Nuclear Security and Safety Challenges:
The Challenge of Non-State Actors
Peter HAYES
Nautilus Institutewww.nautilus.org
prepared for
The 3rd Panel on Peace and Security of Northeast Asia (PSNA) Workshop“Responsibility and Role of Nuclear Powers
in Promoting International Peace and Security”
Moscow, May 31- June 1st, 2018
Sponsored by
Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University (RECNA)
Co-organized by RECNA in cooperation with
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs,
Russian Pugwash Committee of the Russian Academy of Science,
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University),
Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO)

DRAFT NOT FOR CITATION OR CIRCULATION
1CATALYTIC NUCLEAR ATTACK
Metaphor: catalyst increases rate of chemical reaction without catalyst
Being destroyed; tiny amounts often suffice
In 1950s, concern about n-country, that small nuclear weapons states (“China”
could start nuclear war between US and FSU on theory that a catalytic state would
be least damaged at end, and could increase its relative power by starting a war
between other nuclear armed states.
Classic essay: Kobe derived suspicion, retaliation, destruction, catalytic war utility,
and casualty matrices for each country that defined outcomes for each state in a“catalytic nuclear war”
However, the ability of US and FSU to overwhelmingly retaliate and damage thecatalytic state soon allayed this concern, but it motivated superpowers to strive fornuclear non-proliferation
Main concern was state-sponsored nuclear terrorism
Donald Kobe, “A Theory of Catalytic War,” The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 6:2, June 1962, pp. 125-142, at:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/172987
J. Digby et al, How Nuclear War Might Start, Scenarios from the 21st Century, RAND Note N-2614-NA, Santa
2
Monica, October 1988, at: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/notes/2009/N2614.pdf

ARGUMENT: CATALYTIC NUCLEAR TERRORISM IS A SERIOUS POLICY
CONCERN?
THREE NESTED ARGUMENTS:
1. Inadvertent nuclear war is possible, probability > 0
2. Nuclear terrorism: valid: one or more of three threshold eventsare conceivable, and probability >0
3. Threshold nuclear terrorism can trigger inadvertent nuclear war• Credible Threats• Hostage Taking• Steal, Smuggle, Acquire Footloose Fissile Material• Dirty Bomb
• Attack Reactors• Attack Spent Fuel
• Simultaneous Cyber Attacks Disable Critical Infrastructure• Acquire Nuclear Weapon; Detonate Nuclear Weapon

Least Damage

Most Damage
3

COMPLEXITY 21ST CENTURY STATEBASED NUCLEAR THREAT SYSTEM
Tier 1: United States
Tier 2: Russia, China
Global triangle
Tier 3: UK, France, NATO allies + nuclear
umbrella allies
Tier 4: India, Pakistan, Israel, DPRKno shared rules of the road, moreunpredictable and unstable (truel effect)

Tier 5: Non-State Nuclear Actors
4Interstate Nuclear War Linkage with Nuclear Terrorism
But these two nuclear worlds—a non-state actor nuclear attack
and a catastrophic interstate nuclear exchange—are notnecessarily separable. It is just possible that some sort of terrorist
attack, and especially an act of nuclear terrorism, could
precipitate a chain of events leading to a massive exchange of
nuclear weapons between two or more of the states that possessthem.
Robert Ayson, "After a Terrorist Nuclear Attack: Envisaging Catalytic
Effects,” Studies in conflict and terrorism, 33:7, 2010, p. 584, at:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2010.483756

How might this link happen?
5

NUCLEAR TERRORISM POST-COLD WAR:
TRIGGER FOR INADVERTENT NUCLEAR WAR?
Multiple Pathways• EW failure “trips” launch-on-warning• Accidental detonation• Strategic miscalculation in crisis, show of force• Decision making failure (irrational, misperception, bias,
degraded, group, compressed decision making)• Allied or enemy choices (revenge, exploit nuclear risk,
desperation)• Organizational cybernetics, NC3 system itself, including
meta-NC3 system• Synchronous and coincident combinations of above
H. Wiberg, I.D. Peterson, P. Smoker, ed, Inadvertent Nuclear War:The Implications of the Changing Global Order, Pergamon, 1993
6

6. Current NC3 Stresses:
•
•
•
•
•

RussiaChina
SSBNs
North Korea
False alarms-social media triggering of
EW systems• Non-State Catalytic attack• Disruptive AI, Q-Tech, Autonomous
VehiclesEmerging Interaction 2: North Korea NC3I















In April 2012, North Korea reportedly upgraded its Missile Guidance Bureau to become a Strategic
Rocket Force, apparently separate from the KPA’s Army, Navy and Air Force. Its Commander, Lt. Gen. Kim
Rak Gyom was elected to the Korean Worker’s Party Central Military Committee, underscoring thecommitment to developing a deliverable strategic nuclear weapon
For such a centralized and personalized command structure as North Korea, this question of control is
critically important. KJU is in command.
Moreover, the peculiarly North Korean pyramid of power presents the possibility of instant propagationof error and possible inadvertent escalation for a military command structure prone to constant probing
by and interaction with devolved US and ROK military forces at the “hard edges” of the DMZ and theNorthern Limit Line.
Cybernetic errors may creep into the DPRK nuclear command and control system
Kim’s nuclear command-and-control system may be susceptible to the Byzantine (traitorous) Generalsubversion problem should war come at a time of disorder and near collapse in the DPRK itself.
DPRK NC3I simple but very tightly coupled with DPRK conventional and nuclear forces
Preplanned STRATCOM target sets likely obsolete by time war breaks out. Improvised targetingcombined with delayed delivery time by strategic bombers generates real risk of useless nuclear attack.
DPRK communications are fiber optic underground, and opaque to SIGINT, making EW difficult
US-ROK inclination is to strike early and possibly first in revised OPLAN 2015, but attacking CPs andleadership, not just weapons and missiles, may lead to DPRK nuclear first-use.
North Korean strategic retreat may lead to KJU-KPA taking Pyongyang hostage with nuclear weapons.
What then?
Coincident risks? Taiwan Sts crisis? Terrorist attack? ROK irrational move?

Emerging Interaction 3:
Nuclear Terrorism as Trigger Event: Key Questions NonState Actor NC3I

 Would nuclear-armed non-state actor eg terrorist group, have centralized single commander or adopt decentralized
and delegative contingent authority? How do non-statea NC3I systems differ from state-based NC3I systems?
 Would decapitation attack on network leader prompt non-state actor nuclear use?
 What precedents exist eg Aum Shinrikyo, Al Qaeda, what formal, informal, or tacit rules and behaviors of non-state
actor C3I
 Mumbai attack is archetype for self-organizing attack with centralized C2 with prior reconn, real-time situationalawareness via social media, trans-border Does time compression of decision-making drive delegation for non-state actors as with states?
 Would non-state actors mimic launch-under-attack or launch-under-warning of attack state policies?
 What geographic depth, ability to preposition nuclear weapons, and other factors affect non-state actors propensity
and ability to use nuclear weapons, and related NC3I systems?
 How does organizational structure (eg star, daisy-chain, all-channel network) affect possible nuclear threat-attack
strategies?
 How do motivational goals, eg political-ideological orientation and aspiration to proto-statehood versus religiousapocalyptic orientation, affect resources, partnerships, stamina, operational procedures and strategies, targeting for
nuclear threat or attack?
 How would non-state actor implement transnational C3I demands; use of non-state NCI leads to sigint, targeting,strikes, even if use encrypted communications? (including non-state cyber-attacks eg Anonymous against IslamicState How would non-state acquisition, threat, or use of nuclear weapons interact with n-state NC3I systems in various
combinations and scenarios?
Sources:Daniel Byman, “Why ISIS might regret the decision to go global,” Brookings blog, November 16, 2015
David Killcullen Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla. New York: Oxford University Press. 2013
C. Blair, Non-State Actor Nuclear Command and Control, FAS Public Interest Report, Fall 2010 at:
http://fas.org/programs/tap/_docs/Non-State%20Actor%20Nuclear%20Command%20and%20Control.pdf
Robert Ayson, “After a Terrorist Nuclear Attack: Envisaging Catalytic Effects,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 33, 2010, pp. 571593.

NUCLEAR TERRORIST STRATEGIC MOTIVATION••••

Opportunist:
Tactical
Short-term
Bargaining
Nuclear Terror for Status andLeverage
Pre-Determined NC3 (use or lose)

Patient:• Strategic• Nuclear Terror to Evoke
Response• Deal Body Blow
• Genocidal• Apocalyptic
Assertive NC3 (leader controls)

Non-State Terrorist NC3 Options

S. Ellingsen, “Deliberations of a Nuclear Terrorist: Patience of Opportunism?” Defense & Security
Analysis, 26:4, pp. 353-369 at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2010.534545
10Factors Affecting Terrorist Nuclear Command-and-Control

C. Blair, Two Open Source Nuclear Terrorism Projects,” IGCC Nuclear Security D.C. Policy Series, December 15, 2011, at:
http://fas.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Blair_FAS_IGCC_Presentation_Dec_2012.pdf

STATE NUCLEAR COMMAND, CONTROL AND COMMUNICATIONS NC3
Procedural and Technical Measures to Control Nuclear Weapons
Positively (ensure authorized use)
Negatively (ensure never used without authority)
Controls
Procedural
Measures“Always-Never Paradox”
Technical
MeasuresJ. Conley, “Nuclear Command and Control in the Twenty-first Century: Trends, Disparities, and the Impact on Stability,” in O. Price, J. Mackby, Debating 21stCentury Nuclear Issues, CSIS, 2007, pp. 226-250, at: https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/07-09-14_priceponi.pdf
Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation, Nuclear Command, Control, and Stability Framework, December 29, 2016,
https://calhoun.nps.edu/bitstream/handle/10945/48707/Nuclear%20Command%20Control%20and%20Stability%20Assessment_Final%20report_29Dec15%20rev
2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y12

RISK OF NUCLEAR TERRORISM
Northeast Asia Regional Experience• Low-level individual terroristic violence with nuclear materials,
against nuclear facilities, is real
• Nuclear material diversion risk is real
• Insider “sleeper” threat is real
• Insider corruption is real
• Extortion threat over insider is real
• Cult threat and attempt to build, buy nuclear weapons is real
• Cyber-terrorism against nuclear reactors is real (althoughambiguous as to attribution)• Stand-off ballistic and drone threat is real
• Non-state actors adopt new technology very fast, eg drones• Risk of loss of control of nuclear weapons only in North Korea,
China, Russia, and on US deployed submarines. None in South
Korea or Japan to worry about.
• Extreme ethno-and xenophobic nationalism emerging in China,
Korea, Japan
13

STUDY COMPLEX ENGINEERING PROJECTS BY FIVE VIOLENT NON-STATE ACTORSCONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS• Substantial resources• Safe Haven• Technical Expertise, Own, Procured• Culture of Learning from Failure
Requires strategic commitment due to goal or change in environment, not tacticalLong-term planning, rational choice (up to 10 years)

Source: G. Ackerman, “Comparative Analysis of VNSA Complex Engineering Efforts,” Journal of Strategic
Security, 9:1, 2016, at: http://scholarshipcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol9/iss1/10
14

PAST IS NOT PROLOGUE
Past and Present Supply Non-State Terrorist Actors
•
•
•
•
•
•

Politico-ideological
Apocalyptic-millenarian
Politico-Religious
Nationalist-separatist
EcologicalInsurgency

•
•
•
•
•

Criminal-military (profit based)
Criminal-scientists (profit based)
Pyscho-pathological mass killers
Lone Wolf
Copy Cats

Future Supply:• Independent cities (theocratic, corporate, green)• Non-states (Taiwan, micro-states, failed state, ungoverned
territory, province in dissociating, failing state)• Convergent global terrorist-criminal networks gatekeepers offlow through coastal megacities, supplanting highlands
15

NUCLEAR WEAPONS -CAPABLE
NON-STATE TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONSAl Qaeda?
Chechens?

J. Forest, “Framework for Analyzing the Future Threatof WMD Terrorism,” Journal of Strategic Security, 5:4,
2012, pp. 61-62, at:
http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol5/iss4/9

Practical constraints• Expense, hard to steal, risk of discovery• Hard to make• Hard to conceal
Strategic constraints (CB ratio)• Delegitimate NSA if genocidal• Political-ideological objectives• Lead to elimination, own• Opportunity cost, easier alternatives• Failure, discovery

Al Qaeda?
Chechens?
Collapsed state?
(Pakistan, DPRK)16REGIONAL PATHWAYS TO NUCLEAR WAR
1. US-DPRK conflict (including with it, US allies in the region Japan, South Korea andAustralia; and all sixteen [check] UNC command allies in Korea. Many permutations
possible ranging from non-violent collapse to implosion and civil war, inter-Koreanwar, slow humanitarian crisis. Of these implosion-civil war likely most dangerous.
2. China-Taiwan conflict, whereby China may use nuclear weapons to overcome US
forces operating in the West Pacific, either at sea, or based on US (Guam, Alaska) or
US allied territory in the ROK, Japan, the Philippines, or Australia); or US uses
nuclear weapons in response to Chinese attack on Taiwan.
3. China-Japan conflict escalates via attacks on early warning systems, eg SOSUS(Ayson-Ball, 2011).
4. China-Russia conflict, possibly in context of loss-of-control of Chinese nuclear
forces in a regional conflict involving Taiwan or North Korea.
5. Russia-US conflict, involving horizontal escalation from a head-on collision with
Russian nuclear forces in Europe or the Middle East; or somehow starts at sea(mostly likely seems ASW)
6. Simultaneous conflict combinations across 1-5, or other unanticipated nuclearprone conflict axes erupt (such as Russia-Japan)
R. Ayson, D. Ball, “Can a Sino-Japanese War Be Controlled?” Survival, 56:6, December 2014/January 2015, pp.
135-166, at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00396338.2014.985441?journalCode=tsur20&&17

Figure Seven: State nuclear weapons control biases by NC3 type

THRESHOLD TERRORIST NUCLEAR ATTACKS
Three types terrorist nuclear attacks may
affect nuclear weapons decisions of states
due to scale, perpetrator ambiguity,
precursor signal
1. Credible threat of either nuclear
detonation or radiological attack withpossible massive damages
2. Actual or sub-critical nuclear detonation
3. Actual spent fuel or reactor attack with
substantial radiological release
19

VULNERABILITY TO TERRORISM OF NUCLEAR SPENT FUEL: THE SOUTH KOREAN
CASE

Figure 6. Contamination levels after the hypothetical fire ofKori-3 pool using weather data on Jan 1, 2015

Figure 7. Contamination levels after the hypothetical fire ofKori-3 pool using weather data on Apr. 1, 2015

Table 5. Summarized results of the Kori-3 SFPF accident

Jungmin Kang, "VULNERABILITY TO TERRORISM OF NUCLEAR SPENT FUEL: THE SOUTH KOREAN CASE", NAPSNet Special
Reports, November 30, 2017, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-special-reports/vulnerability-to-terrorism-ofnuclear-spent-fuel-the-south-korean-case/Figure 8: Impact of a Terrorist Nuclear Threat or Attack on Interstate Nuclear Use Control

CREDIBLE THREAT OF ACTUAL OR SUBCRITICAL NUCLEAR DETONATION 1
Event In: Nuclear Weapons States•
Two possibilities for conflict linkage:
Insider sourced perpetrator, none if determined• Outsider sourced perpetrator—suspicion matrix activated [xcountry], connects to potential escalation pathways tointerstate nuclear war.
Possible NUDET sites and [suspected perpetrator]:
China NC3 Bias Impact [US, North Korea, Russia]
Russian Far East NC3 Bias Impact [US, China]
North Korea NC3 Bias Impact [US]22

NUCLEAR COMMAND-AND-CONTROL IN THE QUANTUM ERA

China’s Micius satellite long distance Q communication test from here

Q-NC3 communications
Q-NC3 encryption: secrecy and past data files, eg PRP, procedures
Q-NCE Solving Computationally Massive Problems
Q- Rendering Visible Nuclear Weapons and Delivery Systems—and Command Centers
Q- Quantum Monitoring and Verification
Peter Hayes, "NUCLEAR COMMAND-AND-CONTROL IN THE QUANTUM ERA",Blue Peter NAPSNet, March 29, 2018,https://nautilus.org/napsnet/nuclear-command-and-control-in-the-quantum-era/FALSE ALARMS, FALSE NEGATIVES AND POSITIVES, FAKE PEACE, FAKE WAR
•
•
•
•
•

Seoul Facebook non combatant evacuation Feb 2017
Guam false alarm July 2017
Hawaii false alarm September 2017
Tokyo false alarm September 2017
Minuteman/Trident missile launch, Dec 6 2017

Peter Hayes, "REDUCING THE RISK THAT SOCIAL MEDIA STORMS TRIGGER NUCLEAR WAR: ISSUES AND ANTIDOTES", Blue Peter NAPSNet, February 01, 2018, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/reducingthe-risk-that-social-media-storms-trigger-nuclear-war-issues-and-antidotes/
See also:
Stanley Foundation, Three Tweets to Midnight: Nuclear Crisis Stability and the Information Ecosystem, Policy Dialogue Brief, February 2018 at:https://www.stanleyfoundation.org/resources.cfm?id=1646&title=Three-Tweets-to-Midnight:-Nuclear-Crisis-Stability-and-the-Information-Ecosystem
M. Chessen, THE MADCOM FUTURE: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL ENHANCE COMPUTATIONAL PROPAGANDA, REPROGRAM HUMAN CULTURE, AND THREATEN DEMOCRACY... AND WHAT CAN BE
DONE ABOUT IT, Atlantic Council, 2017, at: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/reports/the-madcom-future

L. Saalman, “Fear of false negatives: AI and China’s nuclear posture, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 24, 2018, at:https://thebulletin.org/military-applications-artificial-intelligence/fear-false-negatives-ai-and-china%E2%80%99s-nuclear-posturePossible Antidotes
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•

Resolve nuclear prone conficts
Multilateral Data Exchange & Independent Early Warning
Networks
Global NC3 Code of Conduct
Command Discipline, military tradition and honor
Laws of War, humanitarian international law—NWPT assert
jurisdiction to hold nuclear weapons personnel accountable
and create tribunals for trials for nuclear aggression andstarting nuclear wars
Support nuclear refuseniks, provide sanctuary in NWPT states
Trade warheads for NC3 upgrade
Reduce warheads, fissile material, vulnerable fuel cycle sites!
NWPT: supply sanctuary for nuclear refuseniks, make nuclear
weapons targeting transparent, accountability tribunals

Trump: Deal or create Adam

Antidotes for Relative EW Deficit-Remedies 1
Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC)
Provisions
The Memorandum Of Agreement Between The Government Of The United States and Government Of The RussianFederation On The Establishment Of A Joint Center For The Exchange Of Data From Early Warning Systems And
Notifications Of Missile Launches established a Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) in Moscow for the exchange of
information derived from each side's missile launch warning systems on the launches of ballistic missiles and spacelaunch vehicles. The JDEC is also intended to serve as the repository for the notifications to be provided as part of anagreed system for exchanging pre-launch notifications on the launches of ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles.
Background: President Clinton and President Yeltsin issued a joint statement 02 September 1998 announcing thatthey had reached agreement on a cooperative initiative between the United States and Russia regarding the exchange
of information on missile launches and early warning, and the potential establishment of a multilateral notification
system for the launch of ballistic missiles. President Clinton and President Putin signed the Memorandum Of
Agreement in Moscow on 04 June 2000. The JDEC will builds upon the successful establishment and operation during
the millennium rollover of the temporary joint center for Y2K Strategic Stability in Colorado Springs. The system is to be
set up in phases, and by the end of the third phase, it will include information on ballistic missile and space launches ofthird parties.
2015…DOA…moribund?

New Concept: Replace JDEC with Mulilateral Data Exchange Network
 Revive as multilateral mechanism based on multiple levels of reciprocal, bilateral
data exchange between nuclear weapons states, and including data from nonnuclear states?
 Devolved, self-implementing networked data exchange on bilateral basis (NOTAMs-ICAO system) Include nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states Parallel civil society based early warning-surveillance system, especially cities

GLOBAL NC3 CODE OF CONDUCT// to 2002 Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation
CODIFICATION OF NORMS AND STATES PRACTICES, EG"DO NOT TARGET THE NATIONAL HIGH COMMAND OF A NUCLEAR WEAPONS OR NUCLEAR ARMED STATE;“"DO NOT CO-LOCATE NUCLEAR WEAPONS WITH ONE'S OWN HIGH COMMAND POST OR EARLY WARNINGINTERPRETATION SITES OR SENSORS;”“DO NOT MIX/FUSE/SHARE NUCLEAR AND CONVENTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS;”“WHEREVER POSSIBLE, USE DEDICATED NUCLEAR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS;”“DO NOT ATTACK OR INTERFERE WITH A NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATE'S NATIONAL TECHNICAL MEANS,” INCLUDING BYIMPLICATION,“DO NOT ATTACK THE UNDERLYING COMMUNICATIONS AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS ON WHICH NTM RELY FOR NC3
OPERATION;”“DO NOT TAKE NC3 COUNTER-MEASURES THAT REDUCE DECISION TIME AND INCREASE IMMEDIACY OF NUCLEAR
DECISIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW.”“DESIGNATE A LEGITIMATE AND ACCOUNTABLE NATIONAL COMMAND AUTHORITY FOR ALL NUCLEAR FORCES.”“INSTITUTE A TWO-PERSON RULE FOR ALL LAUNCH DECISIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION STEPS IN NC3 OPERATIONS.”

Trident submarinelaunched ballistic
missile fired on
November 7 from
offshore Los Angeles
Social Media Storm
Aliens?
Armageddon?
Nuclear attack?
Early warning for CH,
RF, DPRK?
Already in play
SF image above from:https://vimeo.com/145029572?utm_source=AM+
Nukes+Roundup&utm_campaign=2dab571683AM_Nukes_Roundup&utm_medium=email&utm_
term=0_547ee518ec-2dab571683391728633&mc_cid=2dab571683&mc_eid=1d0f4
4d114
Briefing image in submarine from:https://www.flickr.com/photos/usstratcom/sets/
72157658690516614

Antidotes-Remedies 2

Kimball Nebraska missile silo at: 41°21’46.0″N 103°39’38.0″W

Antidotes-Remedies 2

Kimball Nebraska missile silo at: 41°21’46.0″N 103°39’38.0″W

Antidotes-Remedies 2

Kimball Nebraska missile silo at: 41°21’46.0″N 103°39’38.0″W

Antidotes for NC3 system failure 3:
Duty to Disobey and NC3 Refuseniks?
October 28, 1962: ~ 12.30 am Air Force Capt. William Bassett unit in Okinawa received
authenticated launch order to fire Mace missiles at China and Russia in spite of Defcon2
not 1 status. He challenged the order, even after it was resent, and took measures toensure no missiles would be fired, until stand-down order received.
~ 6 hours later in real time
October 27, 1962, ~ 5pm Vasili Arkhipov, political officer on Russian sub B-59 and incommand of Russian sub flotilla, voted against firing nuclear torpedo at US aircraft
carrier, 1 of 3 votes, after an argument.
September 26, 1983: Stanislav Petrov, lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces, was the officer on duty at
the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow which housed the command center of the Soviet early warning system. Dismissed
multiple warnings of incoming US missile attack as errors. Later alarm determined due to rare alignment of sunlight on highaltitude clouds and satellite orbits.
1968 Michael Roach, ADM officer, Korea
1975, Major Harold Hering

What norms, standards, principles, if any, justify refusal by military personnel atreceiving end of NC3 system to refuse to fire nuclear weapons?
Humanitarian law: “manifestly illegal”• Necessary• Proportional• Civilian-military principle
Anthony J. Colangelo, "THE DUTY TO DISOBEY ILLEGAL NUCLEAR STRIKE ORDERS", NAPSNet Policy Forum, October 09, 2017,https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-policy-forum/the-duty-to-disobey-illegal-nuclear-strike-orders/Antidote 4
Trade smaller arsenals for upgraded NC3 force multiplier (reducer)