The Doomsday Machine

Back in 1983, President Regan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, later known as Star Wars. This project was a basic missile defense system that Regan wanted to use as a deterrent against nuclear war and was willing to share the technology with the Cold War nemesis, Russia. However, when the Russians heard about this project, they took it to mean something completely different. The Russians figured that the satellites would not be able to destroy a large barrage of missiles. So the scenario they worked out was slightly different than what Regan was trying to get across. The Russians thought that the US would fire its missiles and destroy most of Russia, and since it was now crippled, Russia would only be able to fire a few, which the satellites would be able to destroy. So the Russians take this defensive announcement to be one of intent and decide that they need to put Perimeter into action.

The Russians had build a large underground bunker deep enough below their soil that it would survive any nuclear attack and a bunch of hardened silos that contained missiles. Whenever a crisis would arise, the leaders of the Soviets would turn Perimeter on and wait. With Perimeter on, a program would run continuously, checking the surface for signs of nuclear attack such as radiation, air pressure and seismic activity. The system has four safeguards, four proposition statements. Such as if it was turned on, then it would begin monitoring the surface status, if the surface seems like it was hit with a nuclear missile then check the lines of communication with the Soviet war room. If communications was down then it would assume that the Soviet General Staff was taken out in one of the attacks. If there was no other signs of attack it and the lines were still up to the war room, it would assume the staff was handling the situation and shut down. With lines of communication dead to the war room, Perimeter would give launch clearance to the person manning the bunker at the time. The person in the bunker would then have final say over launching retaliation missiles.

If the person in the bunker decided to launch, a batch of command missiles would fire first. Once in the air, these missiles would take control of the rest of the process and radio down launch codes to all remaining Russian missiles, which includes every missile in ground silos and even on every sub the Russians had. With this command, every Russian nuclear missile would head straight to the US and finish the war in a single strike, leaving both nations crippled or even dead.

The US had a similar program in effect but instead of underground, their bunker was in the sky. During the Cold War, there was at least one E-4B in the sky every single second. The E-4B is a converted 747 that was made into a flying command base so called Airborne Command Post. There were only 4 made and in a time of crisis, the president and department heads would go up in an E-4 and continue to give commands, even if Washington was destroyed. The following is a clip from the news back in 2007 about during 9/11 a plane was seen over the white house and how it looks strikingly similar to an E-4B and some more facts about the E-4B.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMK5bmdAEHc&NR=1

However, the difference between the US method and the Russian method is that the US told everyone that they had a flying base in case there was a missile strike so their could be retaliation. Again, this is a move to deter aggression. So why would the Russians keep this project for "zombie retaliation" a secret? The most likely idea is that it was not meant to be a deterrent for other nations but themselves. With this program, all the government had to do was turn it on and if they were destroyed, Perimeter would ensure that so would their enemies. With the low resolution radar the Russians had, even a flock of birds could be mistaken for enemy warheads. To make sure that missiles were not accidentally fired first from Russia, they used Perimeter as an assurance of equal destruction. Coincidentally, even the US was nervous about unknowingly launching the first missile so they required every nuclear missile to be locked with numerical codes (Like in WarGames). However, this didn't really work since Strategic Air Command was ticked about this call and simply set all missile codes to a string of zeros.

Even in recent years after the Cold War the Russians still have been secretive about Project Dead Hand (technical name Perimeter). This clip from two years ago can give us a feel for how things might not have changed as much as we would like to believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tDxiPLyrpU

Ironically, around the time that this was going on in 2007 a song and music video was released that seems to acknowledge this issue and I leave you with How Far We've Come.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/matchbox-twenty/172325/how-far-weve-come.jhtml

Works Cited

Diaz, Jesus. "How a Soviet Doomsday Master Missile Looks and Works - Perimeter - Gizmodo." Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide. 25 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"How Far We've Come | Matchbox Twenty | Music Video | MTV." New Music Videos, Reality TV Shows, Celebrity News, Top Stories | MTV. 4 Sept. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

Thompson, Nicholas. "Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine." Wired News. 21 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"YouTube - Doomsday Plane - the Mystery 9/11 Plane." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"YouTube - New Cold War Conflict with Russia?" YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 15 Oct. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .