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  • What if the President of the United States decides to launch a nuclear strike?

  • President Trump started 2018 with a tweet chiding North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un thathe

  • too has a nuclear button”....

  • And it's “bigger and more powerfulthan Kim's

  • But launching a missile involves much more than pushing a button.

  • And really, there is no button.

  • Here's what would actually need to happen.

  • The president must first discuss the plan with a group of military and civilian advisers.

  • That group includes the Pentagon's deputy director of operations, and the head of U.S.

  • Strategic Command- anyone else in the group is at the President's discretion.

  • The call either takes place in the White House Situation Room or the president can be patched

  • in on a secure line.

  • Some of the advisers may try to change the president's mind or resign in protest, but

  • ultimately, the Pentagon must do whatever the commander-in-chief orders.

  • That meeting with advisors can be as short as 30 seconds.

  • Next the president gives the order to launch.

  • But before the Pentagon can prepare the launch order, it must first verify that the

  • person ordering the strike is indeed the president.

  • An officer in the Pentagon's war room reads what's known as a “challenge code”.

  • For example, “Delta-Echo.”

  • The president retrieves thebiscuit,” a laminated card the president or a military

  • aide carries at all times, and finds the matching response to the challenge code:

  • For example, “Charlie-Zulu”.

  • Once the codes match, the launch order goes out.

  • The war room prepares a message containing the war plan, time of launch, authentication

  • codes and the codes needed to unlock the missiles before firing them.

  • That message is only about 150 characters long

  • It's encoded, encrypted and broadcast to launch crews.at this point only about 2-to-3

  • minutes may have passed since the initial conference call.

  • Within seconds, a submarine and five ICBM crews in various underground bunkers receive

  • the launch orders.

  • They open safes and compare their Sealed Authentication System codes (SAS) to those sent by the war

  • room.

  • This will confirm that the order is authentic.

  • If the codes match, the crews enter the war plan number into their launch computers.

  • They type additional code to unlock the missiles, and at the designated time of launch, the

  • five crews simultaneously turn a launch key retrieved from their safe

  • It only takes two crews to launch, so three can refuse to do any of the prior steps and

  • the missile or missiles will still fire.

  • For missiles are launched from a submarine, there is no second key - the crew has full

  • power to launch.

  • From here, there is no turning back.

  • It's been about AS LITTLE AS 5 minutes from the time the president decided to launch a

  • nuclear missle to the time the missle or missile(s) blast out of their silos.

  • It will take submarine missiles an additional 15 minutes until they shoot out of their tubes.

  • Once it fires, a missile and its warhead cannot be called back.

What if the President of the United States decides to launch a nuclear strike?

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