Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.

The signing of the doctrine, which says that any massive aerial attack on Russia could trigger a nuclear response, reflects Putin’s readiness to threaten use of the country’s nuclear arsenal to force the West to back down as Moscow presses a slow-moving offensive in Ukraine.

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[–] Zron@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just because it’s not mechanically automatic, does not mean it’s not a launch on warning system.

The key phrase there is “it does not rely on a launch-under-attack policy to ensure credible defense”

If the US detects a ICBM launch, it will launch a response. It does not matter if the thing that presses the button is a person or an automated program.

Launch on warning just means a country won’t physically absorb a nuclear strike before launching, but will launch if an enemy launch is detected. It has nothing to do with automatic launch systems.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Oh I see what you're saying, I thought the term was more literal than you're suggesting.

I suppose the US president could launch a retaliatory strike based on a first strike that is still in the air, which is launch on warning, but the policy is to wait for a first strike and then have the president issue an order.

My understaning of launch on warning is any policy with no discretion, based on standing orders, not that it was necessarily strictly computer automated. The US policy is "hair trigger alert" which means that the strike systems are constantly in ready state, awaiting a valid order.

All I mean to say is that this is unlike the Russian system, which upon detecting an incoming missile issues valid, pre-approved orders to launch, with perhaps a human needed only to turn the key, but with no built in discretion once the pre-approved order is authenticated. The US does not have pre-approved launch orders.