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From: arms-d@ucbvax.ARPA
Newsgroups: fa.arms-d
Subject: Re: Arms-Discussion Digest V3 #1
Message-ID: <4007@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 3-Jan-85 11:27:05 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.4007
Posted: Thu Jan  3 11:27:05 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Jan-85 00:52:37 EST
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From: medin@ucbarpa (Milo Medin)


From my knowledge of U.S. C^3 systems, I'd say it'd be very hard for
some sort of accident to launch anything less than a squadron
at a time, otherwise you have to override the 'default' 
configuration.  For a long time, you *couldn't* launch less than
a squadron at a time.  For those who don't know, a squadron
is composed of 50 missiles, 3 squadrons to a wing.  But I don't
really find the possibility of an accident leading to an actual
launch and detontation very large at all, for that you'd need 2
votes and the EAM, and all that stuff is built to be failsafe
anyways.  I'd think that if we ever did decide to launch a strike,
it'd be hard for everything to get all the right info, especially
in a nuclear environment, to authorize and authenticate properly.

				Milo