BBC Radio 4 aired a documentary called The Human Button last night about the command and control system for Britain’s Trident fleet—and it’s available to listen to online for the next 5 days.
I haven’t heard the full thing yet but it is presented by the outstanding Peter Hennessey and covers some of the issues I blogged about a year or so ago. He got a very high level of access for the program, including being present on a submarine for a launch drill. He also interviewed Dennis Healey, a former Defence Secretary, who interestingly says that had the decision come to him he would have decided not to retaliate.
There’s a summary of the program here with some pictures including this classic piece of excruciating Britishness:
Caption: “The printed message is collected by the submarine’s executive officer who carries it to the control room. They hold the printed message aloft with an officer behind checking to make sure the message has not been switched.”
They do this walk with Action Messages on Ohio Class SSBNs as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if the authentication system is identical, actually, since the missiles themselves are the same.
I wonder – what will happen if both officers are in the game ?
Or is this question not appropriate here ?
Ak Malten
Pro Peaceful Energy Use
http://www.cornnet.nl/~akmalten/Global_Warming/For_a_greener_planet.html#2
I’d say, bad things, possibly. But you can extend that way of thinking all the way into “what if the entire crew” or even “what if every single citizen was in the game?” They just have to assess the risks and draw a line somewhere, hopefully where the security measures aren’t more likely to cause an inadvertent launch than an infiltrator is to mess with the process. Be it in attempt to cause an unauthorized launch or prevent an authorized one.
are these the same dudes who ran the sub aground cause they were using tracing paper on the charts?
Yeah, I really trust them with Nukes.
Figures the BBC uses evil RealPlayer
Interesting that one of the four options in the “last resort letter” (in which the Prime Minister gives instruction to the submarine commander in case the UK has been destroyed) is to place the submarine under the command of the United States or Australia. Thus, in case of war, Australia would become a nuclear weapon state – and quickly. Presumably, the justification for this apparent violation of the NPT would be similar to the reasoning behind NATO nuclear sharing, under which control over U.S. nukes would also be handed over to NNWS, ie. that in case of “war” the NPT was no longer binding because it had failed its basic purpose – war prevention.