MURUSI
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 25, 2013
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Dead Hand was a weapon of last resort. It was created to ensure that even if the Soviet leadership was wiped out, a nuclear response could still be launched against the West and NATO in retaliation.
After Dead Hand was activated by Soviet military officials, "the first thing it does is check the communication lines to work out if there's anyone alive and in charge of the Soviet military," Alok Jha, author of "The Doomsday Handbook," told National Geographic. "If they're not alive, it takes over."
If Dead Hand did not detect signs of a preserved military hierarchy, the system would perform a check for signals of a nuclear attack, such as a change in air pressure, extreme light, and radioactivity.
If the system concluded that a nuclear strike had taken place, Dead Hand would proceed to launch all of the remaining nuclear weapons from all of the silos throughout the Soviet Union at targets across the Northern Hemisphere.
Of course, no system is fool-proof, and there are concerns that Dead Hand could still operate at some level within the modern Russian military and accidentally trigger the launch of Russia's active nukes.
"We've since asked the Russians if it's still on," Nichols writes at The National Interest, "and they've assured us, with complete confidence, that we should mind our own business."
After Dead Hand was activated by Soviet military officials, "the first thing it does is check the communication lines to work out if there's anyone alive and in charge of the Soviet military," Alok Jha, author of "The Doomsday Handbook," told National Geographic. "If they're not alive, it takes over."
If Dead Hand did not detect signs of a preserved military hierarchy, the system would perform a check for signals of a nuclear attack, such as a change in air pressure, extreme light, and radioactivity.
If the system concluded that a nuclear strike had taken place, Dead Hand would proceed to launch all of the remaining nuclear weapons from all of the silos throughout the Soviet Union at targets across the Northern Hemisphere.
Of course, no system is fool-proof, and there are concerns that Dead Hand could still operate at some level within the modern Russian military and accidentally trigger the launch of Russia's active nukes.
"We've since asked the Russians if it's still on," Nichols writes at The National Interest, "and they've assured us, with complete confidence, that we should mind our own business."
