The race for nuclear weapons could destroy the world

Published: Fri 5 Apr 2019, 9:00 PM

Last updated: Fri 5 Apr 2019, 11:04 PM

The menace of a nuclear war by accident, miscalculation or massive electronic failure grows everyday. Today's sophisticated ultra technology is totally reliant on 21st century electronic components. Should any of these devices fail or react prematurely, the consequences will be catastrophic. Software comprising billions of lines of codes and controls directs every weapon, on land, at sea, in the air and in the outer fringes of space. None of these weapons systems were tested under real nuclear war conditions. Software glitches coupled with artificial intelligence could cause an inferno of mammoth and deadly proportions. Remember, the Boeing 737 max 8 crashes, were caused by software that defied human intervention.
Nuclear weapons are on hair trigger alert; there are close on to 2,000 weapons on six-minute warning time, which could be subject to cyberattacks and stealthy electronic interference, that could trigger a premature launch.
Over the past 50 years, false alerts have nearly brought nuclear superpowers into atomic combat. Over the years, massive military exercises simulating nuclear war have raised nuclear alertness to unprecedented levels, and most of that information remains classified.
Hydrogen bombs, nuclear-tipped torpedoes and wrecked nuclear submarines are strewn across the sea bed in all of the world's oceans, a grim reminder of the fallacy and vulnerability of nuclear technology. Within the next six years, the world will witness a nuclear conflict, if the present constellation of global daily events continue to escalate.
- The writer is based in South Africa

By Farouk Araie

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