Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine

I have been following the Perimetr System for some time , the first time I heard and read about it I remember was sometime in 1995.

Then there are books like Pavel Podvig “Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces” that talks about it in some measure and “The Kremlin’s Nuclear Sword” talks in some more details.

But this is good that they now have an entire book on it .

To sum it up the “Perimetr” system is not a Apocalyptic Doomsday Machine , but a way to ensure that Soviet/Russian leadership do not take hasty fatal decision due to constrains of time.

This is specially true during a period when East and West Nuclear arsenal were on few second’s hair trigger alert.

Though there is some manual element in it , but more or less the system is very highly automated , and is supplimented by the already automated “normal” nuclear command and control system called Signal-M.

There is some upgrade of Signal-M system going on you can find some details here

The last I read on Perimetr system was they were planning to extend its capability to Naval deterrent , before that it was limited to land based nuclear detterent.

Here some references from the Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand_(nuclear_war)

And a nice interview:

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=113579843

Actually if you read the full news article Yarynich says that perimeter isnt really a dooms day devise very much the opposite.

There is still a man in the loop. I think they have used the large scary words to increase circulation.

Anyway thought it was an interesting artical, i might buy the book and read it thanks Austin!

Read also this:

http://www.slate.com/id/2173108/pagenum/all/

Anyway labeling Perimetr system as the “Doomsday machine” seems as an exaggeration.

Here are more details on Perimetr from the book “The Kremlin’s Nuclear Sword”

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