Locks

Last night's Newsnight story on the flimsy physical security used to prevent unauthorised firings of Britain's nuclear weapons quoted a gem of a comment from a senior Royal Navy source:

[In response to the suggestion that it might be wise to add more secure activation systems that would prevent a single officer from launching a Polaris missile without the requisite proper authorisation codes.]

"It would be invidious to suggest… that Senior Service officers may, in difficult circumstances, act in defiance of their clear orders".

Because clearly it was far more important to reassure our naval officers that we trusted them than it was to ensure that a lone maniac couldn't incinerate a few thousand Russians and usher in the Third World War.

[Via Qwghlm]