BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | British nukes were protected by bike locks

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/programmes/newsnight/7097101.stm>o?<
BBC NEWS / NEWSNIGHT

Thursday, 15 November 2007, 18:02 GMT
British nukes were protected by bike locks
By Meirion Jones
Newsnight producer
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Newsnight has discovered that until the early days of the Blair  
government the RAF's nuclear bombs were armed by turning a bicycle  
lock key.

There was no other security on the Bomb itself.

While American and Russian weapons were protected by tamper-proof  
combination locks which could only be released if the correct code  
was transmitted, Britain relied on a simpler technology.

The Dr Strangelove scenario

The British military resisted Whitehall proposals to fit bombs with  
Permissive Action Links - or PALs - which would prevent them being  
armed unless the right code was sent.
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PALs were introduced in the 1960s in America to prevent a mad General  
or pilot launching a nuclear war off their own bat - the Dr  
Strangelove scenario.

President Kennedy ordered that every American nuclear bomb should be  
fitted with a PAL.

The correct code had to be transmitted by the US Chiefs of Staff and  
dialled into the Bomb before it could be armed otherwise it would not  
detonate.

Safeguards

Crews in missile silos also had a dual key arrangement so one man  
could not launch Armageddon.
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Similar safeguards are in place on Russian nuclear weapons.
They are familiar from numerous Hollywood films such as Broken Arrow  
with John Travolta, The Peacemaker with Nicole Kidman and various  
James Bond films.

Under control

Papers at the National Archive show that as early as 1966 an attempt  
was made to impose PAL security on British nuclear weapons.

The Chief Scientific Adviser Solly Zuckerman formally advised the  
Defence Secretary Denis Healey that Britain needed to install  
Permissive Action Links on its nuclear weapons to keep them safe.

"The Government will need to be certain that any weapons deployed are  
under some form of 'ironclad' control".

The Royal Navy argued that officers of the Royal Navy as the Senior  
Service could be trusted:

"It would be invidious to suggest... that Senior Service officers  
may, in difficult circumstances, act in defiance of their clear orders".
Neither the Navy nor the RAF installed PAL protection on their  
nuclear weapons.

The RAF kept their unsafeguarded bombs at airbases until they were  
withdrawn in 1998.

Bicycle lock key

With the help of Brian Burnell - a researcher into the history of the  
British nuclear weapons programme who once designed bomb casings for  
atom bombs - Newsnight tracked down a training version of the WE 177  
nuclear bomb at the Bristol Aero collection at Kemble.

Tornado and earlier V-bomber crews trained with these, which were  
identical in every way to the live bombs except for the nuclear warhead.
To arm the weapons you just open a panel held by two captive screws -  
like a battery cover on a radio - using a thumbnail or a coin.

Inside are the arming switch and a series of dials which you can turn  
with an Allen key to select high yield or low yield, air burst or  
groundburst and other parameters.

The Bomb is actually armed by inserting a bicycle lock key into the  
arming switch and turning it through 90 degrees. There is no code  
which needs to be entered or dual key system to prevent a rogue  
individual from arming the Bomb.

This report can be seen on Newsnight on Thursday, 15 November, 2007  
at 10.30pm on BBC TWO