Do “battle stations” exist? Assuming they are–and the world is being told something close to battle operations are in place-- what takes place?
Obviously, different battles are different–I don’t think anti-submarine preparedness plans have gone into high gear: but do I know? Maybe it’s a package deal, or a good opportunity for a major drill.
I mean, do they top off the cruise missile data with the latest geographic, geomagnetic (what else?) data, and run tons of extra software checks?
Ditto on hardware. We’ve had some time, so it’s not a surprise, but still.
Ditto with comms. Are new procedures, tech being put through different paces now that action may be imminent?
This also goes for new hard and software tech which has never seen active service until now?
Ditto personnel, of course.
Just trying to get a sense of what feels different on-board.
I’ve also wondered how complex the job of firing one of those bad boys really is. Don’t you just type in the target coordinates, then click down extra waypoint for the path the missile follows on the way there? (that way you can make it avoid terrain features it would have trouble traversing, air defense radars, etc)
But that second step is optional, even. I think some models of missile may have optical or infrared cameras that can identify a target building, but that doesn’t sound reliable.
The core job sounds like “type in coordinates, click fire button”.
“Battle Stations” do exist. At battle stations, weapons crews man (or woman) their assigned weapons. Damage control crews man their assigned DC stations. Firefighting teams man their assigned Firefighting posts. Combat Information Center crews man their assigned CIC posts. Etc. It’s a routine drill so everyone knows where they’re supposed to go and what they’re supposed to do.
Tomahawk cruise missiles receive routine preventive maintenance checks and service on a regular basis, regardless as to whether they’re expected to be launched in the near future or not. It’s called “Operational Readiness”. And it’s something useful for the Missile Technicians to do to pass the time on a cruise. So currently, the MTs are probably doing what they always do. They might be supervised a bit more and more likely to tweak stuff to the nearest 1/10 of a volt then usual. Once the tracks to the targets are calculated and plotted including way points, compared to most recent Sat Intel and GPS information, etc. I can’t imagine it taking more than 3 minutes to upload that information and the current position into a missile. And the National Command Authority will probably give them a couple of hours advance notice.
As for just clicking a button, after the targeting data is uploaded, I do suspect it’s more like 2 officers each simultaneously turning a key in a console, then the Missile Control Officer lifts a cover and presses a button.