Technologies Used

The primary computing technology included:

• Radar tracking

  • The U.S had radar technology to track any aircraft that was within their area. While this was a useful tactical advantage, they ended up tracking a civilian plane, which prompted the Fail safe alarm to trigger, as they thought it was a Russian bomber.

• The Fail Safe box

  • This was a fictional device that would go off in the event of an enemy attack on the U.S. There were squadrons of fighter pilots deployed around the world, and upon the alert that there was an "attack" on the U.S, the Fail Safe jets were deployed. The Fail Safe system would receive a unique code, and in the event that it matched the code within the sealed envelope, the fighters would launch a nuclear strike on their assigned country.  A valid code was sent to a group of bombers accidentally due to a computer short, leading to the events of the film.

• Signal jammers

  • One of the main points of contention in the film was that the American fighter jets were unable to communicate with the President due to signal jammers deployed by Russia. Due to this signal jamming, no one was able to contact the jet, and the jet was unable to contact home base as well.

• The Moscow-Washington hotline

  • This was a direct phone line from the U.S president in Washington to the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. This allowed direct, fast, and safe communication, as the Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense debate, there needed to be a faster form of communication than radio or telegraph, which prompted the implementation of the Moscow Washington hotline.

  • https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-30/hotline-established-between-washington-and-moscow