Just some food for thought.

HMAS Apocalypse: Deep in the Atlantic, a submarine waits on alert with nuclear missiles that would end the world...
In chilling and compelling detail, Peter Hennessy and Richard Knight reveal for the first time the nation's last line of defense

Deep beneath the surface of the Atlantic, HMS Vanguard — one of four identical Royal Navy submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles — is on patrol.

Moving at a fast-walking pace, she is out there right now; undetectable, untouchable and armed with more explosive power than was unleashed by all sides in the duration of World War II.

On board the Vanguard there is a safe attached to the floor of the control room. Inside that, there is an inner safe. And inside that sits a letter. It is addressed to the submarine commander and it is from the Prime Minister.

In that letter, Gordon Brown conveys the most awesome decision of his political career. He made it alone, in the first days of his premiership, and none of us is ever likely to know what he decided.

It is the Prime Minister’s answer to a grim but essential question: in the event of a nuclear attack in which Britain is largely destroyed and he is killed before he has time to react, should Britain fire back?
The moment they discover true power

Writing that letter is a profound experience for any prime minister. It is, perhaps, the moment they discover what power really means. Lord Guthrie, former Chief of the Defence Staff, recalls briefing the newly-elected Tony Blair on Britain’s nuclear capability when he first entered Downing Street in 1997.

‘I think quite honestly, like most prime ministers, he hadn’t given a huge amount of thought to what this really meant. And it is actually an awesome responsibility. It really comes home to you that he could, if the circumstances demanded it, create devastation on a huge scale.’

How did Blair react? ‘Well,’ says Guthrie, ‘he went quite quiet.’

Guthrie’s comments were recorded as part of a forthcoming BBC Radio 4 documentary, The Human Button, for which we spent a month researching Britain’s
nuclear chain of command in unprecedented detail.

We talked to the men (so far, they have always been men) who operate the system. And we were given greater access to Britain’s nuclear weapons infrastructure than ever before.

We did not set out to debate the pros and cons of a nuclear capability. Our questions were more basic. How does the system actually work? Is it fail-safe? And how does it feel to be a part of the ‘human button’ — a flesh and blood component in a well-drilled machine which, if deployed, would bring about the end of the world?

Story continues at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1090400/HMS-Apocalypse-Deep-Atlantic-submarine-waits-alert-nuclear-missiles-end-world--.html?ITO=1490

Interesting

I thought so too.

Glad you enjoyed it.

As someone who was in the US Navy and someone who has stood next to those ICBM's I can assure you that in order to launch a nuclear attack it would take the cooperation of many people.At the very least you would need the CO and XO of the ship,the weapons control officer,the secretary of the department of defense,and the president.You would also most likely need the approval of Nato.Even if the entire ship went crazy and wanted to blow up the world they would not have the launch codes because they first must verify the launch codes in the safe and then radio their head quarters and then head quarters would give the launch codes in order to launch the missles.