Nuclear briefcase

In his 1980 book Breaking Cover,[7] Bill Gulley, the former director of the White House Military Office, wrote:[8]

There are four things in the Football. The Black Book containing the retaliatory options, a book listing classified site locations, a manila folder with eight or ten pages stapled together giving a description of procedures for the Emergency Broadcast System, and a three-by-five-inch [7.5 × 13 cm] card with authentication codes. The Black Book was about 9 by 12 inches [23 × 30 cm] and had 75 loose-leaf pages printed in black and red. The book with classified site locations was about the same size as the Black Book, and was black. It contained information on sites around the country where the president could be taken in an emergency.

According to a 2005 Washington Post article, the president is always accompanied by a military aide carrying a "football" with launch codes for nuclear weapons.[9] A separate 2005 article described the football as a metal Zero Halliburton briefcase.[10] Another 2005 article described the football as a leather briefcase weighing about 45 pounds, and included a photo of an aide carrying such a case.[8] A small antenna protrudes from the bag near the handle, suggesting that it also contains communications equipment of some kind.[8]

If the president (who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces) decides to order the use of nuclear weapons, they would be taken aside by the "carrier" and the briefcase would be opened. A command signal, or "watch" alert, would then be issued to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president would then review the attack options with the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and decide on a plan, which could range from a single cruise missile to multiple ICBM launches. These are preset war plans developed under OPLAN 8010 (formerly the Single Integrated Operational Plan). Then, using Milstar, the aide, a military officer, would contact the National Military Command Center and NORAD to determine the scope of the pre-emptive nuclear strike and prepare a second strike, following which Milstar/Advanced Extremely High Frequency or Boeing E-4Bs and TACAMOs would air the currently valid nuclear launch code to all operational nuclear delivery systems.[11] Where a two-person verification procedure would be executed following this, the codes would be entered in a Permissive Action Link.

Before the order can be processed by the military, the president must be positively identified using a special code issued on a plastic card, nicknamed the "biscuit".[12] The United States has a two-man rule in place at nuclear launch facilities, and while only the president can order the release of nuclear weapons, the order must be verified by the secretary of defense to be an authentic order given by the president (there is a hierarchy of succession in the event that the president is killed in an attack). This verification process deals solely with verifying that the order came from the actual president. The secretary of defense has no veto power and must comply with the president's order.[12] Once all the codes have been verified, the military would issue attack orders to the proper units. These orders are given and then re-verified for authenticity. It is argued that the president has almost sole authority to initiate a nuclear attack since the secretary of defense is required to verify the order, but cannot veto it.[13][14][15]

The football is carried by one of the rotating presidential military aides, whose work schedule is described by a top-secret rota (one from each of the six service branches). This person is a commissioned officer in the U.S. military, pay-grade O-4 or above, who has undergone the nation's most rigorous background check (Yankee White).[16][17] These officers are required to keep the football readily accessible to the president at all times. Consequently, the aide, football in hand, is always either standing or walking near the president, including riding on Air Force One, Marine One, or the presidential motorcade with the president.[17]

The operational plan for nuclear strike orders is entirely concerned with the identity of the commanding officer and the authenticity of the order, and there are no safeguards to verify that the person issuing the order is sane. Notably, Major Harold Hering was discharged from the Air Force in late 1973 for asking the question "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?"[18]

There are three nuclear footballs in total; two are allocated to the president and vice president, with the last being stored in the White House.[19] In presidential transitions, the president-elect does not receive the actual nuclear code card until after the nuclear briefing, when normally "he meets with the outgoing president at the White House just before the actual inauguration ceremony. The code card is activated electronically right after the president-elect takes the oath at noon".[20]

In the event that the outgoing president is not present at the inauguration – as happened in 2021 when Donald Trump did not attend the inauguration of Joe Biden but stayed in Florida – he or she keeps one football, which remains active until 11:59:59 AM on inauguration day. After that point, the now-former president is denied access to the football and the codes are automatically deactivated. The aide carrying this football returns to Washington DC. In the meantime, the incoming president will receive one of the spare footballs at the pre-inauguration nuclear briefing as well as a "biscuit" with codes that would become active at 12:00:00.[21]

• The Dead Zone (1983);

Johnny Smith, while shaking the hand of Greg Stillson — a candidate for the post of the United States senator — during an electoral meeting, in the prophetic vision of Stilson, became president of the United States, launching a nuclear attack against Russia, scanning the palm personally on a computer terminal to validate the launching of missiles;

• The Peacekeeper (1997);
• Deterrence (1999);

Fictional President of the United States Walter Emerson uses his nuclear briefcase in this movie to authorize a nuclear attack on the city of Baghdad.

A group of rogue veterans turned terrorists manages to steal the briefcase.

• 24 Terrorists get their hands on the nuclear briefcase and steal a page from the playbook containing activation codes and locations for warheads. (2005)
• Swing Vote (2008);

The incumbent president attempts to impress a key voter by letting him hold the nuclear football.

• Salt (2010);

Near the end of the film, the President of the United States reacts to Russia's threatening nuclear posture after the death of the Russian President at the apparent hands of an American agent by deploying the briefcase and authenticating his identity, and shortly after a Soviet sleeper agent kills his security detail and uses the briefcase to issue nuclear attack orders.

• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2013)
• White House Down (2013)
• Scorpion S1E15 (2015); A team must return a "football" stolen sixteen years earlier in the course of surgical operation. The pirates had already tried to launch a strike using an American nuclear silo based in Iceland, but they failed.
• The Fate of the Furious (2017)

• Langelot et la Clef de la guerre, a children's spy novel by Vladimir Volkoff.

The key commanding the firing of nuclear missiles is stolen from the President of France.