The Time the U.S. Navy Almost Assassinated the President

[DenverChief]

- Unbelievable - so funny how this kinda stuff never gets talked about - Frazod was on this ship?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by TLO

This is a bit off topic, but I've always found it interesting during the Cold War that nuclear war was avoided by a single man on a Russian submarine.

Literally moments from changing the entire course of history.

Yep. Archipov or something similar. During the blockade of Cuba, he preventing his CO from launching a nuclear-armed torpedo at our ships. He was also the XO of the K-19.

This is my favorite though. NORAD had something similar happen in the 1970s. I'll see if I can find it:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasm...h=1bcc1b622835

If things had gone just slightly differently on a tense night in 1983, today would be the 35th anniversary of the start of of World War III, for whoever was left alive to observe such an occasion. 6:00 Eastern Time on September 25, 2018 marks the moment when one man's decision saved the world from nuclear war.

At just after midnight in Moscow, on September 26, 1983, a siren's wail split the air in the Serpukhov-5 nuclear early-warning facility, a secret bunker just south of Moscow. The red screen across the room from Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov's glass-walled office, usually blank, flashed a single ominous word: START. The computer system responsible for processing data from the Soviet Union's Oko launch-detection satellites warned that the United States had just launched a single intercontinental ballistic missile at the Soviet Union. It would strike in 12 minutes.

Petrov picked up the phone in one shaking hand and called his superiors in the Soviet Air Defense Forces. False alarm, he told them. It didn't make sense for the U.S. to have launched a single missile; the reading had to be a bug in the new early warning computer system, which Petrov the software engineer didn't yet completely trust. He had just set the phone back on its cradle when the system flashed a second warning, then three more. Five nuclear missiles were, according to the satellites and their computer system, flying on high ballistic arcs toward the Soviet Union. The computer system calculated the probability of attack at 100%.

PROMOTED

"I had a funny feeling in my gut," Petrov later told a reporter from the Washington Post. If the launch was real, every second would count. Petrov's duty was to pass the warning up the chain of command, providing information to the people with the authority to launch a return salvo before the U.S. missiles could destroy the Soviet Union's ability to strike back.

But he hesitated. He knew the computer system had been pushed into service too quickly for proper testing, and he didn't consider it reliable. Ground radar, which should have picked up the incoming missiles as soon as they crossed the horizon, remained silent and empty a few minutes after the supposed launch. And five missiles, out of the roughly 1,000 in the U.S. inventory, all aimed at Soviet targets, seemed like too few to be a real first strike -- when war came, Soviet officers had been taught, the first strike would be massive an overwhelming, because neither power was likely to get the chance to make a second.

With the siren still wailing and the alert still flashing on the screen, Petrov picked up the phone and called his superiors to report a second false alarm. But even in that moment, he wasn't sure.

[Donger]

Here we go:

https://futurism.com/a-computer-glit...rt-world-war-3

The US early warning system is on watch 24/7, looking for signs of a nuclear missile launched at the United States. As a highly complex system with links to sensors around the globe and in space, it relies heavily on computers to do its job. So, what happens if there is a glitch in the computers?

Between November 1979 and June 1980, those computers led to several false warnings of all-out nuclear attack by the Soviet Union—and a heart-stopping middle-of-the-night telephone call.

I described one of these glitches previously. That one, in 1979, was actually caused by human and systems errors: A technician put a training tape in a computer that then—inexplicably—routed the information to the main US warning centers. The Pentagon’s investigator stated that they were never able to replicate the failure mode to figure out what happened.

Just months later, one of the millions of computer chips in the early warning system went haywire, leading to incidents on May 28, June 3, and June 6, 1980.
The June 3 “Attack”

By far the most serious of the computer chip problems occurred on early June 3, when the main US warning centers all received notification of a large incoming nuclear strike. The president’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brezezinski woke at 3 am to a phone call telling him a large nuclear attack on the United States was underway, and he should prepare to call the president. He later said he had not woken up his wife, assuming they would all be dead in 30 minutes.

Like the November 1979 glitch, this one led NORAD to convene a high-level “Threat Assessment Conference,” which includes the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is just below the level that involves the president. Taking this step sets lots of things in motion to increase survivability of U.S. strategic forces and command and control systems. Air Force bomber crews at bases around the US got in their planes and started the engines, ready for take-off. Missile launch offices were notified to standby for launch orders. The Pacific Command’s Airborne Command Post took off from Hawaii. The National Emergency Airborne Command Post at Andrews Air Force Base taxied into position for a rapid takeoff.

The warning centers, by comparing warning signals they were getting from several different sources, were able to determine within a few minutes they were seeing a false alarm—likely due to a computer glitch. The specific cause wasn’t identified until much later. At that point, a Pentagon document matter-of-factly stated that a 46-cent computer chip “simply wore out.”

[TLO]

Originally Posted by Donger

Yep. Archipov or something similar. During the blockade of Cuba, he preventing his CO from launching a nuclear-armed torpedo at our ships. He was also the XO of the K-19.

This is my favorite though. NORAD had something similar happen in the 1970s. I'll see if I can find it:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasm...h=1bcc1b622835

If things had gone just slightly differently on a tense night in 1983, today would be the 35th anniversary of the start of of World War III, for whoever was left alive to observe such an occasion. 6:00 Eastern Time on September 25, 2018 marks the moment when one man's decision saved the world from nuclear war.

At just after midnight in Moscow, on September 26, 1983, a siren's wail split the air in the Serpukhov-5 nuclear early-warning facility, a secret bunker just south of Moscow. The red screen across the room from Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov's glass-walled office, usually blank, flashed a single ominous word: START. The computer system responsible for processing data from the Soviet Union's Oko launch-detection satellites warned that the United States had just launched a single intercontinental ballistic missile at the Soviet Union. It would strike in 12 minutes.

Petrov picked up the phone in one shaking hand and called his superiors in the Soviet Air Defense Forces. False alarm, he told them. It didn't make sense for the U.S. to have launched a single missile; the reading had to be a bug in the new early warning computer system, which Petrov the software engineer didn't yet completely trust. He had just set the phone back on its cradle when the system flashed a second warning, then three more. Five nuclear missiles were, according to the satellites and their computer system, flying on high ballistic arcs toward the Soviet Union. The computer system calculated the probability of attack at 100%.

PROMOTED

"I had a funny feeling in my gut," Petrov later told a reporter from the Washington Post. If the launch was real, every second would count. Petrov's duty was to pass the warning up the chain of command, providing information to the people with the authority to launch a return salvo before the U.S. missiles could destroy the Soviet Union's ability to strike back.

But he hesitated. He knew the computer system had been pushed into service too quickly for proper testing, and he didn't consider it reliable. Ground radar, which should have picked up the incoming missiles as soon as they crossed the horizon, remained silent and empty a few minutes after the supposed launch. And five missiles, out of the roughly 1,000 in the U.S. inventory, all aimed at Soviet targets, seemed like too few to be a real first strike -- when war came, Soviet officers had been taught, the first strike would be massive an overwhelming, because neither power was likely to get the chance to make a second.

With the siren still wailing and the alert still flashing on the screen, Petrov picked up the phone and called his superiors to report a second false alarm. But even in that moment, he wasn't sure.

I'd never heard that one before. Fascinating.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by Donger

They both happened. You might be thinking of another one when we dropped a few nukes on Spain? That was a mess... Sorry about that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Palomares_B-52_crash

Spain too, huh? Good lord.

[Rainbarrel]

I wouldn't trust history to DC. Three pages in before tinfoil hats dominate

[TLO]

Originally Posted by Donger

Here we go:

https://futurism.com/a-computer-glit...rt-world-war-3

The US early warning system is on watch 24/7, looking for signs of a nuclear missile launched at the United States. As a highly complex system with links to sensors around the globe and in space, it relies heavily on computers to do its job. So, what happens if there is a glitch in the computers?

Between November 1979 and June 1980, those computers led to several false warnings of all-out nuclear attack by the Soviet Union—and a heart-stopping middle-of-the-night telephone call.

I described one of these glitches previously. That one, in 1979, was actually caused by human and systems errors: A technician put a training tape in a computer that then—inexplicably—routed the information to the main US warning centers. The Pentagon’s investigator stated that they were never able to replicate the failure mode to figure out what happened.

Just months later, one of the millions of computer chips in the early warning system went haywire, leading to incidents on May 28, June 3, and June 6, 1980.
The June 3 “Attack”

By far the most serious of the computer chip problems occurred on early June 3, when the main US warning centers all received notification of a large incoming nuclear strike. The president’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brezezinski woke at 3 am to a phone call telling him a large nuclear attack on the United States was underway, and he should prepare to call the president. He later said he had not woken up his wife, assuming they would all be dead in 30 minutes.

Like the November 1979 glitch, this one led NORAD to convene a high-level “Threat Assessment Conference,” which includes the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is just below the level that involves the president. Taking this step sets lots of things in motion to increase survivability of U.S. strategic forces and command and control systems. Air Force bomber crews at bases around the US got in their planes and started the engines, ready for take-off. Missile launch offices were notified to standby for launch orders. The Pacific Command’s Airborne Command Post took off from Hawaii. The National Emergency Airborne Command Post at Andrews Air Force Base taxied into position for a rapid takeoff.

The warning centers, by comparing warning signals they were getting from several different sources, were able to determine within a few minutes they were seeing a false alarm—likely due to a computer glitch. The specific cause wasn’t identified until much later. At that point, a Pentagon document matter-of-factly stated that a 46-cent computer chip “simply wore out.”

Holy shit

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by Donger

Yep. Archipov or something similar. During the blockade of Cuba, he preventing his CO from launching a nuclear-armed torpedo at our ships. He was also the XO of the K-19.

This is my favorite though. NORAD had something similar happen in the 1970s. I'll see if I can find it:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasm...h=1bcc1b622835

If things had gone just slightly differently on a tense night in 1983, today would be the 35th anniversary of the start of of World War III, for whoever was left alive to observe such an occasion. 6:00 Eastern Time on September 25, 2018 marks the moment when one man's decision saved the world from nuclear war.

At just after midnight in Moscow, on September 26, 1983, a siren's wail split the air in the Serpukhov-5 nuclear early-warning facility, a secret bunker just south of Moscow. The red screen across the room from Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov's glass-walled office, usually blank, flashed a single ominous word: START. The computer system responsible for processing data from the Soviet Union's Oko launch-detection satellites warned that the United States had just launched a single intercontinental ballistic missile at the Soviet Union. It would strike in 12 minutes.

Petrov picked up the phone in one shaking hand and called his superiors in the Soviet Air Defense Forces. False alarm, he told them. It didn't make sense for the U.S. to have launched a single missile; the reading had to be a bug in the new early warning computer system, which Petrov the software engineer didn't yet completely trust. He had just set the phone back on its cradle when the system flashed a second warning, then three more. Five nuclear missiles were, according to the satellites and their computer system, flying on high ballistic arcs toward the Soviet Union. The computer system calculated the probability of attack at 100%.

PROMOTED

"I had a funny feeling in my gut," Petrov later told a reporter from the Washington Post. If the launch was real, every second would count. Petrov's duty was to pass the warning up the chain of command, providing information to the people with the authority to launch a return salvo before the U.S. missiles could destroy the Soviet Union's ability to strike back.

But he hesitated. He knew the computer system had been pushed into service too quickly for proper testing, and he didn't consider it reliable. Ground radar, which should have picked up the incoming missiles as soon as they crossed the horizon, remained silent and empty a few minutes after the supposed launch. And five missiles, out of the roughly 1,000 in the U.S. inventory, all aimed at Soviet targets, seemed like too few to be a real first strike -- when war came, Soviet officers had been taught, the first strike would be massive an overwhelming, because neither power was likely to get the chance to make a second.

With the siren still wailing and the alert still flashing on the screen, Petrov picked up the phone and called his superiors to report a second false alarm. But even in that moment, he wasn't sure.

Yep - that's it - I have read somewhere this was the influence for the movie "crimson tide"

[DenverChief]

Ignore is better.

[Rainbarrel]

meth in the lube tube

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by Donger

Yep. Archipov or something similar. During the blockade of Cuba, he preventing his CO from launching a nuclear-armed torpedo at our ships. He was also the XO of the K-19.

This is my favorite though. NORAD had something similar happen in the 1970s. I'll see if I can find it:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasm...h=1bcc1b622835

If things had gone just slightly differently on a tense night in 1983, today would be the 35th anniversary of the start of of World War III, for whoever was left alive to observe such an occasion. 6:00 Eastern Time on September 25, 2018 marks the moment when one man's decision saved the world from nuclear war.

At just after midnight in Moscow, on September 26, 1983, a siren's wail split the air in the Serpukhov-5 nuclear early-warning facility, a secret bunker just south of Moscow. The red screen across the room from Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov's glass-walled office, usually blank, flashed a single ominous word: START. The computer system responsible for processing data from the Soviet Union's Oko launch-detection satellites warned that the United States had just launched a single intercontinental ballistic missile at the Soviet Union. It would strike in 12 minutes.

Petrov picked up the phone in one shaking hand and called his superiors in the Soviet Air Defense Forces. False alarm, he told them. It didn't make sense for the U.S. to have launched a single missile; the reading had to be a bug in the new early warning computer system, which Petrov the software engineer didn't yet completely trust. He had just set the phone back on its cradle when the system flashed a second warning, then three more. Five nuclear missiles were, according to the satellites and their computer system, flying on high ballistic arcs toward the Soviet Union. The computer system calculated the probability of attack at 100%.

PROMOTED

"I had a funny feeling in my gut," Petrov later told a reporter from the Washington Post. If the launch was real, every second would count. Petrov's duty was to pass the warning up the chain of command, providing information to the people with the authority to launch a return salvo before the U.S. missiles could destroy the Soviet Union's ability to strike back.

But he hesitated. He knew the computer system had been pushed into service too quickly for proper testing, and he didn't consider it reliable. Ground radar, which should have picked up the incoming missiles as soon as they crossed the horizon, remained silent and empty a few minutes after the supposed launch. And five missiles, out of the roughly 1,000 in the U.S. inventory, all aimed at Soviet targets, seemed like too few to be a real first strike -- when war came, Soviet officers had been taught, the first strike would be massive an overwhelming, because neither power was likely to get the chance to make a second.

With the siren still wailing and the alert still flashing on the screen, Petrov picked up the phone and called his superiors to report a second false alarm. But even in that moment, he wasn't sure.

Literally the movie War Games, only from the Soviet POV.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Bowser

Spain too, huh? Good lord.

What's a few literal "dirty bombs" among friends, eh?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Bowser

Literally the movie War Games, only from the Soviet POV.

"Sorry, found a bug in the new code. Hope it wasn't too big of a deal..."

[Demonpenz]

nuclear bomb would ruin my chances to go back to back in fantasy football

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Bowser

I don't know what the worse story is - this one, or the time the Air Force almost nuked North Carolina!

And these are just the stories we know about

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

- Unbelievable - so funny how this kinda stuff never gets talked about - Frazod was on this ship?

The History Guy also did a piece on this ship.



Also, bite me. nlm