Experts say nukes 100% Trump’s call
‘Streamlined’ process ends with the president
A system of checks and balances exists to prevent a U.S. president from illegally ordering a nuclear strike, but no one can stop the commander in chief from using nuclear weapons, according to senior military experts and a former vice president.
“If President Trump were to decide that it’s time to put (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un in his place once and for all, he would choose a plan that already exists. And it would be almost impossible, in my view, to override a decision to implement that option,” Bruce G. Blair, a former nuclear missile launch officer and co-founder of Global Zero, told USA TODAY on Sunday.
The exact procedure has come under scrutiny amid congressional testimony about Trump’s experience and authority to wage war at a time of elevated tensions with North Korea.
“We are concerned that the president of the United States is so unstable, is so volatile, has a decision-making process that is so quixotic, that he might order a nuclear weapons strike that is wildly out of step with U.S. national security interests,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said last week.
While the key aspects of the precise sequence of events that would allow a president to launch a nuclear strike remain a mystery, Gen. John Hyten, the current head of Strategic Command, said Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum that he would refuse a launch order from a president if he believed that order to be illegal. He added that the president would then likely ask him for legal options.
“I provide advice to the president,” Hyten said. “He’ll tell me what to do, and if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m gonna say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ Guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up with options of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is.”
However, Brian McKeon, a senior military policy adviser in the Pentagon during the Obama administration, effectively told senators during testimony that a president’s will to launch a nuclear strike could not be thwarted.
Blair outlined this process to launch a nuclear strike:
1. The president consults with advisers. They explain the options, and the Strategic Command chief located near Omaha gives a recommendation.
2. The president chooses an option and orders the Pentagon war room to implement it.
3. The Pentagon war room asks the president to authenticate the order using a code, the so-called “biscuit.”
4. The war room formats and transmits a launch order directly to executing commanders in submarines, to those overseeing land-based rocket missiles and to bomber forces.
5. The launch order is checked for its authenticity by commanders using special codes that they already possess.
6. Launch orders are transmitted to all commanders around the world simultaneously.
7. If the codes are authenticated, the land-based weapons are fired within a minute or two; and within 15 minutes for submarines.