A Doomsday Device? Really?

My favorite film, Dr. Strangelove, is the tale of a rogue US general launching an accidental nuclear war, and the errors of command and control that result in one bomber not being recalled, even after everyone realizes it was all a mistake. The grim joke at the end of the movie, however, is that the USSR has built a 'Doomsday Device', so that if any nuclear attack on them is successful, they will automatically detonate numerous cobalt-jacketed hydrogen bombs all around the planet, releasing enough deadly fallout to render the Earth uninhabitable for humans for 93 years. Nothing can stop the device, once activated.

But surely this is all just a fantasy. As Dr. Strangelove himself says in the movie, what's the point of a Doomsday Device if you keep it a secret? Presumably no one actually wants the end of human life on Earth, so the only point of building a Doomsday Device is for its deterrent effect - and it can't have any deterrent effect if your enemy doesn't know of its existence!

Alas, we have reason again to think that reality is stranger than fiction. There's reason to believe the Soviets have built such a device, and have recently taken steps to reactivate it. Or more properly, they never deactivated it, and may be upgrading it. The claim: a system named Kosvinsky exists inside a mountain in Russia, able to communicate via VLF radio, which could work even during the massive radiation of nuclear fallout, and would coordinate and launch all Russian nuclear forces after an initial strike. This and more are part of a new book by P.D. Smith detailing the severity of the risk of all-out nuclear war using such a 'superweapon', whether started accidentally or otherwise.

The further rumor: Nuclear launch risk specialist Bruce Blair intimates that Bush's recent requests for a nuclear 'bunker-buster' bomb, supposedly for Iraqi or Iranian nuclear facilities, may actually have the Kosvinsky system in mind. And Putin has eagerly made clear that Russia's nuclear bombers are back in the air, saying “Our pilots have been grounded for too long. They are happy to start a new life.”

In short, Russia appears to be actively preparing for nuclear war, and has never been too keen on safeguards against accidental launch - preferring a certain counterattack, and a last-chance Doomsday machine that means the rest of the world will lose a nuclear war if they do. The Doomsday clock is at 5 minutes to midnight; I increasingly worry it should be closer.