by ELAINE GROSSMAN
This is the third article in a three-part series on how limited foreign attacks could endanger America’s fragile command and control over nuclear weapons. Read parts one and two.
As the aging command and control network over U.S. nuclear forces has become increasingly vulnerable to limited attacks and hobbled by years of institutional neglect, some defense experts are calling on the Pentagon to reinstitute a number of doomsday backup systems decades after they were discarded as Cold War relics.
These could include aircraft or rockets that broadcast emergency orders to nuclear forces if all other modes of communication have been silenced. Some say the White House might even consider pre-delegating authority for ordering or calling off nuclear strikes down the chain of command, in the event that top political leaders can no longer be found.
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