Steven Starr, a former Government advisor on nuclear weapons, has provided a shocking insight into how the world would be impacted if nuclear war breaks out between Russia and the United States.
Speaking with the Schiller Institute, Starr revealed research showing Russia and the U.S. could each launch 800 to 1000 strategic nuclear warheads in 5 – 15 minutes at the commencement of what would undeniably be the break out of World War 3.
“There would probably be a number of nuclear warheads targeted in a place like New York. The U.S. and Russia have only a few hundred cities with populations greater than one hundred thousand people, so they’ve got plenty of warheads to go around,” said Starr.
“Primarily the launch-ready warheads would be coming from intercontinental ballistic missiles – those are long, land-based missiles and they have about a 30-minute flight time going from the U.S. to Russia or Russia to the U.S.”
But there could also be submarine-launched ballistic millises, warns Starr.
“If subs are parked up the cost of Russia and the U.S. they could hit targets in as little as 7- 10 minutes.”
In a recent major development, Asia Markets reported the world’s largest nuclear submarine, the USS Rhode Island, is being moved into the Mediterranean, after docking in the Port of Gibraltar on November 5.
It came as the Russian Defence Force declared it was testing nuclear submarine missile launches off Russia’s northern coast.
World War 3 nuclear attack warning systems
In a situation of nuclear war, an imminent strike on the U.S. would first be detected by the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), located near Colorado Springs.
What would happen next?
“The U.S. and Russia have maintained a policy called launch on warning for quite some time. What this means is if a nuclear strike is detected on early warning systems a retaliatory strike is launched before the strike arrives, while the enemy missile is in the air, before any detonation occurs.
“If a false warning of attack is believed to be true, that would make the retaliatory strike the first strike… In other words, accidental nuclear war.”
A U.S. retaliatory attack requires meticulous decision making by Joe Biden
Starr says the projected flight times of incoming nuclear missiles play a major role in the response.
It is up to the President of the time to order a retaliatory missile strike and ensure his missiles are launched before the incoming nuclear warheads destroy them.
“It takes at least a few minutes for early warnings systems to issue an attack warning. The people at NORAD are tasked with providing a warning within 3 minutes.
“And a missile attack from subs off the coast will allow only a few minutes of time to contact the President. If you have 7 -10 minutes of time from the launch to impact, it doesn’t give you much time to evaluate it, have a threat conference, and figure out what to do.”
Starr predicts in the case of a submarine attack being detected, Joe Biden would have only around 30 seconds to make a decision on its validity and whether or not to launch a counter-nuclear strike.
Russia’s response in the event of a U.S. attack
In Russia, a nuclear attack on the country would first be detected by the Gherman Titov Satellite Command Center in Krasnoznamensk.
“The Russian Military can issue a lunch order that bypasses all lower levels of command,” said Starr.
“They’d be ready launch within 10 minutes and not just the President, but also their Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff, have the nuclear briefcases – they’re all able to give the order.
“They can push a button and override all the lower subordinate chain of command and missile launch crews. If they have a missile coming at Moscow they could have even less than 7 minutes, so they’re streamlined to attack.”
The chain of response following the first detection of a nuclear strike would be catastrophic. Even if a strike is erroneously identified the retaliatory strike cannot be recalled.
No nuclear missiles in the world today have the ability to be recalled.
What would a nuclear war actually look like?
Steven Starr’s projections on what would happen to the world in the days, months and years following the outbreak of nuclear war are chilling.
“Is there is an attack – a full-scale war – the smoke rises into the stratosphere from nuclear firestorms. An 800 kiloton warhead creates an 150 square mile fire storm, so maybe 500 of those would create 50,000 square miles of nuclear fires,” he said.
“The scientists estimate that 70% of the sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere would be blocked form reaching the surface of the world and about 35% in the Southern Hemisphere.
“The smoke that is above cloud-level cannot be reined out and it would remain in the stratosphere for about 10 years.”
He says for the first 1 – 3 years after a nuclear doomsday scenario, daily temperatures in North America and Eurasia would be below freezing.
“It would be at least 10 years before the weather would be warm enough to grow crops, so most humans and animals would starve to death.”
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You can watch Starr’s nuclear war webinar presentation here.