Dead Hand was a fail-safe (or rather, fail-deadly) system of launching whatever Russian nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles survived the aftermath of an American first strike. A Wired article described the system’s abilities:

“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.” If the information Dead Hand collected indicated a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union may have occurred, it would initiate a verification procedure.

“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.”

Once this nightmare scenario had been established, command missiles stored in hardened, nuclear-blast resistant silos would be launched all over the Soviet Union, transmitting launch sequences to whatever missiles had survived, and authorizing whoever happened to be in the silos to initiate launch and bring about nuclear armageddon.

Even if the Soviet Union’s top military commanders, politicians, leaders, cities, and capital—you name it—were smoldering piles of ash, the Soviet Union could guarantee a retaliation.

Originally Posted By p100⏩

Originally Posted By CulturalDecay⏩

Originally Posted By Babayagawick85⏩

Originally Posted By Barteh⏩