Ukraine invasion

[Zardnaar]

Would they? Putin had a lot of time to handpick fanatically loyal people to be put at the right places. I would not put it past him if there are fully indoctrinated young soldiers, isolated from the outside with no information but what Kremlin feeds them are sitting at least some of the nukes.

If Putin comes to a point where he wants to take the world with him, he could have made sure that there will not be another Stanislav Petrov preventing nuclear armageddon.

There's two cases in the USSR where they refused to hit red button. One was a technical glitch the other someone paniced in 1962 iirc.

 

[Umbran]

Would they? Putin had a lot of time to handpick fanatically loyal people to be put at the right places.

"He had time," isn't much in terms of evidence.

Do remember that the stories of fanatical loyalty in Russia come from Russia, or the USA in the Cold War, where there was a vested interest in generating fear.

 

[Horwath]

Would they? Putin had a lot of time to handpick fanatically loyal people to be put at the right places. I would not put it past him if there are fully indoctrinated young soldiers, isolated from the outside with no information but what Kremlin feeds them are sitting at least some of the nukes.

If Putin comes to a point where he wants to take the world with him, he could have made sure that there will not be another Stanislav Petrov preventing nuclear armageddon.

I doubt that you can be that suicidal and have competence to get to that level of clearance.

Soldiers can be persuaded to attack something as long as they believe that there is a chance of survival, or that they are giving their life so their loved ones can live on.

The moment Russian launch one ballistic missile, they are all dead(OK not all, but 80-90% of them), the moment NATO detects a ballistic missile launch they WILL retaliate with half of their available nukes. You need to keep something in reserve for just in case.

 

[Morrus]

I doubt that you can be that suicidal and have competence to get to that level of clearance.

Soldiers can be persuaded to attack something as long as they believe that there is a chance of survival, or that they are giving their life so their loved ones can live on.

The moment Russian launch one ballistic missile, they are all dead(OK not all, but 80-90% of them), the moment NATO detects a ballistic missile launch they WILL retaliate with half of their available nukes. You need to keep something in reserve for just in case.

I love armchair nuclear strategy experts.

 

[payn]

I love armchair nuclear strategy experts.

Are armchairs part of the standard bunker package?

 

[Horwath]

I love armchair nuclear strategy experts.

no need to be expert.

It's just M.A.D. doctrine. It kept all of us safe from nuclear attacks for 60+ years.

 

[Umbran]

no need to be expert.

It's just M.A.D. doctrine. It kept all of us safe from nuclear attacks for 60+ years.

Current action seems less to be about mutually assured destruction, and more about avoiding testing who is actually going to hold to a generations-old doctrine.

 

[Morrus]

no need to be expert.

It's just M.A.D. doctrine. It kept all of us safe from nuclear attacks for 60+ years.

Well, let's look at that shall we?

You stated "the moment NATO detects a ballistic missile launch they WILL retaliate with half of their available nukes". You then described that as the MAD doctrine. There's no such policy. Let's look at two NATO nuclear powers:

The British nuclear response policy isn't "the moment they detect a launch, respond with half their available nukes". The nuclear sub captains have sealed letters of action from the PM which tell them what to do in case London is destroyed. Until they open them, they don't know what those letters say.

The US has never adopted MAD as its nuclear strategy; it is just one of several well-known options. The USSR didn't even believe in MAD, because they always said that it was perfectly possible for them to survive a mass nuclear exchange.

Not only that, there have been false alarms of nuclear launches and yet here we are. No mass nuclear exchange.

So, back to where we started, I posit that your claim that "the moment NATO detects a ballistic missile launch they WILL retaliate with half of their available nukes" is not true.

 

[BRayne]

Clearly what will happen if Putin tries to launch nukes is there will be a coup and after the dust settles Nikolai Shulginov will be running the country.

 

[payn]

Clearly what will happen if Putin tries to launch nukes is there will be a coup and after the dust settles Nikolai Shulginov will be running the country.

One can only hope.