[A Navy Vet]

I don't get this. I thought our nukes could only launch from many confirmed orders by the President and his military Joint Chiefs. The nuclear football is another the fail-safe system. Supposedly, the encrypted codes change daily, which the President has to carry on his person at all times.

The one good thing to come out of the Cold War with the Soviets is our mutual agreement for our complete control over each other's nuke control.

I call BS on this article.

[A Navy Vet]

"A former commander of U.S. nuclear forces is leading a call for taking U.S. and Russian nuclear missiles off high alert, arguing that keeping them less ready for prompt launch would reduce the risk of miscalculation in a crisis."

Well, of course.

"It also could keep a possible cyberattack from starting a nuclear war, he said, although neither Washington nor Moscow appears interested in negotiating an agreement to end the practice of keeping nuclear missiles on high alert."

Huh? Contradictory to the above.

"Retired Gen. James Cartwright said in an interview that “de-alerting” nuclear arsenals could foil cyber intruders by reducing the chance of firing a weapon in response to a false warning of attack."

Okay, not being a computer hacker type, I still wonder how the hackers could get into such a closed system and initiate nuclear war. Think about all the early warning terrestial and satellite systems. As I said above, it would take more than hacked messages. Even Obambi isn't that stupid nor are the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There are so many redundant procedures in place, the most brilliant computer hacker in the world could not over-ride those protocols. Russia has the same as does France, England, India. Nor so sure about China or Pakistan.

Thinking this guy is looking for a book deal.

[The Free Engineer]

Nukes not on high alert are subject to sneak attack.

[redfreedom]

I was given a tour of a launch control facility. Once the orders are given to launch, it takes two people to fire them, they must physically operate a switch, one for each officer. I also think I recall them saying there is a physical override, meaning they need permission from a sister launch facility to prevent two whacko officers starting a war.

Unless the cyber hackers have figured out a way to hack human minds with their computers, this sounds like utter crap. Some leftist stuff trying to shut down our defense preparedness.

This would increase response time from minutes to hours in which time much of our defenses could be destroyed. Instead of targeting each launch facility, they’d only have to target the base the officers are quartered at.

[Bryanw92]

I served on an SSBN during the Cold War and the fact that we were on high alert all the time (with the added stress of hundreds of feet of cold ocean over our heads) kept us on our toes so we didn’t make mistakes.

Of course, our generation had an attention span that was was not measured in single digit seconds.

[familyop]

It’s all physically isolated from publicly accessible networks, and it’s not all computerized. Several sophisticated checks are required of human beings in different locations. The General has some other reason for trying to get the attention.

[OldMissileer]

I am not quite sure as to what the former commander means by “High Alert.” Either the missiles are turned on and ready to launch or else it would takes several days to bring up a Wing of 150 missiles to Alert status.

The ICBM force was designed to be ready to launch at a moments notice and there are really no intermediate physical stages of alert status for them to have. They are either ready to launch or they take a lot of time to bring them up.

[A Navy Vet]

“Retired Gen. James Cartwright said in an interview that “de-alerting” nuclear arsenals could foil cyber intruders by reducing the chance of firing a weapon in response to a false warning of attack. […]

Simple Aviation Navy here, but what does a state of readiness (whatever color or alert) has to do with a cyber intruder doing his thing for a false warning? I really am code challenged...can anyone explain this to me? And what would be “de-alerting” and how what that curtail said cyber hacker? Way over my pay grade.

[Nip]

Let us see.

A USMC General - good on him with a four year tour as Vice Chairman of the AJCS. Again, good on him.

But, how much hands on experience does he have with SIOP nuclear weapons and weapons systems?

According to him we should have had at least one accidental launch from the triad while we had numerous nuclear weapons on high alert during the Cold War (1961 - 1995). Does anyone remember such an incident/

Sorry, but DOD has learned the hard way, again, that nuclear weapons aren’t the same as conventional weapons and expertise in one doesn’t necessarily transfer to the other.