"Dead Hand" System Still Operational

SS-18 "Satan" Russian ICBM launch.

On December 8th, 1991 the Belovezh Agreement was signed, thus dissolving the Soviet union and establishing a Commonwealth of Independent States.

Known to only a few Americans at the time was the fact that the Soviet Union had developed what was, essentially, a doomsday machine which became operational in 1985. The system was developed in response to the Russian perception that Ronald Reagan would initiate a massive pre-emptive strike on the Soviet Union.

Details of the system, known by the Soviets as "Perimeter" and by the West as the "Dead Hand" system, are as follows:

"Perimeter ensures the ability to strike back, but it's no hair-trigger device. It was designed to lie semi-dormant until switched on by a high official in a crisis. Then it would begin monitoring a network of seismic, radiation, and air pressure sensors for signs of nuclear explosions. Before launching any retaliatory strike, the system had to check off four if/then propositions: If it was turned on, then it would try to determine that a nuclear weapon had hit Soviet soil. If it seemed that one had, the system would check to see if any communication links to the war room of the Soviet General Staff remained. If they did, and if some amount of time—likely ranging from 15 minutes to an hour—passed without further indications of attack, the machine would assume officials were still living who could order the counterattack and shut down. But if the line to the General Staff went dead, then Perimeter would infer that apocalypse had arrived. It would immediately transfer launch authority to whoever was manning the system at that moment deep inside a protected bunker—bypassing layers and layers of normal command authority. At that point, the ability to destroy the world would fall to whoever was on duty: maybe a high minister sent in during the crisis, maybe a 25-year-old junior officer fresh out of military academy. And if that person decided to press the button ... If/then. If/then. If/then. If/then.

Once initiated, the counterattack would be controlled by so-called command missiles. Hidden in hardened silos designed to withstand the massive blast and electromagnetic pulses of a nuclear explosion, these missiles would launch first and then radio down coded orders to whatever Soviet weapons had survived the first strike. At that point, the machines will have taken over the war. Soaring over the smoldering, radioactive ruins of the motherland, and with all ground communications destroyed, the command missiles would lead the destruction of the US."

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The problem is that this system is STILL OPERATIONAL. The other issue is that while the Russians have been saying that they have detargeted their missiles, the fact that Perimeter is still operational means that the missiles must have targeting data since it will not be possible to add the data once the system is activated. Thus if China launches a massive surprise nuclear strike on Russia and their missiles are targeted at the U.S., then Perimeter will launch the missiles at the U.S.

Now that we know Perimeter is still active, it places our relationship with the Russians in a bit of a different light than was previously the case. It also gives Putin a huge ace in the hole. (Don Rich has done some excellent research on Putin and Russia, his earlier posts are worth checking out)

The Russians know they can pretty much do what they want with impunity since we would not risk complete destruction by ever launching a first strike at Russia------certainly Obama would never consider this as an option.

Sleep well tonight everyone.