Combination of numbers for nuclear missiles=00000000

I found this interesting story right here: Link

It deals with the combination of numbers to initiate a start sequence for the "Minuteman" long range missiles, which went online during the Cuban crisis and which required an 8-digit combination in order to launch.

Here are some parts of the article:

Robert McNamara, then the U.S. Secretary of Defense, personally oversaw the installation of these special locks to prevent any unauthorized nuclear missile launches. He considered the safeguards to be essential for strict central control and for preventing nuclear disaster.

But what Secretary McNamara didn’t know is that from the very beginning, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha had decided that these locks might interfere with any wartime launch orders; so in order to circumvent this safeguard, they pre-set the launch code on all Minuteman silos to the same eight digits: 00000000.

For seventeen years, during the height of the nuclear crises of the Cold War, the code remained all zeros, and was even printed in each silo’s launch checklist for all to see. The codes remained this way up until 1977, when the service was pressed into activating the McNamara locks with real launch codes in place. Before that time, the the lack of safeguards would have made it relatively easy for a small group of rogue silo officers or visitors to implement an unauthorized nuclear missile launch.

The men and women running SAC in 1960 essentially put the entire planet’s population at risk by deliberately disabling the PAL safety mechanisms. Perhaps we should keep that in mind before we put too much trust in the people charged with our nation’s defense.

I found this article quite interesting and scary at the same time how lax the persons in charge were while "handling" stuff that probably could've destroyed our planet a few times...

What do you think about this story?

Further reading:

What is a PAL?

I read about this on cracked a while ago. Tried to find it on there lost patience, but I'll offer you another article about how well we keep a track of our nukes. Cracked

First I thought it was a joke article,
then I thought it was genius, because who would ever guess the dang nukes would have all zeros for the code. Kinda like it is so simple that no one would expect it,
but then I thought, wow, even that being true, no one ever did conspire to set off the nukes, no rogue actors, and that was the 1960s, now, just 50 years later we have military doctors shooting people on the base and other cases of soldier bad behavior.
Is this progress???
Are we so much better off now than back in those days?
It was before my time so I don't know what the average military age person was like in the 1960s.
But I would guess that the age appropriate standards of bahavior have changed a lot since then.

Yup, if you've seen the documentary 'Countdown To Zero' they briefly cover this.

Crazy, ain't it..

reply to post by PutAQuarterIn


Aw thanks that's an interesting site as well, I'll have a read!!

reply to post by Dalbeck


Trust an American to leave something as deadly as a nuclear weapon virtualy unprotected. You can put as many rifles between the public and a nuclear weapon as you like, but the only realistic way of preventing an unauthorised use of any code accessed program or technology is to actualy think about your codes, and create them in a secure manner.

Most people have bank accounts more secure than that! Hell , my hotmail account is more secure than that, and contains nothing of any worth to anyone !

Originally posted by BeyondPerception
Yup, if you've seen the documentary 'Countdown To Zero' they briefly cover this.

Crazy, ain't it..

Yes and you should also mention they changed it already...
So this thread is useless.

Originally posted by Staafke

Originally posted by BeyondPerception
Yup, if you've seen the documentary 'Countdown To Zero' they briefly cover this.

Crazy, ain't it..

Yes and you should also mention they changed it already...
So this thread is useless.

I wouldn't say the thread is "useless", it's just for information and since it deals with events during the Cuban missile crisis one can be sure they changed it already

Originally posted by Dalbeck
I wouldn't say the thread is "useless", it's just for information and since it deals with events during the Cuban missile crisis one can be sure they changed it already

You're right about that But at least the title is useless then You don't want Juanito to get too excited when stumbling on this one

Originally posted by Staafke
You're right about that

But at least the title is useless then

You don't want Juanito to get too excited when stumbling on this one

Yes I know, I actually wanted to make the title a titbit longer but it didn't look good By the way who is Juanito?

(May I ask you if you're from Germany? ...because of "Eisbär" in your avatar )

Originally posted by Dalbeck

Yes I know, I actually wanted to make the title a titbit longer but it didn't look good

By the way who is Juanito?

(May I ask you if you're from Germany? ...because of "Eisbär" in your avatar

)

Juanito is a radio DJ in the Tropico 3 game and El Presidente's biggest fan
I'm not from Germany, I'm your forgiving Belgian neighbour

Originally posted by Staafke
Juanito is a radio DJ in the Tropico 3 game and El Presidente's biggest fan

I'm not from Germany, I'm your forgiving Belgian neighbour

Aw I remember the game now It played on a Cuban like island and had an animated Castro on its cover So I say `hello´ to my neighbor in Belgium

reply to post by Dalbeck

*waves

00000000, the same probability of someone guessing 10973423.

Fortunately that is just the code to prime the missile itself for launch, not the code to arm the bombs themselves or actually launch the missiles. You need four things to launch and bomb.

The missile ready code, this code starts the fuel pumps and primes the misslle for launch. It was for the longest time set at all zeros.

The central authorization (NORAD) code to get the code brick and 2nd launch key out of the safe.

The code brick is broken open and is used arm the weapons and set target destinations, If arming and launch are aborted the code cannot be reused to re-arm and target the weapon, target destination can be changed right up to launch however. The missile's (PAL) module must be removed from the missile and replaced with a new module and new code brick. Launch must occur within 15 minutes of arming and setting coordinates.

The 2nd launch key is usually in the code brick safe as well. Turn both keys within 1/4 second of each other and somebody is gonna get nuked.

Originally posted by eywadevotee
Fortunately that is just the code to prime the missile itself for launch, not the code to arm the bombs themselves or actually launch the missiles. You need four things to launch and bomb.

The missile ready code, this code starts the fuel pumps and primes the misslle for launch. It was for the longest time set at all zeros.

The central authorization (NORAD) code to get the code brick and 2nd launch key out of the safe.

The code brick is broken open and is used arm the weapons and set target destinations, If arming and launch are aborted the code cannot be reused to re-arm and target the weapon, target destination can be changed right up to launch however. The missile's (PAL) module must be removed from the missile and replaced with a new module and new code brick. Launch must occur within 15 minutes of arming and setting coordinates.

The 2nd launch key is usually in the code brick safe as well. Turn both keys within 1/4 second of each other and somebody is gonna get nuked.

Oh okay Thanks for your input but how do you know? I'm interested in further reading, so I hope you got any good book titles

Originally posted by Dalbeck

Originally posted by eywadevotee
Fortunately that is just the code to prime the missile itself for launch, not the code to arm the bombs themselves or actually launch the missiles. You need four things to launch and bomb.

The missile ready code, this code starts the fuel pumps and primes the misslle for launch. It was for the longest time set at all zeros.

The central authorization (NORAD) code to get the code brick and 2nd launch key out of the safe.

The code brick is broken open and is used arm the weapons and set target destinations, If arming and launch are aborted the code cannot be reused to re-arm and target the weapon, target destination can be changed right up to launch however. The missile's (PAL) module must be removed from the missile and replaced with a new module and new code brick. Launch must occur within 15 minutes of arming and setting coordinates.

The 2nd launch key is usually in the code brick safe as well. Turn both keys within 1/4 second of each other and somebody is gonna get nuked.

Oh okay

Thanks for your input but how do you know? I'm interested in further reading, so I hope you got any good book titles

The procedure itself is pretty open information...I don't know how the poster above found it, but if you visit the Titan Missile Museum (Shameless plug for cool museum!), you can actually go through a simulated launch sequence using the actual launch consoles and keys. The young kids these days usually think it's cool (and so do I), but for older folk like me who grew up during the latter part of the Cold War, it's a bit of a hackle-raising experience.