Name: How to Launch a Nuclear Missile
Uploaded: 2020-03-28T18:36:45.000Z
Duration: 7 min 42 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

During the Cold War the US and the Soviet Union had to build underground silos to house

nuclear missiles that could be launched at a few minutes notice.

Modal verbs - B1

Now, one of the technical challenges they had to overcome that you might not think of

Launching a missile in such a confined silo generates

a loud sound, so loud that it would've shaken apart the missiles

So the walls of the inside of the silo had to be covered

very similar to those in the world's quietest room.

But after all of the technical challenges were sorted,

what I wanted to know was 'how could they have launched these missiles

very quickly, if needed, but also never by accident?'

So I visited one of these Titan missile silos in the Arizona desert

to find out exactly what it would have taken to launch a nuclear missile.

Well, Derek this is level 2 of the silo, we are down some 10 meters below the surface now.

The largest and most powerful missile weapons system ever deployed by the United States.

The idea behind Titan II was to instill enough fear in the mind of the enemy,

to cause them to think twice about launching an attack against us.

Knowing that 10 meters below the desert in our fortified concrete bunker,

we could ride out their first strike, and live to retaliate, if we're forced to do that,

the consequences for the enemy would be so unspeakably horrible

that maybe they would prefer not to get into it with us in the first place.

This missile is no longer active, but the launch system is preserved.

And I wanted an insight into how it felt to control this incredible power.

There were 54 of these silos, each one staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Ready to launch their missiles on the exclusive order of the President of the United States.

Alright then, have a seat here Commander.

So, this is the control center, this is where the crew waited to launch the missile.

And how do we know when we need to launch?

On radio: 'Alpha, 2, 3, Charlie, Hotel, Victor' (A23CHV)

So, we're going to write down every letter and number that we hear in a form in this notebook.

I'm going to write it down in this notebook.

We'll compare each other's work. If we agree that we've copied the message correctly,

then we have what's called a 'valid message,'

and authorization to take our lock off the big red safe.

You know your combination, I know mine, we don't know each other,

In the secret message, they sent us a seven-character code word.

We're going to look at the first two letters of the code word, we're going to find the authenticator

If the card here matches the code word they sent us, then this is a legitimate order to go.

That gives us permission to put in our launch keys. I've already put them in for us.

Key right here for you, commander. And for me there's a key right over here.

The keys are far enough apart that not even a long-armed guy like me can reach them both.

The keys must be turned within 2 seconds of each other

so held for 5 seconds to start the launch.

That guarantees that two people will be required to do it.

You just can't run back and forth and do it yourself.

And last but not least, we need the secret unlock code for the missle.

Six little wheels. Each little wheel has 16 letters of the alphabet.

This is the fail safe that prevents an unauthorized or accidental launch of the missle.

So once we have all those things: authentication, keys, code, we're good to go.

Give me a countdown, "3-2-1 Turn keys", we'll send this thing on it's way.

The green light turns on. Its says "Launch enable".

For all intents and purposes, that should say "Welcome to World War III"

Because that's pretty much what it boils down to.

When you turn the key you are committed. There is no "Oops" switch anywhere.

When the batteries come to full power, the missile will transfer to internal power,

About that same time, the silo door starts to slide open.

It will slide through security radar beams and set off the alarm.

"Guidance Go" means the internal guidance computer has full control of the mission.

In a few seconds we'll have main engine start.

From engine start we will build up thrust.

So that's it? We just basically just ended life on Earth.

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How to Launch a Nuclear Missile

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