[Politics] Trident and other Nuclear weapons

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

One word on nuclear war (if you haven't seen it) - 'Threads'



The whole film is here - https://archive.org/details/threads_201712

If there's going to be a nuclear war, I'd like Vladimir Putin to fire the first warhead at me and for it to land on my head please.

That bloody film gave me nightmares.

I also recall they received a record number of complaints because if that lady pissing herself. Not the hideous fate of Sheffield..just a wet trouser leg.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

I was a bit gobsmacked to read today that our defence budget $50bn is not far short of what Russia spends $69bn but the US spends 10 times @ $600bn

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

But there's one ray of hope...


In the first sequence where Jimmy and his bird are sitting in his cortina up on the moors...if you listen very carefully, you can hear the results service...

And at the end you will hear "Portsmouth 0 Brighton and Hove Albion 1.



Typical. We turn those inbreds over and *poooph* the world ends.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Used to be able to fire 16 Nuclear missile each with 3 Warheads in 13 minutes which they worked out back in the late 70s would give you enough time to get them all away before they got you

Yes, and I was part of the team sending the signal to fire. That's how I know it was, and is rehearsed, practised and refined down to the last second.

 

[ManOfSussex]

But there's one ray of hope...


In the first sequence where Jimmy and his bird are sitting in his cortina up on the moors...if you listen very carefully, you can hear the results service...

And at the end you will hear "Portsmouth 0 Brighton and Hove Albion 1.



Typical. We turn those inbreds over and *poooph* the world ends.

3 minutes in - https://archive.org/details/threads_201712

 

[Perfidious Albion]

I may not be the first to say this but should a big one come our way, I dont want millions of innocent Muscovites to die in retaliation. I won't care because I will be dead.....

 

[daveinprague]

Is this actually true though? One nuclear weapon would not destroy a country. So unless you decide to fire literally everything you've got, surely you are going to have to take a couple of hits?

Even when I was in the Navy, there were missiles that carried multiple warheads to attack different locations. Wouldnt destroy the country, but would make a bit of a mess

 

[AmexRuislip]

Yes, and I was part of the team sending the signal to fire. That's how I know it was, and is rehearsed, practised and refined down to the last second.

Always a hoot practising that sort of thing at RAF Wildenrath, with the Phantoms

 

[KVLT]

A few months ago I watched the discussion programme that was aired in the US after the TV screening of The Day After in the eighties.



One of the panel was Brent Scowcroft, a former Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force who during the programme said:

"Deterrence is a very ambiguous notion. It cannot be demonstrated unless it fails - in which case you know it wasn't there."

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Yes, and that is the deterrent. Both sides know they will receive as big, if not bigger missiles before their own has landed.

So I stand by my first statement on the thread.

The deterrent should be to not be a bellend. If you have decided to push the button and start a nuclear war then, frankly, I don't think you give two ****s if one is coming back at you. You've already lost it.

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Yes, and I was part of the team sending the signal to fire. That's how I know it was, and is rehearsed, practised and refined down to the last second.

We didn’t know if it was for real or not until the XO and the PSO deciphered it as we just spun the missiles up ready to fire and went to Hovering Depth which took 15 minutes all told
Then you got the Broadcast” Set Condition 1SQ for WSRT ( Weapons Systems Readiness Test )which was 2 minutes notice to fire.

Once we left Faslane and got in our Patrol Area we were at 15 mins notice to fire for the whole 2+ Months
I expect it pretty much the same routine now nearly 40 years later

 

[Vicar!]

I still think if it gets nasty someone will press a button and instead of a nuke the lights will simply go off. The grid will be downed, no power, no leccy, no gas. Within days total panic, no TV, no Net, shops stripped bare. Within a week no petrol, hospitals shut, police unable to fuction. Anarchy takes over, and we start destoying ourselves.

 

[clapham_gull]

I still think if it gets nasty someone will press a button and instead of a nuke the lights will simply go off. The grid will be downed, no power, no leccy, no gas. Within days total panic, no TV, no Net, shops stripped bare. Within a week no petrol, hospitals shut, police unable to fuction. Anarchy takes over, and we start destoying ourselves.

Repeats of Top Gear will continue on Dave though.

 

[Gabbafella]

One word on nuclear war (if you haven't seen it) - 'Threads'



The whole film is here - https://archive.org/details/threads_201712

If there's going to be a nuclear war, I'd like Vladimir Putin to fire the first warhead at me and for it to land on my head please.

One of my earliest movie memories. That film scared the crap out of me when I was a kid and has always stuck with me.

 

[The Birdman]

 

[Bold Seagull]

One word on nuclear war (if you haven't seen it) - 'Threads'



The whole film is here - https://archive.org/details/threads_201712

If there's going to be a nuclear war, I'd like Vladimir Putin to fire the first warhead at me and for it to land on my head please.

Some great editing there. As well as electrical infrastructure going down, an iron pops a fuse...

 

[Mtoto]

A few months ago I watched the discussion programme that was aired in the US after the TV screening of The Day After in the eighties.



One of the panel was Brent Scowcroft, a former Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force who during the programme said:

"Deterrence is a very ambiguous notion. It cannot be demonstrated unless it fails - in which case you know it wasn't there."

Or the systems it depends upon fail ...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/world-war-three-by-mistake

On June 3, 1980, at about two-thirty in the morning, computers at the National Military Command Center, beneath the Pentagon, at the headquarters of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), deep within Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, and at Site R, the Pentagon’s alternate command post center hidden inside Raven Rock Mountain, Pennsylvania, issued an urgent warning: the Soviet Union had just launched a nuclear attack on the United States. The Soviets had recently invaded Afghanistan, and the animosity between the two superpowers was greater than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

U.S. Air Force ballistic-missile crews removed their launch keys from the safes, bomber crews ran to their planes, fighter planes took off to search the skies, and the Federal Aviation Administration prepared to order every airborne commercial airliner to land.

President Jimmy Carter’s national-security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was asleep in Washington, D.C., when the phone rang. His military aide, General William Odom, was calling to inform him that two hundred and twenty missiles launched from Soviet submarines were heading toward the United States. Brzezinski told Odom to get confirmation of the attack. A retaliatory strike would have to be ordered quickly; Washington might be destroyed within minutes. Odom called back and offered a correction: twenty-two hundred Soviet missiles had been launched.

Brzezinski decided not to wake up his wife, preferring that she die in her sleep. As he prepared to call Carter and recommend an American counterattack, the phone rang for a third time. Odom apologized—it was a false alarm. An investigation later found that a defective computer chip in a communications device at NORAD headquarters had generated the erroneous warning. The chip cost forty-six cents.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Bit like the NRA clinging onto 'The right to bear arms'

It's the 21st century, you use technology, economics and politics to attack or effect other states, but keep buying those weapons

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Or the systems it depends upon fail ...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/world-war-three-by-mistake

On June 3, 1980, at about two-thirty in the morning, computers at the National Military Command Center, beneath the Pentagon, at the headquarters of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), deep within Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, and at Site R, the Pentagon’s alternate command post center hidden inside Raven Rock Mountain, Pennsylvania, issued an urgent warning: the Soviet Union had just launched a nuclear attack on the United States. The Soviets had recently invaded Afghanistan, and the animosity between the two superpowers was greater than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

U.S. Air Force ballistic-missile crews removed their launch keys from the safes, bomber crews ran to their planes, fighter planes took off to search the skies, and the Federal Aviation Administration prepared to order every airborne commercial airliner to land.

President Jimmy Carter’s national-security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was asleep in Washington, D.C., when the phone rang. His military aide, General William Odom, was calling to inform him that two hundred and twenty missiles launched from Soviet submarines were heading toward the United States. Brzezinski told Odom to get confirmation of the attack. A retaliatory strike would have to be ordered quickly; Washington might be destroyed within minutes. Odom called back and offered a correction: twenty-two hundred Soviet missiles had been launched.

Brzezinski decided not to wake up his wife, preferring that she die in her sleep. As he prepared to call Carter and recommend an American counterattack, the phone rang for a third time. Odom apologized—it was a false alarm. An investigation later found that a defective computer chip in a communications device at NORAD headquarters had generated the erroneous warning. The chip cost forty-six cents.

We were given an hours notice to sail and Off we went ready to push a few buttons etc
Came back alongside 3 days later
A lot of Pierhead jumps that day for Shadow Crew as it was weekend

 

[Dave the OAP]

Trident is biggest waste of money ever.

One could use the arguement that because we have them the russkies haven't retaliated after the bombing in Syria today, however, it wouldn't surprise me if we see something when we wake up tomorrow.

Of course they could argue that we have porton down that is producing chemical and nuclear weapons, so could hit that with a few of their cruise missiles. That would then be interesting!