Actually, from what I’m seeing, it currently takes 10 hours to retarget “all the missiles” in the land-based ICBM force (450 Minuteman IIIs), but that an individual missile can be retargeted “in minutes.”
I don’t know how long the SLBMs would take.
Considering the difficulties involved in communicating with a submerged submarinewhose exact location is unknown, it probably takes a while to alert an SSBN to a target change.
A brief search didn’t give me any clues as to how quickly US SLBMs could be retargeted, once the retarget message was received. This would also be dependent on whether the SSBN fleet has the new targeting information aboard, in the correct format to load into the missiles’ guidance systems, or whether the SSBN would have to receive the new targeting information through further communications.
Comforting that a POTUS has the sole determination. Do other heads of state in the other — officially accepted — nuclear weapons powers have the same pure power ?
If the president of France or Pakistan suddenly finds out he is dying and decides to take everything with him, can he press his button unencumbered by objection ?
*I’ll leave the night time to the dreamers
I’ll leave the songbirds to the blind
I’ll leave the moon above
To those in love
When I leave the world behind*
'Bout as much as I would have guessed, too.
Hypothetically, let’s suppose that a secret service agent, recognizing that his principle is about to cause the death of Western civilization, put a bullet in (the president’s) head.
Would the launch order, if unconfirmed, be cancelled? From an ethical point of view, to me this seems like a pretty trivial to work out ethical problem. The life of a single man is less than that of Western civilization.
If the President were suddenly dead, then you’d ask the President (i.e., the guy who moments before was the Vice President) to confirm the order.
I would assume that would change nothing. As the system is setup under the assumption that while the POTUS is is operating the nuclear football several Soviet ICBMs are hurtling towards him and so the POTUS and everyone within a few miles of will be dead.
If that caused the cancellation of the order then it seems like it would be a flaw.
Admittedly, I’ve never served a day in the military. But I recall a passage from the non-fiction book *Trident *where a SSBN commander stated that if ordered by a POTUS to launch nukes in the midst of a major war, he’d let them fly, no questions asked, but if a POTUS ordered him to nuke in the midst of peacetime, totally out of the blue, then he’d challenge and reverify, all the way to the point of demanding to talk to the POTUS himself to see if the order was true - and that the POTUS would have to persuade the sub commander that the launch was necessary and justified.
And that’s a commander who was willing to say, in a published book no less, that he wouldn’t launch just because he was told to launch. I’m guessing there are many others in the launch chain who have their own unspoken secret plans about what they’d do if the order was actually given.
“This is the President. For the White House kitchen: meatloaf. Repeat: meatloaf.”
- NK intercepts message. “It’s ok. All quiet…” *
Well, the War Powers Act of 1973 technically says that, but no president, other than perhaps Carter, has agreed to abide by it. It’s unclear why anyone would think the particular weapons involved would make a difference. Politically, it might, but not legally.
However, that same Act only says that the president must “consult with Congress” before taking action.:
And the SCOTUS has not weighed in on this, so whether it is constitutional or not, we don’t know. But Congress has shown itself unwilling to enforce the idea that the president can’t act without prior approval, so whatever the Act might mean, it’s got no teeth.
The Constitution says that Congress, not the President, has the sole power to declare war. The President has some power to respond to an attack by another country but that’s on the basis that the war already exists. But absent an attack, the President has to wait for either a Declaration of War or an Authorization for Use of Military Force.
You’re probably thinking of the War Powers Act of 1973. But that doesn’t say that the President needs the approval of Congress to launch an attack…only that he has to notify Congress 48 hours after he sends troops into a military action, and that Congress has to approve a military action that lasts longer than 60 days.
The Congress has sole power to declare war, but the last time Congress declared war was against Romania, on June 4, 1942. US troops have obviously been in conflict since then.
For a thriller on debating orders up the chain of command (although with non-global consequences), see Eye in the Sky about authorizing a risky drone strike. Bonus points for it being Alan Rickman’s last on-screen performance.
No, I’m thinking of the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11.
Congress gave the President some limited discretionary power with the War Powers Resolution. But that doesn’t include the power to start a war.
While one could argue that no President has the legal right to start a war out of the blue without congressional approval, no President is ever going to do that.
Every President is going to say that the US is in imminent danger and an immediate response is required. That decision is entirely up to the President. If the SecDef says that he doesn’t see the danger, the President can just say that Sec Def doesn’t have all the information the President does. End of discussion. I don’t think the President is required to share that information with anyone. He can just say some super top-secret agent just contacted him-or his wife’s astrologer (http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/04/us/white-house-confirms-reagans-follow-astrology-up-to-a-point.html)- gave him the information. As others have said, I have never heard of any situation where there is any check on the power of the Commander in Chief to engage US forces. Congress can cut off funds and end the conflict that way, but CinC can start anything he wants.
And Congress failed to enforce the 60 day rule with both Bush and Obama.