-24:00 Hours Before Launch- (have this be
an independent title screen and make it a ticking clock, so as we start the episode
the 24:00 slowly flips over to 23:59) Russia has threatened NATO to cease providing
Ukraine with weapons and ammunition for weeks, and at last it's made good on its promise to
take military action against any NATO convoys bringing such aid into the country.
Just inside the Ukrainian border, a convoy of NATO vehicles is strafed by two
Russian Su-25s. The unarmed transports are decimated by gunfire and rockets deployed
by the Russian jets; there are no survivors. -23:00 Hours Before Launch- Verification of the destroyed convoy has
finally reached the desk of the President of the United States. The convoy was being manned
by Polish soldiers, who had helped their Ukrainian counterparts unload from American C-130s and pack
up the much needed war supplies inside of Polish territory. The shipment of modern weapons was
safe as long as it remained outside of Ukraine, but immediately upon crossing the border
Russia declared it a legal military target. Now the President of the United States
has a very difficult decision to make, and he immediately sets up a secure call
with the heads of several NATO nations. -19:24 Hours Before Launch- Earlier in the war, NATO warned Russia that an
attack on any of its convoys would constitute an Article 5 response. After a lengthy and heated
discussion, the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, Norway, Germany, and Poland all
invoke Article 5 of the alliance- an attack on one is an attack on all. Other NATO members are
being brought up to date as their leadership is being informed of the attack. Because the attack
was not directly inside of NATO territory, some members of the alliance, like
Turkey, are having serious reservations. -02:00 Hours Before Launch- The United States, Great Britain, France, Poland, and Germany have all been prepared for
the possibility of an attack by Russia either into Poland or on Polish transports and
logistics personnel assisting the Ukrainians. The five states decide to send Russia a strong
message, and combat planes kept on alert for just such an eventuality have been taking
to the skies already for the last half hour. A massive lightning strike force of NATO
planes is approaching various Russian military targets in Kaliningrad, Ukraine,
and even along the Russian border itself. -01:18 Hours Before Launch- NATO planes overwhelm Russian defenses, who are
completely unprepared for NATO's massive response. The attack purposely avoids striking
Russian troop concentrations, and instead lays waste to supply and fuel depots,
runways, logistics hubs, and air defense sites. The Russian military giant has proven itself
to be clumsy and inept in modern combat, and while a few NATO jets are lost to Russian air
defenses, the attack is an overwhelming success. . It is hoped that the attack will be enough
to deter Russia from further aggression, and the targets were specifically picked in order
to avoid large casualties for just this reason. NATO is still hoping to avoid
all-out war with Russia, but the attack against a Polish convoy carrying
NATO weapons simply can’t be ignored. -00:19 Hours Before Launch- Reports of NATO air strikes have been
rolling into Russia's General Staff for the last hour and eight minutes. The attack was
a complete and total humiliation for Russia, as its much-vaunted air defense network
was easily suppressed by a massive quantity of highly capable NATO planes. The resulting
chaos has produced few military casualties, but opened up serious vulnerability gaps along
the Russian border inviting further incursion of NATO airpower. Perhaps worst of all, it's
shown that the nation simply can't match the overpowering technological and doctrinal
superiority of NATO's professional militaries. But the President of the Russian Federation,
Vladimir Putin, has been prepared for this. He has one last card left to play, the only
thing keeping NATO from absolutely steamrolling his forces in Ukraine and relegating Russia to
a third-rate world power for the next century- nuclear weapons. Putin will send a
message of his own. If he fails to, NATO will understand that it has near complete
impunity to attack Russia from the air by exploiting the gaps its first assault
created along the Russian air defense network. An aide rushes over to President Putin
carrying the Cheget- Russia's equivalent to the nuclear football. Much like the American
version, the Cheget carries inside of it sealed authorization codes that relay President
Putin's orders to his General Staff. Putin selects his desired option and
transmits the code to the General Staff. The signal is uplinked directly to the Kavkaz
secret communications network that links the senior most Russian leadership together. Verified
as authentic by the General Staff, which had already been gathered beforehand, the signal is
then relayed directly to local weapons commanders. This is one of two ways for Russia to launch its
nuclear arsenal, the second being its Dead Hand, or Perimeter system. This command
system allows Russia to launch its nukes even if its entire senior leadership is
eliminated in one sudden decapitation strike. Dead Hand was developed in response to US
advances in submarine-launched nuclear weapons, which in the 1980s became capable of the
precision required for a decapitation strike with only a 3 minute warning thanks to
the Trident D5. Using a network of seismic, light, radioactivity, and pressure sensors, Dead
Hand can trigger a full-scale retaliatory response even if the entire senior Russian leadership is
annihilated in one strike. To get the alert out, a specially modified ICBM is launched which
carries a powerful transmitter instead of a nuke, and relays a mass launch order across
the entire Russian nuclear triad. -00:13 Hours Before Launch-- A single launch order has been relayed to an
RS-12M1 Topol-M ICBM unit. The road-mobile launcher is harder to destroy in a first strike
than ICBMS based on static missile fields, and this particular missile is based far in
Russia's east inside the Kamchatka peninsula. The missile is already resting in an erected
launch configuration, so it only takes the crew a few minutes to authenticate the order and
make last-minute preparations for launching. When everything is ready to go, the launch order is
given by the senior launch officer as the crew seeks shelter behind a rocky outcropping in case
the aging missile experiences a launch failure. Russia's nuclear arsenal is getting into
ever worsening disrepair as the years go by and the Russian Federation tries to live
up to the old glory of the Soviet Union. -Launch-
The cone at the top of the Topol-M container is blown
off by a series of small explosive charges, then the massive missile roars to life. The
solid-fuel rocket shudders as its engines come online and lift the 104,000 lb
(47,200 kg) missile into the sky. Even as it's lifting off, the missile's
guidance computer begins to connect to Russia's GLONASS satellite network. It is guided by both
inertial guidance and GLONASS satellite uplink, giving it some of the greatest precision
of any missile in the Russian arsenal. Uplink to Glonass is critical, as the Topol-M
isn't targeting a major city, which it could achieve with fair, but not precision, accuracy
with only its own inertial guidance system. Instead, the Russian nuclear missile
is targeting an American carrier strike group currently in transit south of Japan.
Russia aims to teach the US a lesson with the only weapon it can effectively bring
to bear against the military superpower. -00:00:15- Just fifteen seconds after launch, a satellite
belonging to the United States' Space-Based Infrared System detects the massive thermal
signature of a large rocket lifting off into the sky. US early warning satellites have been
made extremely good at detecting missile launches, and have even been used to track the launch
of much smaller cruise missiles in Russia's conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. The
massive Topol-M rocket lights up the early warning satellite's thermal sensor like
a blow torch in the middle of a blizzard. The satellite immediately links up with
multiple American Milstar satellites and sends a flash alert to the 2nd Space Warning
Squadron at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, as well as other units across the
entire web of US missile defense. -00:00:25- Punching through cloud cover, the eyes of
multiple American early warning satellites are picking up the tell-tale thermal
plume of a massive intercontinental ballistic missile. Internally, the satellites
compare the thermal plume and other telemetry such as speed to positively identify
the Russian missile as a Topol-M. 00:00:30 The Russian missile is now entering the upper
atmosphere in a highly inclined trajectory. To watching satellites this is indicative of a strike
somewhere far closer to Russian shores than the American homeland. The missile is also moving
in the wrong direction for a strike in the US, as in that case it should be moving
north to fly over the arctic circle. 00:01:15 The president of the United States has
been made aware of the missile launch. America's space-based surveillance network
confirms no additional launches. New telemetry also confirms that this missile is not being
fired towards the American homeland. There's hope that this is simply a show of strength, an
unannounced missile test with a dummy payload. However, the trajectory of the missile leaves
Japan and the US base in Guam under threat. 00:01:45 An emergency alert is broadcast via Milstar
satellites to every combat command and deployed carrier strike group around the world. Ballistic
missile defenses are activated in Japan and Guam, as the Japanese prime minister is being alerted
to the threat. However, the missile's trajectory makes it very unlikely that a strike is
incoming towards the Japanese islands. Guam is a suspected target, but so is a
transient carrier strike group even now crossing south of Japan towards the South China
Sea for routine freedom of navigation exercises. If the strike is against the US carrier, there are only minutes for it to prepare
to defend itself against nuclear attack. 00:02:33 The gravity of the threat has been relayed to
the transiting American carrier and her escorts. Orders are immediately given for the ships
in the formation to begin to spread out and put even more distance than normal
between themselves. This is so that a strike against the group may damage most
of the ships, but only actually sink a few. 00:03:00 Jets are ordered to be cleared from the
deck of the carrier and rushed below. It's a lengthy process to move a combat
aircraft from the deck of a carrier to below decks via the massive aircraft
elevators, and unlikely that more than one or two planes could be successfully
transferred from a busy deck to below, but all attempts to minimize loss of personnel
and the all-valuable aircraft must be made. Any non-essential crew to the current threat is
ordered to brace. Damage control teams are ordered to begin to assemble. Even a glancing blow will
likely still cause significant damage to the ship. 00:03:22 The carrier's AEGIS equipped missile cruiser
begins preparations for ballistic missile defense. Its powerful AN/Spy-1 radar begins sweeping
the skies above for the incoming threat, though for now the missile is still far
outside of its detection capabilities. 00:06:41 Nearly seven minutes after launch, the Topol-M missile separates the warhead
delivery vehicle from the tree-stage rocket. This now splits open in a cloud of
chaff meant to confuse American radar, and four warheads are jettisoned. Only one of the
warheads is real, the other three are cleverly designed decoys meant to lure in interceptors
and allow the real warhead to hit its target. The Russian missile has been experiencing
some difficulties to date however. American electronic attack against the GLONASS system as
well as space-based radar satellites has forced the missile to rely largely on inertial guidance
as it makes its way to the last known location of the carrier strike group. Given that the carrier
has now increased to its classified top speed, estimated to be well over thirty knots, the
missile's accuracy is decreasing by the minute. 00:06:43 American space-based satellites blast the cloud
of chaff hiding the three decoys and one real warhead with high power radar, as powerful
computers crunch through the data and work to reduce the effect of electronic 'noise'
created by the highly reflective chaff. In a few seconds they have the tell-tale
signature of at least four warheads. Using classified sensor technologies, the
American satellites attempt to discern the real warhead from the fakes by measuring
very subtle variations in the four warheads. Luckily the AEGIS missile defense cruiser
waiting below has numerous interceptors ready to defend the strike group, but time will be of the
essence and the task of intercepting a ballistic missile is still incredibly difficult.
In testing under realistic conditions, US missile defenses have
had a spotty record to date. Another spot on that record today
will mean the death of thousands, and the loss of over $15
billion in military hardware. 00:08:33 The warheads have only a short flight
time in space due to the proximity of the launcher vs its target, which is
adding to the difficulty in interception. Data is of the greatest importance
in successful missile interception, and gathering data takes time. Time
which is officially about to run out. As the warheads begin their terminal descent
down into the atmosphere, the AEGIS cruiser's powerful Spy-1 radar lights them up from below.
On the ship's deck, multiple SM-6 missiles fire off into the pre-dawn sky. A few seconds later,
a second volley of missiles lights up, followed a few seconds after that by yet a third. The cruiser
is taking zero chances and maximizing its odds of successful interception with multiple volleys.
If they fail, thousands of sailors will die. 00:09:55 The ship's AN-SPG-62 X-band radar illuminates
the incoming warheads and helps provide terminal guidance to the SM-6 interceptors. The ability
to directly network with both seaborne and space-based sensors allows the AEGIS cruiser
to cut through most of the electronic noise caused by the massive cloud of
chaff released as a countermeasure. There are still doubts about
which warhead is the real target, and thus each warhead is assigned multiple
interceptors. This increases the chances of targeting the right warhead, but reduces
the chances of successfully intercepting it. The crew holds its breath as the incoming
tracks quickly merge with the ship's defenses. 00:10:05 Closing it at a speed of 1700 meters a second,
the first wave of interceptors manage to knock out one of the decoys with a near-hit by the
SM-6's explosive fragmentation warhead. The warhead suffers severe structural damage from
the shrapnel and explosion and tumbles out of control at thousands of miles an hour,
destroying itself in the lower atmosphere. 00:10:09 The second volley of SM-6 missiles
fail to hit a single target. 00:10:13 The third volley of interceptors
knock out a second, dummy warhead. 00:10:15 Sixty miles below the two incoming warheads,
there is no way for the strike group's crews to know if they've knocked out a real
warhead or only dummies. Orders have already been given for all to brace for impact,
and damage control crews are on standby to immediately pounce on any fires or
see to fixing hull breeches and flooding. 00:10:20 Ten minutes and twenty seconds after launch,
a massive fireball explodes 3,000 meters above the sea somewhere south of Japan. The massive
explosion sends out a wave of electromagnetic and thermal radiation that temporarily overpowers
satellite sensors. Gradually, the noise fades and these electronic eyes in the sky begin to
frantically scan for signs of the strike group. The strike has been off by just over a
mile, meaning that the carrier strike group has avoided the most lethal part of the
nuclear attack. However, a massive pressure wave slams into the strike group and causes
moderate structural damage. On the big carrier, most of the planes left on the deck- even
those secured by tie-downs- are blown off and into the ocean by the hurricane-gale
winds smashing into the strike group. With crews ordered below decks, the initial
release of radiation is largely harmless to the strike group's personnel. This is
helped by the fact that the strike group was just outside of the most lethal radius
of the nuclear explosion. Despite this, numerous crew are killed across the strike group
from the effect of the pressure wave. Several of the ships are flooding, but damage control
crews are already on their way to enact repairs. Compartments too damaged for effective flood
control are simply sealed off to keep the rest of the ship from also flooding. This dooms several
sailors to a drowning depth as their comrades make the impossible choice of trapping them inside
flooding sections in order to save the ship. The Russian nuclear strike has effectively
rendered an entire strike group combat ineffective, as the ships must now limp to the
nearest friendly port for immediate repairs. Decontamination must also be undertaken
even before the ships arrive at port, and damage to the flight deck of the carrier
repaired to make air operations impossible. However, things could have been far worse
if Russia had used more than one missile, as they would in a serious attempt at sinking an
American carrier and her accompanying escorts. The fact that Russian nuclear command and
control systems, as well as their space surveillance and guidance, and even the
missiles themselves are in great disrepair helped limit possible damage as well.
Russian guidance networks such as GLONASS are very vulnerable to disruption,
making Russian weapons far from precise. Despite only suffering moderate damage however,
Russia has just launched a nuclear weapon against the armed forces of the United States of America.
A full NATO Article 5 response is now inevitable, as is a state of war against the greatly
outmatched Russian Federation. Faced with the certainty of a losing war against superior
NATO forces, President Vladimir Putin must now contemplate expanding the use of nuclear weapons
to defend his hold on power inside the Kremlin and fend off NATO attacks. Yet in the American
White House, the President of the United States is even now reviewing options for a similar
attack against a Russian military facility. The world stands on the brink
of full-scale nuclear war in what might be the greatest, and
final conflict of the human race. Now go check out What If North Korea Launched A
Nuclear Weapon, or click this other video instead!
