A follow on fro :
We stand here together as friends now, but I would like to take you back in time. I would like to bring you all back to the year 1984. The world stands on the brink of nuclear holocaust. And we are Soviet Sailors, aboard our motherland’s most recent achievement, charged with the defense of our home.
This ship we stand aboard was built for no other reason, than to ensure the United States could not initiate a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. She was funded in a panic, General Secretary Andropov driven to nuclear paranoia by the Cowboy in the White House and his Star Wars system that threatened the delicate balance of fear. It was known that the United States did not have a no first use policy. It was believed that, in the event of a war, the United States would have no option but to use nuclear weapons first.
And knowing this, Secretary Andropov lived in absolute terror of a surprise United States attack.
This terror, and the exercise of 1983 lead the world to the brink of accidental disaster. This ship was built as his assurance, that we could defend ourself should the need arise. He died before this ship ever took to the sea.
It was no secret to the Soviet Union that the United States Navy could track our missile submarines using an underwater sonar net. The Soviet Union lacked stealth technology of the Americans for our bombers.
They came up with a two part solution. A monumental effort on the part of the KGB to detect the very moment when the decision to launch was made within the White House, and this ship, made to prevent that decision from ever being enacted.
Capable of one week autonomous operation with fuel load capable of transiting the Atlantic ocean. She would be launched the moment it looked like a crisis was developing to a dangerous position. She would cross the ocean beneath the detection of early warning radars and above the sonar nets, sounding no different from any other aircraft. Uncatchable by submarine. Undetectable below radar. She would carry her payload to the coast of United States and lay off the coast of their largest city, listening, while above, our missiles waited.
Above our heads sit six missile tubes capable of carrying 1 missile each. Each missile can travel over four hundred kilometres to its target under ramjet power, at speeds exceeding Mach 3 and altitudes far below what can be detected by American radar systems.
Would a volunteer care to come forward and sit in the gunner’s seat?
Thank you, Mister Hidaka. Here is your missile key and code book. Beside you is a radio, a direct line to Moscow. The order will come through as a series of numbers. You write them down on your book with that grease pencil.
I would like you to imagine that you are a crewman on this ship at that time. To feel the weight of his responsibility. You know with certainty that the order could come at any moment. The world teeters on the brink. Your home. Your family. They wait, trusting you to your duty so they will not suffer the horror of atomic holocaust. It sits in the back of your mind.
The silence hangs. Day to day you wait as the doomsday clock ticks onwards, listening to the reports of the building crisis – hoping.
The order would come with an electronic alarm from the radio room below – just like that. One. Two. Three alarms, the chimes of midnight, and then the voice of Moscow would speak to the crew. You would write down the letters you hear.
“????????????. ???m22?”
In the radio room below, the operator copies. He bursts through that hatch and hands you his code book. The Captain, me, hands you mine. All three of us compare.
I think this is an authentic message. Do you concur? Bear in mind. We only have seconds to save everyone we care about from annihilation in atomic fire.
So, Hidaka we concur. This is a valid message.
Beside you is a safe. Two keys will open that safe. Yours and mine. Insert your key into the lock on the right. One. Two. Three, and Turn. The safe opens and now we have our orders waiting for us in packets.
Pick the one where the first two letters match the first two in our code. Open it.
Quickly. Any delay might let them launch their weapons first. Seconds count.
Now. Compare the remaining letters with the codes on the sheet and pray it is the first one.
Abort.
Mission 1.
Mission 2.
Mission 3.
Mission 4.
Our order is Mission 2. An order from Moscow, to launch our missiles towards a target we do not know. Do you concur this is correct? Do the codes match?
Good. It is a valid message, containing a valid order to launch.
The use of Nuclear weapons has been authorised.
We have moments. First, enter the remaining 3 digits into the target computer. One. Two. Three. Lock. This commits the targeting package to the ship’s guidance, aiming it at its final destination. Computers determine the missile flightpath from our position and prepare the final solution.
A green light on this indicator indicates a valid target.
Now. There are two key locks. Each one must be operated within one second of the other. Each one must be held down within five seconds. One key lock is beside you. The other, is on this console here, which I will operate. This arrangement ensures no one person may fire the missiles. It takes two of us. Both of us complicit.
Take your key and insert it into the slot. On my command, turn the key.
Three. Two. One. Turn. Now. Hold. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Release
That light on the panel tells you that the missiles are now active. It might as well now say welcome to World War Three.
There are no aborts. There is no ‘oops’. The computers are now in control. The end result is as inevitable as the sun rising.
Missile batteries are now active. The missile is now entirely self-powering.
Targeting package has been uploaded to the missiles guidance computer. It confirms a valid package has been received.
The silo-soft alarm warns that both missile doors have now opened.
Fuel valves open in the missile. Ignitors spray a jet of hot magnesium sparks.
These three lights warn of the fires within the missile bay as the engines start. You now hear the roar of the boosters, the whole ship shaking as the first missile launches, a cloud of smoke and fire enveloping the ship.
That missile is now on its way to its target. Unstoppable. Irrevocable. Five more would normally launch in sequence, but we can only afford to fire one today.
Whether you have just saved the world from nuclear holocaust, or just dropped the match into the gasoline, is for what is left history to decide.
If they are lucky, they will detect it incoming, but likely not. They are looking for ballistic missiles, which lob high in the air, not a cruise missile hugging the terrain. All it will do is warn them. The missile cannot be stopped. It is too fast for fighters to catch. Too low for SAMs to shoot down. In three minutes time, that missile you just fired will reach the White House, where it will activate. In a microsecond, a terrible new sun will be born two hundred metres above the White House garden. The grass will freeze to carbon. President Reagan will live long enough to see the flash from the comfort of Marine One as it tries to take off to carry him to his E6-B command aircraft. He and his staff will know nothing afterwards. Neither will their families. Or hundreds of thousands of others. Annihilated in a moment. The centre of Washington DC and anyone there will evapourate to dust.
The rest of the city will know hell. Those in the open incinerate alive. Those indoors are shredded by flying glass, or crushed by collapsing buildings. The firestorm turns the rest to ashes.
A second missile will arrive at the Pentagon, razing it from the face of the earth. A third will target Andrews air-force base. A fourth and fifth will hit Norfolk, Virginia. The final missile, operating at the limits of its range, will endeavor to hit Raven Rock Mountain Complex. The core of the US national command authority, and most of it's military strength will be crippled in a moment. Then comes the fallout, ground up and turned to poison in the nuclear furnish, blighting what was left alive.
The Americans will still have the ability to launch without the President, but it will take them time to work out who and how and with what. Who has the authority, and how will they give the command. Time enough to reconsider, to realise they have already lost. For their boomers to be hunted down. For their missiles to be destroyed by our main force already inbound.
The United States as it has been will cease to be. And we are people who have committed the gravest of sins. Whatever happens, the world of tomorrow will be irrevocably different from the one of today. So sit back and enjoy this last two minutes of peace, before hell itself is unleashed.
It is now time for us to return to home, and hope that it is still there when we arrive.
Thank you, Mister Hidaka, for your help. You can stay seated if you’d like.
Fortunately, that is the closest any of us will ever get, to knowing what it feels like to start World War Three. But take that feeling with you, and know….
Six months ago, research rockets launched from this ship nearly caused the greatest catstrophe in history. A new error. The world came within seconds of nuclear war, and for what?
Research probes, seeded into the aurora borealis by a researcher from Manchester University.
All proper procedures and notifications were followed, pipework filed, acknowledged and stamped. and still, the system failed. We do not know how close the Russian or American governments truly came to war – for obvious reasons, they have decided not to share. But think on the process you have just witnessed – the automation – the inevitability of it.
Once set in motion, it cannot be put down. Once the fuse is lit, it cannot be cut.
That the hellfire of these weapons could come within a moment of being unleashed, even today, due to a simple bureaucrat losing a scrap of paper should serve as a warning to us all.
Put away these dangerous toys for good. Banish them from the face of existence. Never again should the error of eighty years ago be repeated.
We stand aboard this ship today, to share that hope, that weapons such as those which this ship once carried should never again be allowed to see the light of day.
Or we may yet go into the night.
-- Lun Alekseeva
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Dartz Wrote:The Hands that Threaten Doom.
We stand here together as friends now, but I would like to take you back in time. I would like to bring you all back to the year 1984. The world stands on the brink of nuclear holocaust. And we are Soviet Sailors, aboard our motherland’s most recent achievement, charged with the defense of our home.
This ship we stand aboard was built for no other reason, than to ensure the United States could not initiate a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. She was funded in a panic, General Secretary Andropov driven to nuclear paranoia by the Cowboy in the White House and his Star Wars system that threatened the delicate balance of fear. It was known that the United States did not have a no first use policy. It was believed that, in the event of a war, the United States would have no option but to use nuclear weapons first.
And knowing this, Secretary Andropov lived in absolute terror of a surprise United States attack.
This terror, and the exercise of 1983 lead the world to the brink of accidental disaster. This ship was built as his assurance, that we could defend ourself should the need arise. He died before this ship ever took to the sea.
It was no secret to the Soviet Union that the United States Navy could track our missile submarines using an underwater sonar net. The Soviet Union lacked stealth technology of the Americans for our bombers.
They came up with a two part solution. A monumental effort on the part of the KGB to detect the very moment when the decision to launch was made within the White House, and this ship, made to prevent that decision from ever being enacted.
Capable of one week autonomous operation with fuel load capable of transiting the Atlantic ocean. She would be launched the moment it looked like a crisis was developing to a dangerous position. She would cross the ocean beneath the detection of early warning radars and above the sonar nets, sounding no different from any other aircraft. Uncatchable by submarine. Undetectable below radar. She would carry her payload to the coast of United States and lay off the coast of their largest city, listening, while above, our missiles waited.
Above our heads sit six missile tubes capable of carrying 1 missile each. Each missile can travel over four hundred kilometres to its target under ramjet power, at speeds exceeding Mach 3 and altitudes far below what can be detected by American radar systems.
Would a volunteer care to come forward and sit in the gunner’s seat?
Thank you, Mister Hidaka. Here is your missile key and code book. Beside you is a radio, a direct line to Moscow. The order will come through as a series of numbers. You write them down on your book with that grease pencil.
I would like you to imagine that you are a crewman on this ship at that time. To feel the weight of his responsibility. You know with certainty that the order could come at any moment. The world teeters on the brink. Your home. Your family. They wait, trusting you to your duty so they will not suffer the horror of atomic holocaust. It sits in the back of your mind.
The silence hangs. Day to day you wait as the doomsday clock ticks onwards, listening to the reports of the building crisis – hoping.
The order would come with an electronic alarm from the radio room below – just like that. One. Two. Three alarms, the chimes of midnight, and then the voice of Moscow would speak to the crew. You would write down the letters you hear.
“????????????. ???m22?”
In the radio room below, the operator copies. He bursts through that hatch and hands you his code book. The Captain, me, hands you mine. All three of us compare.
I think this is an authentic message. Do you concur? Bear in mind. We only have seconds to save everyone we care about from annihilation in atomic fire.
So, Hidaka we concur. This is a valid message.
Beside you is a safe. Two keys will open that safe. Yours and mine. Insert your key into the lock on the right. One. Two. Three, and Turn. The safe opens and now we have our orders waiting for us in packets.
Pick the one where the first two letters match the first two in our code. Open it.
Quickly. Any delay might let them launch their weapons first. Seconds count.
Now. Compare the remaining letters with the codes on the sheet and pray it is the first one.
Abort.
Mission 1.
Mission 2.
Mission 3.
Mission 4.
Our order is Mission 2. An order from Moscow, to launch our missiles towards a target we do not know. Do you concur this is correct? Do the codes match?
Good. It is a valid message, containing a valid order to launch.
The use of Nuclear weapons has been authorised.
We have moments. First, enter the remaining 3 digits into the target computer. One. Two. Three. Lock. This commits the targeting package to the ship’s guidance, aiming it at its final destination. Computers determine the missile flightpath from our position and prepare the final solution.
A green light on this indicator indicates a valid target.
Now. There are two key locks. Each one must be operated within one second of the other. Each one must be held down within five seconds. One key lock is beside you. The other, is on this console here, which I will operate. This arrangement ensures no one person may fire the missiles. It takes two of us. Both of us complicit.
Take your key and insert it into the slot. On my command, turn the key.
Three. Two. One. Turn. Now. Hold. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Release
That light on the panel tells you that the missiles are now active. It might as well now say welcome to World War Three.
There are no aborts. There is no ‘oops’. The computers are now in control. The end result is as inevitable as the sun rising.
Missile batteries are now active. The missile is now entirely self-powering.
Targeting package has been uploaded to the missiles guidance computer. It confirms a valid package has been received.
The silo-soft alarm warns that both missile doors have now opened.
Fuel valves open in the missile. Ignitors spray a jet of hot magnesium sparks.
These three lights warn of the fires within the missile bay as the engines start. You now hear the roar of the boosters, the whole ship shaking as the first missile launches, a cloud of smoke and fire enveloping the ship.
That missile is now on its way to its target. Unstoppable. Irrevocable. Five more would normally launch in sequence, but we can only afford to fire one today.
Whether you have just saved the world from nuclear holocaust, or just dropped the match into the gasoline, is for what is left history to decide.
If they are lucky, they will detect it incoming, but likely not. They are looking for ballistic missiles, which lob high in the air, not a cruise missile hugging the terrain. All it will do is warn them. The missile cannot be stopped. It is too fast for fighters to catch. Too low for SAMs to shoot down. In three minutes time, that missile you just fired will reach the White House, where it will activate. In a microsecond, a terrible new sun will be born two hundred metres above the White House garden. The grass will freeze to carbon. President Reagan will live long enough to see the flash from the comfort of Marine One as it tries to take off to carry him to his E6-B command aircraft. He and his staff will know nothing afterwards. Neither will their families. Or hundreds of thousands of others. Annihilated in a moment. The centre of Washington DC and anyone there will evapourate to dust.
The rest of the city will know hell. Those in the open incinerate alive. Those indoors are shredded by flying glass, or crushed by collapsing buildings. The firestorm turns the rest to ashes.
A second missile will arrive at the Pentagon, razing it from the face of the earth. A third will target Andrews air-force base. A fourth and fifth will hit Norfolk, Virginia. The final missile, operating at the limits of its range, will endeavor to hit Raven Rock Mountain Complex. The core of the US national command authority, and most of it's military strength will be crippled in a moment. Then comes the fallout, ground up and turned to poison in the nuclear furnish, blighting what was left alive.
The Americans will still have the ability to launch without the President, but it will take them time to work out who and how and with what. Who has the authority, and how will they give the command. Time enough to reconsider, to realise they have already lost. For their boomers to be hunted down. For their missiles to be destroyed by our main force already inbound.
The United States as it has been will cease to be. And we are people who have committed the gravest of sins. Whatever happens, the world of tomorrow will be irrevocably different from the one of today. So sit back and enjoy this last two minutes of peace, before hell itself is unleashed.
It is now time for us to return to home, and hope that it is still there when we arrive.
Thank you, Mister Hidaka, for your help. You can stay seated if you’d like.
Fortunately, that is the closest any of us will ever get, to knowing what it feels like to start World War Three. But take that feeling with you, and know….
Six months ago, research rockets launched from this ship nearly caused the greatest catstrophe in history. A new error. The world came within seconds of nuclear war, and for what?
Research probes, seeded into the aurora borealis by a researcher from Manchester University.
All proper procedures and notifications were followed, pipework filed, acknowledged and stamped. and still, the system failed. We do not know how close the Russian or American governments truly came to war – for obvious reasons, they have decided not to share. But think on the process you have just witnessed – the automation – the inevitability of it.
Once set in motion, it cannot be put down. Once the fuse is lit, it cannot be cut.
That the hellfire of these weapons could come within a moment of being unleashed, even today, due to a simple bureaucrat losing a scrap of paper should serve as a warning to us all.
Put away these dangerous toys for good. Banish them from the face of existence. Never again should the error of eighty years ago be repeated.
We stand aboard this ship today, to share that hope, that weapons such as those which this ship once carried should never again be allowed to see the light of day.
Or we may yet go into the night.
-- Lun Alekseeva
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?