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For reference: Dead Hand.

Let's say that there's a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and people are attempting to get into it to rebuild/provide aid to survivors.

However, there's an automated nuclear-weapons-guidance system that systemically hits any large concentrations of ground machinery or personnel moving into the region with nuclear cruise missiles; it cannot be shut off, as all of its command bunkers have been destroyed.

Other countries didn't know about the system initially, but they figured it out pretty quickly once they sent a convoy to a missile silo on the outskirts of the country and the silo nuked itself.

How do you provide aid to/rebuild an area where any large groups of vehicles or personnel get nuked?

KEY_ABRADE
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    Oh come on Joe, isn't this a bit cheap of you looking for free defence analyst work like this ;p – Pelinore Aug 16 '21 at 22:00
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    Cruise missiles or ballistic? And are the nukes mounted in stealth launch platforms (think stealth fighter robot with a single nuke payload)? Your bombs are huge by modern air defense standards, and will likely be big, slow, and vulnerable to interceptors. Keep relief efforts to small groups, who also scout for launch facilities. Locate bases, send in robotic disarming machines to disable the weapons. Even shooting early nukes with a cannon would likely disrupt the operations of these type of bombs, and will certainly disable the engines/rockets. – DWKraus Aug 16 '21 at 22:22
  • @DWKraus Cruise missiles; I'll specify, thank you. Not in stealth launch platforms. – KEY_ABRADE Aug 16 '21 at 22:27
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    That depends entirely on how, specifically, the dead hand system works, what exactly it's hooked up to, and how all this stuff talks to each other. Note that a system that cannot be maintained will eventually catastrophically malfunction, and anyone building this system should (unless they're Hollywood mad scientists) know this and plan accordingly. – Ton Day Aug 17 '21 at 07:57
  • I don't think this is the sort of theme you are going for, so I won't post a full answer. But the mad-max style solution is just: Keep sending disposable people until all the missiles are used up. – DBS Aug 17 '21 at 13:33
  • Please provide additional details, how does the system detect the machinery? How does it decide if machinery concentration is "large"? Why can't it be shut off, is it all in orbit? Could the surveillance system be shut down, why not? If silos can nuke themselves, why can't you just disable the system by doing that to all the silos? – Mathaddict Aug 17 '21 at 20:51
  • Unless someone's still alive who has details, they'll never be sure that they've disarmed all the booby traps. They might believe they've done so for decades, only for another to go off when its sensors finally trip. Given the nuclear apocalypse, it's a good bet no one is still alive who knows where all of them are. – John O Aug 19 '21 at 14:49

5 Answers5

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Seal the Doors

Have someone go in and weld the hatch shut. The nukes will have a safety that prevent them from firing if the hatch is closed.

It's set to hit large concentrations so a single Jeep with a welder unit on it should be fine.

Once it's welded in, you're fine to go.

Thorne
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Dead hand works off what is at heart a very simple set of passive sensors (seismographs and pressure sensors etc) and doesn't itself have any active targeting systems. The missiles already have their pre-set targets uploaded prior to launch and the system can't alter those (apparently). It also has no active tracking capability. This means its not a good analogy for the type of system you want.

That would require a much more sophisticated set of sensors including satellite imaging and radio location. This is because Dead Hand's system operates inside the national boundaries of Russia. So unless this system has been designed to hit domestic targets (!) it needs some means of detecting activity far away in areas its former masters didn't control. Seismographs would still help but I doubt it would be enough.

The short answer would be to cripple those sensors. Blind it (or at least make it extremely myopic) However that in turn depends on one big unanswered question about your scenario.

What do the rescue teams/survivors know about the system? What technical specifics do they have. Where is the system located, how many launch systems does it have at its disposal and what type, where are they located, what type of sensors does it use and where are they located.

For a start is it even on the same continent as the one where your survivors want to start rebuilding?

Without any of that information its kind of hard to come up with a definitive solution other than to try and wait it out. That said complex electronics run 24/7 need down time and maintenance no matter how many back-ups you install. For that matter cruise missiles (if that is the type of weapon being used) need maintenance to. I have no idea what the maintenance schedule for kind of platform would be but I doubt it could be left sitting around for say 20 years without turning into a 'fizzer' if it was launched.

Even the nuclear warheads have a limited lifespan due to radioactive decay, especially if thermonuclear - the tritium has a half-life of 12.5 years. They don't just need maintenance, they need replacement.

If you want better options. Provide more details.

EDIT; You also need to define what you mean by 'large concentrations' of people and equipment. How many is large? 1000 plus people and entire reconstruction convoy? 6 guys in a camper van? Because if the setting is at the upper end of some scale survivors might (through trial and error figure out that rebuilding programs under a certain size are 'safe' and therefore until the system breaks down they just rebuild 'small and dispersed'. (Albeit that might be a hard earned lesson.)

Mon
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    +1 Was working on answer with the same focus, though you expressed it better and faster. Another possible weakness is not just the sensors but the comms method the sensors use to pass info to the central base. Also worth noting that any place with enough people to be worth rescuing probably has enough people and vehicles present that it would be auto-nuked before a rescue could be mounted. – KerrAvon2055 Aug 16 '21 at 23:21
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    According to this answer you're probably looking at less than a decade for unmaintained thermonuclear weapons before they fizzle - longer for atomic bombs, but still not indefinite. – Cadence Aug 16 '21 at 23:33
  • They didn't know about the system initially, but they figured it out pretty quickly once they sent a convoy to a missile silo on the outskirts of the country and the silo nuked itself. I will add this context. – KEY_ABRADE Aug 16 '21 at 23:46
  • Seismic sensors can pick up a target location. It's how geologists locate where earthquakes happen. – Thorne Aug 17 '21 at 01:01
  • Yep, those an nuclear detonations -even small ones. That's why I mentioned them. The question is how good/reliable they would be at picking up say heavy vehicle movement and/or construction 'noise'. – Mon Aug 17 '21 at 01:57
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Preemptive: Set up satellite and aerial reconnaissance to look for launch sites, then take out the launch sites using airstrikes or orbital bombardment

Postemptive: Set up satellite monitoring and/or a radar network to detect cruise missile launches, set up extensive cruise missile defenses keyed off of the detection network, send in a remotely controlled convoy to trigger launches repeatedly until the silos are empty. As a bonus, each launch identifies a launch site that can be investigated for clues as to where the rest of the launch sites are.

GrumpyYoungMan
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Use them up.

Fancy tech, pre-emptive strikes, welding. Bah. No-one has all that stuff anymore. But you got robots, right? Too many, probably, standing around, gleaming, scheming. Plus lots of vehicles that aren't getting much use. Hopefully the automated system will not realize it is being threatened by a convoy of robot driven old trucks towing inflatable parade floats. Make sure the floats still wave their arms because that will really irritate the automated system. The people in costumes who stand on the floats throwing candy should stay home unless they are robots too.

The defense system will nuke the convoy and its wrath will be spent. A couple more nukes in the name of safety will be fine.

Maybe have some folks on bikes go in first to tell people to clear the area that is going to get nuked. These folks on bikes can be the candy throwers, so they feel like they are part of something too. Also survivors in the area will appreciate the candy.

Willk
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Some ideas to help or rebuild without taking the dead hand systems out would be:

Move Alone
If large groups get nuked, don’t make large groups. Travel alone or maybe pairs, and with sufficient distance between different cars/people so they would not be recognized as a convoy.
Ensure that the first help send is gone from those they want to help before sending the second. This can be planned, communicated with radios, or even watched with binoculars. Plan out routes in advance ensuring people going in and people going out don't cross. If the group they try to help is too big combined with the helpers, drop the resources at a drop-off point. Be sure to mark them with something that draws attention like a flag. The flag(s) can also be used to communicate if and who can approach the point safely.

To rebuild: Go Underground
If you want to rebuild without taking out the system and in its range, you will need to do so somewhere the system can’t see. The Dead-hand activated system needs to use something to detect groups of people. This is likely done either through drones or satellite since any grid powered cameras would be out of power in the wasteland. Places, where the systems can’t see, can be used to rebuild inside. For example parking garages, indoor malls, metro lines, or even any building still standing. Build covered walkways people can use where they can’t be spotted. Cover cars in tarps or park them inside somewhere.

Wait It Out
If rebuilding is going to take a while, you might as well just move away or wait it out. As the linked question tells us, waiting it out is an actual solution. Nukes are going to fail, and it might even be quicker than predicted there, as the system lasts as long as the shortest lifespan of the components in the dead hand system.

vinzzz001
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