Top Heavy Security.

Steyr

British nukes were protected by bike locks By Meirion Jones
Newsnight producer 15-11-2007

Newsnight has discovered that until the early days of the Blair government the RAF's nuclear bombs were armed by turning a bicycle lock key. There was no other security on the Bomb itself. While American and Russian weapons were protected by tamper-proof combination locks which could only be released if the correct code was transmitted, Britain relied on a simpler technology.

The Dr Strangelove scenario

The British military resisted Whitehall proposals to fit bombs with Permissive Action Links - or PALs - which would prevent them being armed unless the right code was sent. UK nuclear weapons are designed first and foremost to be secure and safe Read the MoD statement. PALs were introduced in the 1960s in America to prevent a mad General or pilot launching a nuclear war off their own bat - the Dr Strangelove scenario.
President Kennedy ordered that every American nuclear bomb should be fitted with a PAL. The correct code had to be transmitted by the US Chiefs of Staff and dialled into the Bomb before it could be armed otherwise it would not detonate.

Safeguards

Crews in missile silos also had a dual key arrangement so one man could not launch Armageddon. Safeguards familiar in Bond films were not in place for British bombs. Similar safeguards are in place on Russian nuclear weapons. They are familiar from numerous Hollywood films such as Broken Arrow with
John Travolta, The Peacemaker with Nicole Kidman and various James Bond films.

Under control

Papers at the National Archive show that as early as 1966 an attempt was made to impose PAL security on British nuclear weapons. The Chief Scientific Adviser Solly Zuckerman formally advised the Defence Secretary Denis Healey that Britain needed to install Permissive Action Links on its nuclear weapons to keep them safe. "The Government will need to be certain that any weapons deployed are under some form of 'ironclad' control". The Royal Navy argued that officers of the Royal Navy as the Senior Service could be trusted: "It would be invidious to suggest... that Senior Service officers may, in
difficult circumstances, act in defiance of their clear orders". Neither the Navy nor the RAF installed PAL protection on their nuclear weapons. The RAF kept their unsafeguarded bombs at airbases until they were withdrawn in 1998.

Bicycle lock key

With the help of Brian Burnell - a researcher into the history of the British nuclear weapons programme who once designed bomb casings for atom bombs - Newsnight tracked down a training version of the WE 177 nuclear bomb at the Bristol Aero collection at Kemble. Tornado and earlier V-bomber crews trained with these, which were identical in every way to the live bombs except for the nuclear warhead. To arm the weapons you just open a panel held by two captive screws - like a battery cover on a radio - using a thumbnail or a coin.
Inside are the arming switch and a series of dials which you can turn with an Allen key to select high yield or low yield, air burst or groundburst and other parameters.
The Bomb is actually armed by inserting a bicycle lock key into the arming switch and turning it through 90 degrees. There is no code which needs to be entered or dual key system to prevent a rogue individual from arming the Bomb.

This report can be seen on Newsnight on Thursday, 15 November, 2007 at 10.30pm on BBC TWO

Hagar

That is scary. Really scary.

Benny-c

Just imagine if the british 'red tops' aka The (oirish;)) Sun & the (oirish;))Daily Mail had got wind of the fact that the French or German Nukes had the same level of security, they would have had a field day.

p.s Not sure if the Germans have nukes

Captain Chaos

Benny-c wrote: »

Just imagine if the british 'red tops' aka The (oirish;)) Sun & the (oirish;))Daily Mail had got wind of the fact that the French or German Nukes had the same level of security, they would have had a field day.

p.s Not sure if the Germans have nukes

Yes the German airforce have US built and supplied B61 tactical nukes for their Tornados but they are under US control as to when and how they are if ever to be used.

Fratton Fred

Ah yes, but do they say what type of bike locks :rolleyes:

Flying

Some Bicycle locks are hard to crack

Victor

Steyr wrote: »

While American and Russian weapons were protected by tamper-proof combination locks which could only be released if the correct code was transmitted, Britain relied on a simpler technology.

Of course, bored technicians were known to have bypassed such safeguards.

Kaiser_Sma

when i saw bicycle locks earlier, i though the bombs literaly had a bicycle chaiin rapped around them and hitched onto a post in a warehouse somewhere. I assume by bicycle key, they mean a small simple key?

To be honest i didn't even know britain still kept its air dropped bombs for active duty.

Victor

Kaiser_Sma wrote: »

To be honest i didn't even know britain still kept its air dropped bombs for active duty.

AFAIK they are disassembled and have not been updated in quite a long time.

All that remains are about 200 warheads for the ballistic missile submarines of which perhaps 20-50 are available at any one time.

Kaiser_Sma

Yeah thats what i thought

Fratton Fred

I now have visions of the KGB employing the smartest brains in the world to crack the American codes on their ICBMs, whilst employing 12 year old kids from Liverpool to pick the bike locks on Vulcan bombers:D

Steyr

Kaiser_Sma wrote: »

To be honest i didn't even know britain still kept its air dropped bombs for active duty.

Britains Nuclear Deterrent force is now the Royal Navy's Submarine fleet in Faslane. The RAF dont do Nuke's anymore since the V Force was disbanded.

Oilrig

Strange to see Military folk accept the word of a Journalist without question... :rolleyes:

Steyr

Oilrig wrote: »

Strange to see Military folk accept the word of a Journalist without question... :rolleyes:

Eh its Newsnight your talking about!:p

Mick86

Oilrig wrote: »

Strange to see Military folk accept the word of a Journalist without question... :rolleyes:

Why do you assume that all contributors to the Military forum are military folk?

Are all contributors to the Politics forum, politicians?

Fratton Fred

Mick86 wrote: »

Why do you assume that all contributors to the Military forum are military folk?

Are all contributors to the Politics forum, politicians?

Exactly. I contribute to Beer Guts and receding hair but...oh