擔心戰時影響發射速度 美國核彈發射密碼曾爲8個0

For nearly 20 years, the secret code to authorize launching U.S. nuclear missiles, and starting World War III, was terrifyingly simple and even noted down on a checklist.

The Permissive Action Link (PAL) is a security device for nuclear weapons that it is supposed to prevent unauthorized arming or detonation of the nuclear weapon.

JFK signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160 in 1962 that required all nuclear missiles to be fitted with a PAL system.

But nuclear experts claim the military was worried about the possibility of command centers or communication lines being destroyed in real nuclear war, stopping soldiers getting the codes or authorization to launch missiles when they were actually needed.

So they simply left the security code for the weapons as eight zeros, getting around the security safeguards.

Dr. Bruce G. Blair, worked as a Minuteman launch officer between 1970 and 1974. He has written several articles about nuclear command and control systems.

In a paper called Keeping Presidents in the Nuclear Dark, he wrote that Strategic Air Command 'remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders.'

Incredibly, he also writes that the vital combination for America's nuclear deterrent was even helpfully noted down for the officers.

'Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialed into the panel,' Dr Blair wrote.

According to Today I Found Out, Blair wrote an article in 1977 entitled The Terrorist Threat to World Nuclear Programs.

This claimed that it would take just four people working together to launch nuclear missiles from the silos he had worked in.

That very same year all the PAL systems were activated, and the nuclear codes were changed. Hopefully to something more complicated than 00000000.綜合外國媒體12月1日報道，核導彈發射密碼一向是美國的最高機密，然而在過去近20年的時間裏，該密碼竟然只是極其簡單、極易被破解的“00000000”。

1962年，美國時任總統約翰·菲茲傑拉德·肯尼迪簽署法令，要求所有核導彈配備“准予行動”（Permissive Action Link）裝置。這是一套需取得授權纔可發射核導彈的安全系統，確保在發射官輸入正確密碼後，纔會發射核導彈。

根據核專家的說法，美國軍方擔心核戰爭爆發時，指揮中心和通訊線路可能被毀壞，導致士兵在真正需要發射導彈時卻無法取得核密碼，由此他們決定把核密碼設爲最簡單的“00000000”。

布魯斯·布萊爾曾在1970年至1974年間擔任“民兵”核導彈發射官，他在一篇文章中寫道：“相較於未經授權發射核導彈，（美國）戰略空軍司令部更擔心密碼太複雜而無法實時響應導彈發射命令。”

更加令人難以置信的是，布萊爾透露，發射清單上甚至間接說明了至關重要的核密碼只能是由數字零組成。“發射清單上清楚寫明，發射官應當仔細檢查位於地下發射艙裏的鎖定操作面板，以確保不會有人不小心地輸入除了零以外的其他數字。實際上，這是在告訴我們，密碼裏只能有數字零。”

此外，布萊爾還表示，在他擔任核導彈發射官時，發射核導彈只需要4個人協力合作。而1977年所有核導彈配備的“准予行動”裝置均被激活後，自1962年被啓用至此時的“8個0”核密碼終於更改。