Nuclear briefcase

A nuclear briefcase is a specially outfitted briefcase used to authorize the use of nuclear weapons.

Russian Federation

Russia's "nuclear briefcase" is code-named Cheget. It is connected to the special communications system code-named Kavkaz, which "supports communication between senior government officials while they are making the decision whether to use nuclear weapons, and in its own turn is plugged into the special communication system Kazbek, which embraces all the individuals and agencies involved in command and control of the Strategic Nuclear Forces." It is usually assumed, although not known with certainty, that the nuclear briefcases are also issued to the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff of the Russian Federation.^[1][2]

United States

The 'nuclear football', as it has been nicknamed, is a black briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States of America to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States.

France

In France, the nuclear briefcase does not exist officially.^[3] A black briefcase called «mobile base»^[4] follows the president in all his trips, but it is not specifically devoted to nuclear force.

Briefcases in fiction

Cinema and literature approached this subject again and again, notably:

Films

• WarGames (1983);
• The Dead Zone (1983);

Johnny Smith, while shaking the hand of Greg Stillson — a candidate for the post of the United States senator — during an electoral meeting, in the prophetic vision of Stilson, became president of the United States, launching a nuclear attack against Russia, scanning the palm personally on a computer terminal to validate the launching of missiles;

• Crimson Tide (1995);

Nuclear briefcase comes in the form of a type card "Bristol board" carrying the typescripts;

• Swing Vote (2008);

The incumbent president attempts to impress a key voter by letting him hold the nuclear football.

• Salt (2010);

in the end of the film, the president of the United States reacts to a war threat with Russia by speeding up the force of nuclear weapon, but the system is taken in hostage by a Russian mole infiltrated within the CIA;

• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011);
• Scorpion (2014);

A team must return to "football" stolen sixteen years earlier in the course of surgical operation. The pirates have already tried to make a striking since an American nuclear silo based in Iceland, but they failed.

Literature

• Langelot et la Clef de la guerre, a children spy novel by Vladimir Volkoff.

The key commanding the firing of nuclear missiles is stolen from the President of the France.

References

1. Adventures of the "Nuclear Briefcase": A Russian Document Analysis, Strategic Insights, Volume III, Issue 9 (September 2004), by Mikhail Tsypkin
2. A 2nd Briefcase for Putin By Alexander Golts, Moscow Times, 20 May 2008
3. Le mystère des codes nucléaires
4. Comment transmet-on le code des armes nucléaires ?

External links

• Shattered Shield. Cold-War Doctrines Refuse to Die By David Hoffman, Washington Post, March 15, 1998