From ‘football’ to ‘biscuits’: how Joe Biden would launch a nuclear attack
- Joe Biden warned last week that Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats could lead to ‘Armageddon’
- Portable communications system enables the US president to order a nuclear attack from anywhere
Doomsday could start with a football – the so-called “nuclear football” as the attaché case carried wherever the US president goes is popularly known.
The rather awkwardly stuffed black bag doesn’t look like much, the only clue to its importance being that it never leaves the hand of a uniformed military aide.
But inside are top secret codes and plans enabling a president to authorise nuclear strikes – and pick from a sort of menu of targets – anywhere in the world.
In the White House, the president has his secure Situation Room, where he could order war and communicate with military leaders.
But when President Joe Biden, for example, travelled to Puerto Rico, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Maryland within the space of a few days this November, he travelled, as he does everywhere, with his “football”.
