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{{short description|Cold
{{distinguish|Dead man's hand}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox weapon
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| wars =
| used_by = {{flagicon image|Flag of Strategic Rocket Forces of Russia.svg}} [[Russia]]n [[Strategic Rocket Forces]]
| service = January 1985–present{{
| number = 1
}}
'''Dead Hand''', also known as '''Perimeter''' ({{lang-ru|Система «Периметр»
== System concept ==
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To ensure its functionality the system was designed to be fully automatic, with the ability<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-soviets-made-a-real-doomsday-device-in-the-80s-and-1794225196|title=The Soviets Made A Real Doomsday Device in The '80s and the Russians Still Have It Today|last=Torchinsky|first=Jason|work=Foxtrot Alpha|access-date=2018-04-05|language=en-US|archive-date=5 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405152820/https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-soviets-made-a-real-doomsday-device-in-the-80s-and-1794225196|url-status=live}}</ref> to decide an adequate retaliatory strike on its own with no (or minimal) human involvement in the event of an all-out attack.
According to Vladimir Yarynich, a developer of the system, this system also served as a buffer against hasty decisions based on unverified information by the country's leadership. Upon receiving warnings about a nuclear attack, the leader could activate the system, and then wait for further developments, assured by the fact that even the destruction of all key personnel with the authority to command the response to the attack could still not prevent a retaliatory strike. Thus, use of the system would theoretically reduce the
==Motivation==
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== Working principles ==
Upon activation and determination of the happening of a [[nuclear war]], the system sends out a
== Components ==
=== Commanding rocket ===
This is the only well-known element of the entire system. In the complex sits a 15P011 rocket with the index 15A11 developed by [[Yuzhnoye Design Office|KB "Yuzhnoe"]], based on the 15A16 (
=== Autonomous command and control system ===
This is the least publicly understood component of the entire system
Another hypothesis suggests that a [[dead man's switch]] is utilized. Upon receiving information about a missile launch, the supreme commander sets the system active, which, if not detecting a signal to stop the combat algorithm, automatically launches the commanding missile.
In an informal interview with ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'', Valery Yarynich, one of the developers, revealed the following information about the algorithm "Perimeter" works on:
It
▲<blockquote>It was designed to lie semi-dormant until switched on by a high official in a crisis. Then it would begin monitoring a network of seismic, radiation, and air pressure sensors for signs of nuclear explosions. Before launching any retaliatory strike, the system had to check off four if/then propositions: If it was turned on, then it would try to determine that a nuclear weapon had hit Soviet soil. If it seemed that one had, the system would check to see if any communication links to the war room of the Soviet General Staff remained. If they did, and if some amount of time—likely ranging from 15 minutes to an hour—passed without further indications of attack, the machine would assume officials were still living who could order the counterattack and shut down. But if the line to the General Staff went dead, then Perimeter would infer that apocalypse had arrived. It would immediately transfer launch authority to whoever was manning the system at that moment deep inside a protected bunker—bypassing layers and layers of normal command authority.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all|title=Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine|last=Thompson|first=Nicholas|newspaper=Wired|language=en-US|access-date=2016-12-18|archive-date=29 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229031744/http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>
▲It is claimed that the command post of the system is in a bunker under [[Kosvinsky Kamen]] mountain in the northern [[Urals]].<ref name=slate /><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://armius.ru/rvsn/vch20003 |title=1231-й центр боевого управления (в/ч 20003) |access-date=1 January 2020 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223122753/http://armius.ru/rvsn/vch20003 |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Operation ==
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In the early 1990s, several former high-ranking members of the Soviet military and the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee of the Communist Party]], in a series of interviews to the American defense contractor [[Braddock Dunn & McDonald|BDM]], admitted the existence of the Dead Hand, making somewhat contradictory statements concerning its deployment.<ref>{{Citation | chapter-url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb285/doc02_I_ch2.pdf | first1 = John G | last1 = Hines | via = GWU | title = Soviet Intentions 1965–1985 | publisher = [[Braddock Dunn & McDonald|BDM Federal]] | chapter = II. Soviet View of the Strategic Relationship | pages = 9–21 | year = 1995 | access-date = 23 May 2010 | archive-date = 31 May 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100531091543/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb285/doc02_I_ch2.pdf | url-status = live }}.</ref>
Colonel General Varfolomey Korobushin, former Deputy Chief of Staff of [[Strategic Rocket Forces]], in 1992 said that the Russians had a system, to be activated only during a crisis, that would automatically launch all missiles, triggered by a combination of light, radioactivity and overpressure, even if every nuclear-command center and all leadership were destroyed.<ref>{{Citation | volume = II | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv//nukevault/ebb285/vol%20II%20Korobushin.PDF | publisher = GWU | title = Summary of narrative: Korobushin | pages =
Colonel General Andrian Danilevich, Assistant for Doctrine and Strategy to the Chief of the General Staff from 1984 to 1990, stated in 1992 that the Dead Hand had been contemplated, but that the Soviets considered automatic-trigger systems too dangerous. Furthermore, such systems became unnecessary with the advent of efficient early-warning systems and increased missile readiness, so the idea had been rejected.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb285/vol%20iI%20Danilevich.pdf | publisher = GWU | title = Summary of narrative: Danilevich | pages = 19–69 | volume = II | access-date = 23 May 2010 | archive-date = 31 May 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100531091219/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb285/vol%20iI%20Danilevich.pdf | url-status = live }}.</ref>
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Although both Katayev and Korobushin claimed that the mechanism had already been deployed, Viktor Surikov, Deputy Director of the Central Scientific Research Institute for General Machine Building ([[TsNIIMash]]) in 1976–1992, confirmed in 1993 that the Soviets had designed the automatic launch system with seismic, light and radiation sensors, but said that the design had been ultimately rejected by Marshal [[Sergey Akhromeyev]] on advice of Korobushin and never materialized.<ref>{{Citation | volume = II | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb285/vol%20II%20Surikov.PDF | publisher = GWU | title = Summary of narrative: Surikov | pages = 134–135 | access-date = 23 May 2010 | archive-date = 31 May 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100531091123/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb285/vol%20II%20Surikov.PDF | url-status = live }}.</ref>
Accounts differ as to the degree of automation of Dead Hand.
{{
The heart of the system is said to lie in deep underground bunkers south of Moscow and at backup locations. In a crisis, military officials would send a coded message to the bunkers, switching on the dead hand. If nearby ground-level sensors detected a nuclear attack on Moscow, and if a break was detected in communications links with top military commanders, the system would send low-frequency signals over underground antennas to special rockets.
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Flying high over missile fields and other military sites, these rockets in turn would broadcast attack orders to missiles, bombers and, via radio relays, submarines at sea. Contrary to some Western beliefs, Dr. Blair says, many of Russia's nuclear-armed missiles in underground silos and on mobile launchers can be fired automatically.<ref name=nyt/>}}
However, more recent sources indicate the system was semi-automatic. In a 2007 article, Ron Rosenbaum quotes Blair as saying that Dead Hand is "designed to ensure semi-automatic retaliation to a decapitating strike".<ref name=slate>Ron Rosenbaum, ''Slate''
[[David E. Hoffman]] wrote on the semi-automatic nature of Dead Hand:
{{
If that were the case, he [the Soviet leader] would flip on a system that would send a signal to a deep underground bunker in the shape of a globe where three duty officers sat. If there were real missiles and the Kremlin were hit and the Soviet leadership was wiped out, which is what they feared, those three guys in that deep underground bunker would have to decide whether to launch very small command rockets that would take off, fly across the vast territory of the Soviet Union and launch all their remaining missiles.
Now, the Soviets had once thought about creating a fully automatic system. Sort of a machine, a doomsday machine, that would launch without any human action at all. When they drew that blueprint up and looked at it, they thought, you know, this is absolutely crazy.<ref name="Fresh Air">Terry Gross
==Current use==
In 2011, the commander of the [[Strategic Missile Troops|Russian Strategic Missile Forces]], [[Colonel General]] {{ill|Sergey Karakaev|ru|Каракаев, Сергей Викторович}}, in an interview with ''[[Komsomolskaya Pravda]]'', confirmed the operational state of the Perimeter assessment and communication system.<ref>{{cite news |last=Baranets|first=Viktor|url=http://kp.ru/daily/25805/2785953/|title=Командующий РВСН генерал-лейтенант Сергей Каракаев: "Владимир Владимирович был прав - мы можем уничтожить США быстрее чем за полчаса" |work=Komsomolskaya Pravda|date=16 December 2011|access-date=9 August 2015 |language=ru|archive-date= 28 February 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120228194234/http://www.kp.ru/daily/25805/2785953|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name= "Blake Stilwell">{{cite news |last1=Stilwell |first1=Blake |title=Russia's 'Dead Hand' Is a Soviet-Built Nuclear Doomsday Device |url= https://www.military.com/history/russias-dead-hand-soviet-built-nuclear-doomsday-device.html |access-date=23 May 2023 | work = Military}}</ref>
In 2018, Colonel General {{ill|Viktor Yesin|ru|Есин, Виктор Иванович}}, the former chief of Russia's Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces, stated that the Perimeter system might become ineffective in the wake of the United States' withdrawal from the [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]].<ref>{{cite news|url = http://www.pravdareport.com/news/russia/politics/09-11-2018/141954-dead_hand-0/|title=Without INF Treaty, USA can destroy Russian nuclear weapons easily|website= Pravda
==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System]]▼
* [[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident]]▼
* [[Doomsday device]]
* [[Dead man's switch]]
* ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' (film)
▲* [[AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System]]
* [[Letters of last resort]] ▼
▲* [[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident]]
* [[Dead Man's Switch (The Outer Limits)|"Dead Man's Switch" (''The Outer Limits'')]]
* [[Herman Kahn]]
* [[Lethal autonomous weapon]]
▲* [[Letters of last resort]]
* [[Mount Yamantaw]]
* [[Mutual assured destruction]]
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* ''[[Space Cowboys]]'' (film)
* [[UVB-76]], a Russian [[numbers station]] sometimes rumoured to be connected to the Dead Hand facility
* ''[[D3AD HAND]]'' (videogame)
{{div col end}}
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