The danger of nuclear war is that there is no time to double check from other stations.
Imagine, your radars see the incoming, by which time they’re already a third of the way.
The SSNN are somewhere, close, about to launch. Those are close, so little time to react.
Short range missiles in Germany are 5 minutes away from wiping your allies.
In the meantime you have to pass this memo along, silo doors have to be opened, missiles warmed up, etc.
Today it’s much more dangerous. Nukes are hundreds, not thousands of mi. away from Moscow, so Moscow has 5 minutes head up before it’s hit. We’re unlikely to have a Petrov double guess a radar full of clouds. Any bug in the Russians radar software that looks like clouds, and poof!
Imagine, your radars see the incoming, by which time they’re already a third of the way.
The SSNN are somewhere, close, about to launch. Those are close, so little time to react.
Short range missiles in Germany are 5 minutes away from wiping your allies.
In the meantime you have to pass this memo along, silo doors have to be opened, missiles warmed up, etc.
Today it’s much more dangerous. Nukes are hundreds, not thousands of mi. away from Moscow, so Moscow has 5 minutes head up before it’s hit. We’re unlikely to have a Petrov double guess a radar full of clouds. Any bug in the Russians radar software that looks like clouds, and poof!