His name is Dead Hand and is activated in case of Russian annihilation

The verbal escalation between Washington and Moscow He intensified After the statements of Dmitri Medvedev, former Russian president and current vice president of the Security Council, by reacting hard to the ultimatum launched by the United States: stop the offensive in Ukraine within ten days or face new sanctions. Medvedev described The threat as “a step towards war”, and then remembered a cold war system.

The diplomatic trigger. Yes, because the leader He replied with allusions to the known Russian nuclear system Like Dead Handdesigned to guarantee reprisals even if Kremlin’s leadership was eliminated. Far from softening the tone, Trump replied that the Russian had to “monitor his words”, warning that he entered “a very dangerous territory.”

It was in this context that the US president ordered the repositioning of two nuclear submarines In “appropriate regions”, an unusually public gesture that sought to convey firmness against what he described as “incendiary” comments.

The nuclear background. The announcement recounted an important symbolic burden, since the movements of American ballistic submarines are rarely made public. Analysts Like James Actonfrom Carnegie Endowment, they recalled that the United States nuclear deterrence already maintains constant capacity in the Atlantic and the Pacific, which suggests that the deployment has more A political character than a real change in military position.

The MEDYDEV mention To Dead Hand underlines the growing centrality of Russian nuclear discourse since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Far from his image as a reformist leader between 2008 and 2012, Medvedev has embraced a incendiary tone In social networks, repeatedly referring to atomic Arsenal as a letter of intimidation, which raises tension at a time of military and diplomatic stagnation.

The origin of an apocalyptic weapon. The idea of a Final Judgment Devicean automatic mechanism that guarantees nuclear retaliation even when a country has been devastated and its eliminated leaders seemed for decades a science fiction fantasy. However, the Soviet Union materialized in 1985 under the name of Perimetr systembetter known in the West as Dead Hand.

The principle was simple in its logic and terrifying in its consequence: even if the enemy launched a perfect first attack, annihilating Moscow’s political and military command, a Autonomous system He would ensure the nuclear response, also condemning the aggressor. In other words, it was the incarnation of the insured mutual destructionbrought to an automatic level in which no human decision could stop the sequence once activated.

The strategic motivation of Moscow. The development of the system responded to the growing Soviet vulnerability in the 1980s. The improvement in the accuracy of the American missiles launched from submarines reduced the half -hour warning time just three minuteswhich made it impossible to organize a counterattack before destruction. In that scenario, the classical deterrence of the cold war was threatened, because Washington could consider feasible a first disabling blow.

To restore balance, Kremlin designed the Perimetrthat when activated in times of tension would remain latent, evaluating with seismic, radiological and atmospheric pressure sensors if the territory had been attacked. Only then, and after verifying the loss of contact with the General Staff, the system granted launch authority to the crew buried in A armored bunkereliminating the need for intact command chains.

The mechanism. The system’s core was a unique missile: 15P011not armed with a nuclear head, but with a radio transmitter hardened against radiation. When taking off from a protected silo, this projectile flew over the country issuing launch orders to the ICBM silos, to the strategic submarines and the bombers, replacing the communications infrastructure that was presumed destroyed.

This guaranteed mass retaliation against Preprogrammed objectives. The decision chain was reduced to a Sequence of conditional: If an attack was detected, if there was no communication with the high command, and if after a prudential time the signals were not restored, then the revenge was assured. A single operator, locked in Your underground positioncould trigger the complete arsenal of the Soviet Union.

Between the secret and the paradox. Paradoxically, the real utility of Perimetr did not reside so much to intimidate the United States with its existence, because for years it remained in the strictest secret, revealed to the world in 1993. Rather it worked like a Psychological insurance For Soviet leaders themselves.

Knowing that the system would automatically respond to them not to rush before ambiguous signals and gain time to analyze whether an alleged attack was not, in reality, a radar error or a flock of geese confused with missiles. Instead of accelerating nuclear button, Dead Hand reduced risk of a catastrophic error by excessive reaction, providing a strange respite in a climate marked by permanent fear of Armageddon.

Validity. Although the exact details remain classified, It is believed than perimetr Follow operational in current Russia, modernized after the dissolution of the USSR. Its only existence remembers the thin line between strategic stability and global destruction: a device that, in theory, converts nuclear war into a absolute nonsensebut at the same time contains the power to erase civilization without human intervention.

The unusual thing is that, far from being the irrational monster by Dr. StrangeloveDead Hand may have been the more rational invention In the logic of terror balance: a mechanism created to calm those who could destroy the world with an impulsive order. In that disturbing paradox, its legacy is supported: the only real device of assured destruction that, by guaranteeing retaliation, reduced temptation of error and, somehow, the nuclear vertigo of the cold war made more habitable.

Today, the episode Between Trump and Medvedev It emphasizes once again the fragility of the nuclear balance between both powers: on the one hand, the tacit dissuasion of the United States, whose underwater force Always remain ready No need for ads. On the other, Kremlin’s constant resource to atomic rhetoric as an instrument of psychological pressure.

Image | Włodi

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