August 09, 2005

• Eeek. I feel the need to watch Dr. Strangelove again.
• The U.S. interceptor aircraft were armed with nuclear missiles. We had nuclear aircraft-to-aircraft nuclear missles? What possible rationale is there for such a weapon?
• rdr, thats assuming that the purpose of the interceptor aircraft really was to intercept other aircraft.
• After a bit of research it appears that we did indeed build nuclear air-to-air missles. According to that article the missles were nuclear tipped because the radar guidance systems were not accurate enough to ensure a kill. I'm impressed by the incredible levels of stupidity neeeded to design and deploy such a weapon. Apparently, the air force was also bothered by the fact that the weapon couldn't be used against low-flying aircraft over friendly territory and they phased them out.
• Wow rdr, I'm shocked too. It sounds like the device would have to be kamikaze.
• Our nuclear air-to-air missiles, probably the AIM-26 Falcon. It was to be used against enemy bomber formations.
• The Fog of War
• We're talking about mishaps, right? So intentionally setting all U.S. launch codes to zeroes wouldn't count. Here's a quote: To launch a Minuteman in those days, one had to "unlock" the missile by dialing in a code -- the equivalent of a safety catch on a handgun. However, Blair reports, the U.S. Strategic Air Command was worried that a bunch of sissy safety features might slow things down. It ordered all locks set to 00000000 -- and in launch checklists, reminded all launch officers like Blair to keep the codes there. "So the 'secret unlock code' during the height of the nuclear crises of the Cold War," Blair says, "remained constant at 00000000." Blair recently buttonholed Robert McNamara, the former U.S. defense secretary best known for overseeing the escalation of our war in Vietnam. It was McNamara who ordered that safety locks be put on Minuteman missiles, and he spoke with great pride of this as a reform crucial to preventing accidental nuclear war. So when Blair told him the code was fixed at a line of zeros, he flipped. "I am shocked, absolutely shocked and outraged," McNamara said. "Who the hell authorized that?"
• don't know why, but what stands out most from that excerpt is the bizarre usage of the word 'buttonhole'. Are they saying that Blair physically restrained McNamara during conversation?
• It just means that he detained him in conversation without distraction, I think. Rather an outdated turn of phrase.
• eh, that stands out most?
• Hey, let's all buttonhole uhmyang.
• Buttonholed? I've always thought it to be a perfectly cromulent expression. Seriously, I don't even find it outdated.
• chy: thanks. i'm a youngin'. rorschach: i guess that i'm somehow not surprised that a killing machine would slyly find a way to be clockwork lethal. not that i condone or agree with it ---just saying. mr. knicker: i'll butthonhole myself. no need for a group effort...though i do appreciate the thought. makes me feel noticed.
• I'M A YOUNGIN TOO /harumph
• Sobering to consider how close each mistake could have done permanent damage. However, after reading each entry, I have the mental image of Gilda Radner as Emily Litella saying "Never mind."
• /buttonholes uhmyang anyways
• Just don't cornhole.
• monkeyfilter: where i go to get buttonholed.
• Wow, they actually missed the, IMHO, most dangerous 'misshap' of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was when US destroyers started to depth charge the Soviet submarine B-59. We're still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but the most alarming version is that only patient argument from the political officer stopped the captain from ordering the detonation of B-59's nuclear torpedo.
• In regards to the 'kamakaze' comment... this is something I'm trying to deal with in my own work on the subject. Something really strange happened at the start of the Cold War. When American sailors first encountered Japanese suicide planes they were shocked and incomprehending. Within five years of the Japanese surrender, however, both the US and the USSR had designed and deployed suicide weapons.
• Hm... I wish this guy had more thoroughly documented his sources. I know someone who's read Penkovsky's interrogation transcripts and would be able to clear up the ambiguity about the Penkovsky false warning.
• "..they actually missed the.." Yeah, see, that was the one I linked, noting that it was not a false alarm as such. The depth charge incident. Hence my commentary that there may be lots of other incidents that we don't know about. These ones are just the false alarms. Not real conflict incidents. Depth charge dealio was a fuckup, but then any warlike shit is a fuckup; these are cockups of a different order. Like, you know, if I'm gonna get blasted into a shadow on the wall, I at least expect it to be because someone made a conscious decision rather than it being a jumpy prick reacting to a flyspeck on the radar screen or something.
• Oops, sorry Chyren. I didn't read carefully and assumed you were linking to the Petrov case. The B-59 case was as much a missunderstanding as the others. B-59's captain was unsure of whether he was being attacked. The Americans thought the Soviets knew about the signal ordering them to surface. To this date, we don't know how many of what kind of ordinance the Americans dropped. When we find that out it will go a long way towards clearing up the mysteries of the incident.
• I apologise if I seemed to snap, I have been in an ill humour through worries.
• If I have to kill myself to hurt you, well then we'll be best friends.
• It's all that Urban Dead you've been playing, Chy . A man starts looking for zombies everywhere, and that'll set anyone on edge.
• More bizarre nuclear trivia: Used to know a guy who got all patriot and joined the Marines during Gulf War I (and later rued making the decision in such a manner, though not being a Marine). He came back for a visit a year after boot camp. He'd been assigned to a squad whose permanent job was guarding the nuclear weapons on an aircraft carrier. Their duty cycle was 48 hours on, then something like 3-4 days off. Nothing guards like those punchy young soldiers after 47 hours awake!
• Interesting, but the author starts losing some credibility for misspelling promiment place names. Fillingdales Moors (Fylingdales Moors) Ellesmore Island (Ellesmere Island) Vandenberg AFB (Vandenburg AFB) etc
• accidentally switched the bad & good in the last one... s/b "Vandenberg AFB"
• Within five years of the Japanese surrender, however, both the US and the USSR had designed and deployed suicide weapons. Linkies?
• Agreed; this would be so much scarier if it were better documented. Still the very notion is scary. BOO! A flash of light and a trigger finger. It's a matter of time.
• It appears that the bombs on the GAR-11s were pretty low yield, around a quarter kiloton. The range on the missles were short, about seven miles. I'm guessing that this meant that a pilot could launch them, turn away from the explosion, and not die instantly so in that sense I guess they weren't kamikaze weapons. The core of Mutual Assured Destruction is the threat of a suicidal attack so in that sense the nuclear buildup is a kamikaze system.
• "Funny sort of game where the only winning move is not to play at all." Fancy a nice game of chess?
• Linkies? Sorry, but I don't really have good links. Most of my stuff is on paper (and I'm too lazy to go back finding reference for you!). There was the US Navy's plan to use A-1 Skyraiders to 'loft' nuclear bombs. The US had a nuclear torpedo called the ASTOR, and the Soviets had several nuclear torpedo designs (scroll down to where it says "Nuclear-Capable Torpedoes"). Note that these CW era weapons were not explicitly designated as suicide weapons. However, they were widely understood by both planners and those who wielded them to be certain death for the user. Note also that this has to be seen seperately from the idea of MAD, which came along much later in the CW and, to be perfectly honest, was never something the Soviets fully subscribed to anyway.