A group of over 90 scientists, including Nobel laureates and National Academy of Sciences members, submitted a letter Tuesday to President Barack Obama calling for U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles to be taken off high alert to prevent accidental nuclear launch.
The June 21 letter says U.S. and Russian land-based nuclear missiles, hundreds of which are on high alert, are particularly prone to accidental launch due to technical failures, human error, or misinterpretations of data.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union kept their missiles on high alert in order to launch them quickly in the event of a surprise nuclear attack. The letter notes that numerous false alarms on both sides over the years could have led to a nuclear launch, a matter of particular concern due to the currently frayed relationship between Russia and the United States.
Keeping those missiles on hair-trigger alert, the scientists said, increases the risk of a launch that could then trigger a retaliatory nuclear attack.
“National leaders would have only a short amount of time—perhaps 10 minutes—to assess a warning and make a launch decision before these missiles could be destroyed by an incoming attack,” the letter says, noting that U.S. strategic bombers were taken off high alert in 1991.
