Air Force Swears: Our Nuke Launch Code Was Never '00000000'

Foreign Policy ^ | JANUARY 20, 2014 | DAN LAMOTHE

[nickcarraway]

For nearly a decade, an awkward debate has raged about the U.S. military's nuclear force: Did top Air Force officials really choose "00000000" as a code that could enable the launch of a nuclear missile? Ten years later, in a document obtained by Foreign Policy, the U.S. military told Congress that it never happened. But is the Pentagon telling the truth?

Bruce Blair, a nuclear security expert and former launch officer , says no. Blair, now a scholar and author at Princeton University, first raised the idea in a piece published in 2004. He accused the Air Force of circumventing President John F. Kennedy's 1962 order to install extra security codes to safeguard against accidental or unauthorized launch by putting them in place, but making them painfully simple to the missile launch officers who manned underground bunkers. Doing so, Blair said, effectively eliminated the codes' usefulness.

The U.S. military says that's not the case. A new wave of media coverage sparked by online media outlets last year prompted the House Armed Services Committee to ask about the issue, and the military responded by insisting "00000000" was never used.

"A code consisting of eight zeroes has never been used to enable a MM ICBM, as claimed by Dr. Bruce Blair," the new document, obtained by FP, insists, while laying out the basics on how a nuclear missile can be launched.

[nickcarraway]

The 25 Worst Passwords of 2013: 'password' Gets Dethroned (123456 Is New Champ)

[DownInFlames]

Must have picked it up from Star Trek TOS destruct code.

[driftdiver]

The closest I ever came to getting shot was after coming out of the SAC command post after the Col kicked the safe that held the codes setting off an alarm.

I’d be sorely disappointed to learn I almost got shot over something like this.

[reg45]

Actually it was “0000000000”.

[GreyFriar]

Ping for: Air Force Swears: Our Nuke Launch Code Was Never ‘00000000’

[hosepipe]

I see... not ‘00000000’ but “oooooooo”.. check..

[dfwgator]

[Gay State Conservative]

It wasn’t “0000000” but it *was* “password”

[freedumb2003]

The 25 Worst Passwords of 2013: 'password' Gets Dethroned (123456 Is New Champ)

That's what I use for my luggage!

[AnAmericanAbroad]

No one would be that dumb - it’s way too obvious.

It was 12345678.

[SIDENET]

It was “AIRFORCE”.

[LibLieSlayer]

Sorry... you Feds have spent all of the trust that you ever had.

[DanielRedfoot]

At least the code wasn’t LOST as it was with Buba

[Navy Patriot]

00000000 was the one on the Air Force cheat sheet I saw.

[pfflier]

I can categorically and with great authority say "00000000" was never a operational launch code nor an enable code known to a launch crew.

The switches on the DMCCC panel were default zeros with no code input. This was true of all Wing 6 and Wing 1 Squad 4 operations of the Minuteman system.

[null and void]

I see. Not the code to launch, merely the PAL code to enable the warhead to detonate.

Gotcha.

[TaMoDee]

The launch code was/is “LAUNCH”.

[COBOL2Java]

Actually, Hillary handed the launch code to the Russians in that "Easy Button"

[Wildbill22]

I thought the launch code was “Buh Bye”.