Nuclear football

Wherever the president of united states of America goes to travel, one military aide also moves along with him carrying a suitcase or briefcase in which nuclear weapons with its launch codes to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centres, then that nuclear weapon carrying briefcase is termed as nuclear football which always move with the president’s location.

If some situation or circumstances happen to launch this missile and need to carry out nuclear strike, then this nuclear launch takes place. Also, there is no any specific button on the pressing of which, this nuclear launch takes place. But the final authority for nuclear strike is within the president of united state of America. The launching of this missile involves as a whole five steps.

Steps to launch nuclear missile

Firstly, the president will do meeting with top advisors whose duration is as brief as 30 seconds phone call. And after that launch order is given via a secure station, or through the portable nuclear football in which id of president is confirmed and nuclear codes are sent to launch room. Then, the war room received that code which includes targets, time to launch and authentication codes to unlock missile. Then launch crew room confirms authentication codes, enters target information and unlock missiles. And once the nuclear missile is fired, then there is no recall mechanism after execution.

Ways to halt the president’s order to halt nuclear missile

1. If the defence minister of United States of America is disagree to launch the missile but president can fire him and anyone in succession, until he finds a willing replacement.

2. And another is that, if vice president of USA pass a proposal under section 4 of amendment 25, and if this proposal is accepted, the launch order given by president can be halted because this amendment declaring the president incapable of performing his duties.

Need to evaluate nuclear football

On Tuesday, the headquarter of defence of USA i.e; pentagon said that there is need to review the safety protocols of president’s nuclear football because on January 6, such briefcase nearly came within the range of rioters storming the capitol.

On January 6, 2021, the United States capitol in Washington, D.C., was stormed during a riot and violent attack against the US congress. A mob of supporters of Donald trump attempted to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by disrupting the joint session of congress assembled to court electoral votes to formalize president- elect Joe Biden’s victory. Although there is no any big risk or danger even if rioters had taken the possession of the nuclear football because launch order would still needed to be confirmed and possessed by the military. And this January 6 incident is not only incident in which the security of football came into question, it also happened several times before.

In November 2017, when trump was in Beijing having lunch with Chinese president Xi Jinping, a Chinese security official got into tussle in another room with the  US military aide carrying the briefcase. Then, white house chief of staff john Kelly, intervened and got into a physical altercation with the Chinese official to ensure the nuclear football did not get away from the military aide.

On January 20 of this year, trump insisted on leaving washington before the inauguration of democrate Joe Biden, meaning a live football would have to go with him to be on hand until biden was sworn in. trump was accompanied by a military aide carrying a nuclear football to palm beach, florida, and kept it near him until trump was no longer president.

Although, it is not easy to launch nuclear mission but still these things have put question on the security protocols related to president’s nuclear football. And that’s why pentagon actually reviewing the security protocols for certain extraordinary cases like if the nuclear football is compromised, stolen or lost.

References

https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/what-is-nuclear-football-1627644055-1

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/20/politics/dod-ig-nuclear-football-review/index.html

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