter in a safe.