Doctrine & strategy
Dead Hand
A semi-automated Soviet (and reportedly current Russian) nuclear-retaliation system that can launch a counterstrike even if national leadership has been killed.
The Dead Hand system, known as Perimeter, was developed in the early 1980s. If sensors detect a nuclear attack and command-and-control has been severed, the system enables surviving officers to authorize a full retaliatory launch. Russia is widely believed to maintain a modernized version.
Related terms
Second Strike
The retaliatory nuclear capability remaining after absorbing an opponent's first strike — the foundation of deterrence under MAD.
MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)
A Cold War strategic doctrine in which two or more nuclear-armed adversaries each possess sufficient retaliatory capability that any nuclear attack would result in their own destruction.