Norwegian missile incident
The Norwegian missile incident , also known as the Black Brant Scare , occurred on January 25, 1995 when a team of Norwegian and US scientists launched a four-stage Black Brant XII research missile from the research base on the island of Andøya on the north-western coast of Norway started. The rocket, scientific equipment to study the Aurora Borealis over Spitzbergen was bringing, it flew in a high northern railway in a known air corridor extending from the Minuteman -III nuclear missile silos in the US state of North Dakota to the Russian capital Moscow would extend .
During the flight, announced in advance Russia finally reached the rocket at an altitude of 1,453 kilometers (903 miles), similar to a submarine -based US Navy - Tridentrakete . As a result, Russian radar technicians who were not informed about the research flight put the Russian nuclear forces on high alert because they feared a high-altitude nuclear attack that could blind the Russian radar. As a result, the nuclear weapons case was brought to the Russian President Boris Yeltsin . This now had to decide whether a nuclear retaliatory strike against the United States would be launched.
background
The Norwegian missile incident sparked minutes of nuclear tension nearly four years after the end of the Cold War . Not as well known as the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis (or the Stanislav- Evgrafovich -Petrov incident, which was still a secret), the 1995 incident is considered to be one of the most serious. The 1995 incident occurred in the post-Cold War era, when many Russians were still very suspicious of the US and NATO. In contrast, the Cuban Crisis of October 1962 had been building for much longer.
Capture
As the Black Brant XII rocket gained altitude, it was spotted by the Olenegorsk early warning radar station in Murmansk Oblast , Russia. To the radar technicians, the missile appeared similar in speed and flight pattern to a submarine-based US Navy Trident missile, which led the Russian military to initially misinterpret the missile trajectory as a precursor to a possible attack by submarines.
EMP missile scenario
One possibility was that the missile had been a single radar-blocking EMP missile launched by a Trident missile at sea to blind Russian radar as a first step in a surprise attack. In this scenario, gamma radiation from a high altitude nuclear explosion causes a very high intensity electromagnetic pulse that would confuse the radar and render electronic equipment unusable. Then the actual attack would start in this scenario.
After the stage separation
After the stage separation, the missile launch appeared on the radar similar to a multiple warhead (MRV). The Russian control center did not immediately realize that the Norwegian research missile was heading for the sea instead of Russia. It took eight minutes to trace the trajectory, during which it was necessary to decide whether to launch a nuclear counterstrike on an upcoming attack (Trident submarine missiles from the Barents Sea could reach mainland Russia in ten minutes).
reaction
This event triggered a full alarm, which was relayed through the military chain of command to President Boris Yeltsin. He was informed immediately and the "nuclear briefcase" (known in Russia as Tscheget ) to authorize nuclear starts was automatically activated. Yeltsin activated his "nuclear keys" for the first time. No warning of any incident was issued to the Russian people; the incident was reported on the news the following week.
As a result of the alarm, the Russian submarine commanders were ordered to be prepared for combat and prepare for nuclear retaliation.
After a while, Russian observers were able to see that the missile was moving away from Russian airspace and posed no threat. The rocket fell to earth as planned at Spitsbergen 24 minutes after launch .
The Norwegian missile incident was the first and only incident in which a nuclear power activated its atomic case and prepared it for an attack.
Prior notice
The Norwegian and US researchers had notified the governments of thirty countries, including Russia, of their intention to launch a high-altitude research experiment on board a missile. However, this information was not passed on to the radar technicians. As a result of the incident, the information and announcement protocols were checked and revised.
See also
Web links
- A Close Call, the Norwegian Rocket Incident , message on a Public Broadcasting Service page.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d United States European Command: This Week in EUCOM History .
- ↑ a b c Forden, Geoffrey: False alarm in the Nuclear Age , Public Broadcasting System 6. November 2001 (accessed on 3 April 2015).
- ↑ a b c d e Peter Pry: War scare: Russia and America on the nuclear brink , New York: Praeger 1999, pp. 214-227. ISBN 0-275-96643-7 .
- ^ A b c d David Hoffman: Cold-War Doctrines Refuse to Die , The Washington Post March 15, 1998 (accessed April 3, 2015).