Wired Senior Editor Nicholas Thompson wrote an article for the magazine's latest issue about the Soviet defensive weapon, known as Perimeter, but also frequently referred to as The Dead Hand. Thompson, author of The Hawk and The Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War, the system used sensors around Russia to look for evidence of nuclear attack. But don't worry: it had several safeguards built in:

Perimeter ensures the ability to strike back, but it's no hair-trigger device. 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. At that point, the ability to destroy the world would fall to whoever was on duty: maybe a high minister sent in during the crisis, maybe a 25-year-old junior officer fresh out of military academy. And if that person decided to press the button ... If/then. If/then. If/then. If/then.

Here's Thompson appearing on NPR to explain more about this hair-rising device:

The really interesting part is that Perimeter wasn't a deterrent — nobody in the U.S. government ever knew the Soviets had built the thing, and even Russia's own arms negotiators didn't know. Rather, it was intended to cool down hotheads in the Soviet military, by reassuring them that they could still strike back at the U.S. later, even if they personally died first. That way, they'd be less likely to order preemptive strikes.

And yes, the Dead Hand still exists, and it's continuously being upgraded. The only question is, if the system were activated and some happenstance (an earthquake, a glitch) were to convince it that a nuclear attack had happened, would whoever's in charge be level-headed enough to avoid pressing the final button?

The whole article, over at Wired, is well worth reading. [Wired]

According to a UPI report on Space War:

The IRAM is . . . in essence . . . a flying IED. It consists of a canister — either a propane tank or cylinder — packed with explosives attached to a rocket tube (body) and powered by a 107mm rocket motor. Each IRAM carries more than 100 pounds of high explosive. In contrast, a conventional 107mm rocket carries only 3 pounds.

The device is placed on rocket rails, which can be angled for distance, and fired at its target by a timing device, military officers said.

The rails are placed on the back of a low-sided flatbed cargo truck, usually a Bongo, which is ever-present in Baghdad. The truck is parked and angled toward the target, and the devices (usually four or more in succession) are launched using delayed timers.

Aiming is directional, a sort of line-of-sight lob over the cab of the truck or over the side. Distance is about 300 to 500 meters, according to Maj. Geoff Greene, executive officer of the 1st (combined Arms) Battalion of the 68 Armor Regiment.

In a June incident, an IRAM accidentally went off in a civilian area, killing 16 and injuring 29 others. So far, no US military have been killed by IRAMs.

I said earlier the IRAM is a weapon of the future because it's looking like the terrorist model of warfare is going to be with us for a long time to come. That means you'll have organized state forces going up against people who are fighting with little formal training using whatever devices they can. It probably won't be long before we see guided IRAMs — just attach the whole thing to a remote-controlled plane that can carry the weight and you're set.

Airborne IED Gets Attention [Space War]