![]() ![]() Most importantly, the case holds a transmitter linked with the launch command. Read more: Nobel Prize laureates say nuclear war is 'one tantrum away' (The name was also used in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 movie on nuclear annihilation, Dr. Kennedy era, following the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. It was reportedly nicknamed "football" after a secret Cold War defense plan dubbed "Dropkick," a term commonly used in American football. ![]() The US military started developing the nuclear briefcase in the John F. The current vice-president is also assigned a briefcase and a carrier, with another functioning nuclear football also available in reserve. For security reasons, the carrier is ordered to travel in the same elevator with the US head of state and stay only a few steps away from him at all times. Anytime a president leaves the White House, he is followed by a member of the US military with the briefcase.Ī thoroughly-vetted and psychologically tested team of five is cleared to carry the nuclear football, each of them coming from a different branch of the US military. The black, metal-framed, 45-pound (20.4 kilo) briefcase holds a communications device that allows the president to relay his launch orders to the military. What is the "nuclear football"? Image: Getty Images/O. Instead, it has a "nuclear football" - a portable launch terminal in a black leather briefcase. US President Donald Trump quickly shot back at Kim Jong Un at Twitter, saying that his own button was "much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"Īs much of the North Korean nuclear program is secluded from the public, Kim Jong Un's claim of having a nuclear button on his desk might as well be true.Īccording to all available information, however, the US does not have a "nuclear button" as such. ![]() "This is reality, not a threat," he said in his New Year speech. According to the North Korean leader, his nuclear arsenal could reach the entire US mainland. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said this week that a "nuclear button" was always on his desk. The image of a president unleashing Armageddon with a press of a button is well established in modern culture, and is now reinforced by world leaders themselves.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |