On October 27 , 1962 , the captain of a Soviet submarine order a torpedo with a ten - kiloton atomic payload to be launched at a U.S. aircraft carrier . One man ’s decision foreclose that purchase order from being carried out — and his story is a cautionary narrative about what could still happen in today ’s world .
Image : Arkhipov fellowship album ( via Wikipedia )
An article published on the website of the Arms Control Association , describesthe sequence of event that well-nigh head to atomic state of war . During the Cuban Missile Crisis , a U.S. ruiner dropped deepness explosive charge to force a nuclear - gird Soviet submarine to airfoil , even though it was in international water . The wedge had miss contact with Moscow days sooner and the captain — believing that all - out war had broken out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union — yield the orderliness to launch a nuke at the U.S. watercraft .
But , ordinance order that the top three air force officer had to agree before enforce the order — and one refuse . His name was Vasili Arkhipov ( pic , top ) .
A story about the fate of the world cling on one man ’s decision sounds like it belong to a now - distant era — or a Denzel Washingtonfilm . But , as the article manoeuver out , it ’s still relevant today :
While the United Kingdom , the United States , and France have well uprise command and control system in place that guard against inadvertent launch or the captain taking matters into their own hired hand , it is worth it , for the sake of ball-shaped security , to question whether other nations who deploy or seek to deploy nuclear - armed pigboat have such systems in place .
In the case of both China ( which does deploy nuclear - armed submarine ) , India ( which design to deploy such hoagie ) , and Israel ( which is rumored to be deploying such submarines ) , control condition of nuclear weapons is split between military and civilian control , with the military in explosive charge of delivery vehicles and the civilian side in control of the payload . In the example of land - based force , load are only mated with the livery vehicles in the case of a crisis . But with the intromission of submarines to the equation , such policy needs to be rethought , because in such scenarios such physical separation is not feasible .
If one study that due to the compass and depth of the patrol of a nuclear - armed submarine a technological glitch is not out of the orbit of hypothesis , and that such submarines are begin to cruse through very troubled waters , the chance for very alarming scenario gain . It is imperative for the outside community to conceive profoundly about the implication of sea - based nuclear weapons and how the likeliness of inadvertent or wildcat atomic use climb up with the number res publica sending submarines on patrol beyond their national territory . In the sixty - odd years of nuclear history , humanity has been extremely lucky . But luck does n’t last incessantly .
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