The Remarkable Mechanism That Secures Nuclear Weapons

Comments · 826

• NE

  @NewMind · 2 years ago · pinned

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• RE

  @rekire___ · 2 years ago

  Wait till lockpicking lawyer said &quot;inexcusable design flaws&quot;

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• ZA

  @Zardox-The-Heretic-Slayer · 2 years ago

  next gen nuclear weapons will require you to input an impossible to read captcha to arm it and a subscription to change the yield.

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• GJ

  @GJones462-2W1 · 2 years ago

  I was a weapons systems specialist in the USAF in the 80&apos;s and 90&apos;s. On the B-61 bombs we loaded, we connected a device called the PAL/USG. Permissive Action Link / Unique Signal Generator that transfered the codes to the Pilot, and the Weapons Systems Operator on the F-111F&apos;s I worked on. Exercises were run using the actual live weapons, and we went through the routine, as if it were for real. The jets ran down the runway, but killed the throttles, and hit the brakes, and returned to the victor alert area. You can&apos;t fly with nuclear weapons anymore, unless you were actually going to use them, as intended. Those exercises were a real sobering, eye-opening experience. Seeing this vid brings back a LOT of memories....

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• DA

  @daveb4446 · 2 years ago

  Im surprised he didn’t talk about the time a quarter of the entire nuclear arsenal had to be rebuilt because neutron absorbers used as safeties ended up crumbling and getting stuck in the cores.

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• FR

  @fredericklockard3854 · 2 years ago

  I worked on the Nike Hercules missiles in the 80s. Our PAL device was different of course, but putting the codes in under the duress of inspectors watching while in MOPP level 4 was extremely stressful and intense. We practiced weekly.

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• WO

  @woodwaker1 · 2 years ago

  I found this very interesting. &nbsp;I was in the USAF 1969-1973 as a crypto maintenance tech. &nbsp;After school for 1 year I was assigned to Offutt AFB which was SAC HQ and I maintained the Crypto gear in the underground command center as well as the many communication centers. &nbsp;I was able to see the machine that encoded the missile coordinates that were fed into the ground based systems. &nbsp;Lots of changes since then.

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• BL

  @bluegizmo1983 · 2 years ago

  All that insane clockwork like design for a highly sophisticated locking mechanism, and it&apos;ll never be seen by anyone and will be vaporized if it&apos;s ever used for its intended purpose.

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• PA

  @patrickvolk7031 · 2 years ago

  Nuclear weapons are designed to be two-point safe. Two points of failure will not allow a nuclear detonation. There also is another concept, which sounds scary; instead of fail-safe, it is fail-deadly. A failure will render the weapon unusable, and not necessarily in a manner where it can be reused. A fizzle is a possible fail-deadly outcome, which is essentially a dirty bomb without the nuclear payload going critical. There is some environmental checks, where the warhead doesn&apos;t arm unless it is launched, reaches space, and achieves a ballistic trajectory (e.g. you can&apos;t take a warhead and detonate it on your own).<br> &nbsp;They also have training and tactical settings.

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• RA

  @rael5469 · 2 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1LPmAF2eNA&amp;t=1040">17:20</a> &nbsp;Those are the type of coded switch we had on the bombers in the 1980s. We were always told that we didn&apos;t want our finger prints to be found on that.....for obvious reasons.

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• MA

  @martinoamello3017 · 2 years ago (edited)

  My brother was in AF missile security in the 70s @ Malmstrom AFB. Every day he had to enter a long numerical code that changed every day. He kept the old readouts that looked like a long grocery receipt from hell. I don&apos;t think he still has them. Being disposable they were useless once changed daily.

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• PD

  @Pds3.14 · 2 years ago

  Douglas MacArthur: &quot;can I have use a nucle-<br><br>Everyone: <b>absolutely not</b>

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