Preparing for Armageddon (ABMs and Civil Defense, November 9th-14th)
On all battlefields, while chemical and conventional weapons are extensively delivered, no nuke is used by both side, because they could disrupt ongoing ground operations. On the Soviet side, Spetnatz successfully destroy with conventional high yield explosives the three suspected Cruise and Pershing2 missile sites, many nuclear warhead storages and mobile launcher shelters in Germany and in the Low Lands. Nearly all the 600 NATO’s warheads stored in Germany are lost.
All governments begin massive preparations for an all-out nuclear war.
Margaret Thatcher enacts the “War Book”: United Kingdom becomes a de-facto authoritarian regime, divided in 12 administrative regions each commanded by a minister; all the areas close to the air bases bombed with VX chemical warheads are immediately evacuated and isolated; emergency rescue operations begin with dispersal of all firefighters units, Red Cross and rescue teams. Evacuation measures are taken also for large cities and all the potential targets of a nuclear attack. New Nike Hercules anti-aircraft batteries, sent by US, are deployed in large numbers around cities and along the East coast. All the Nike Hercules batteries in strategic locations (plausible targets for Soviet missiles) are loaded with powerful 30 kt warheads.
Ronald Reagan rules a superpower without any organized civil defense plans, few air defenses and no ABM defense. Although he orders the execution of the Crisis Relocation Plan studied in 1980 (and never tested), for the evacuation of large cities, relying mainly in the disciplined attitude of its people and on private resources. He also orders the deployment of all “tested and untested” ABM systems. Stored Spartan and Sprint missiles are immediately dispersed in secret locations. A dozen of MSR missile guidance radars, already built (but never assembled) during the Safeguard Program of the early 70s, begin to be assembled and deployed close to large and strategically important cities: Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Jose. Given that it is impossible to dig for new hardened silos for the Sprint missiles on short notice (and it could be too visible for Soviet’s eyes), a new project is approved: modify older and unused Honest John’s launcher vehicles, in order to transform them in mobile launchers for Sprints, which have, basically, the same proportions. In the meantime, the old 142 batteries of nuclear-tipped Nike Hercules (deactivated in the 70s) begin emergency works of reactivation. In order to protect the ICBM silos and the underground command and control centers, the engineers prepares a “dust defense” (the most simple and brute ABM defense), burying a certain number of B-53 (Y2 “clean” version) 9Mt nuclear bombs, surrounding them with borated water in their burial shaft, in order to further reduce their radioactivity. They have to be exploded to stop the incoming nuclear warheads, with their large mushroom clouds. After intense consultations with the Joint Chief of Staff and an ad hoc committee of nuclear physicists, Ronald Reagan authorizes a new program proposed by the physicist Edward Teller: use the state-of-the-art know-how derived from the Project Excalibur to deploy a new space nuclear mine, based on the Spartan’s W-71 warheads (X-ray enhanced). Those warheads are absolutely ineffective if used on Spartans, against clouds of MIRVed warheads and decoys, but could be better used against densely packed missiles, in their boost phase (before the release of MIRVs). Then: they have to be deployed in Low Earth Orbit. Aerospace and nuclear facilities begin immediately to build the new mines, using the 60 W-71 already stored.
In Moscow, Yuri Andropov orders the immediate evacuation of all large cities and the quick relocation of all the strategic industrial assets in underground facilities. Works for new ABM batteries, along with their radar systems (already built), begin immediately around Leningrad, Minsk, Kiev, Almaty and Vladivostok in order to cover all of the strategic areas of the Soviet Union. The production lines for the Galosh ABM missiles are reactivated and boosted, in order to produce 500 of them per month. The new Gazelle missiles are already built and tested, but they are not battle ready; given the emergency situation, the STAVKA approves their deployment in new silos, in any case. Live test, with nuclear warheads, will be conducted as soon as possible in the Baikonur site. In the meantime, the PVO (air defense) allocated all its 130 sites armed with SA-5 “improved” anti-aircraft missiles to the ABM mission. The missile launchers are linked to ABM radars. In a desperate situation they could be used as a last ditch terminal defense. Old systems are deployed again: the IS interceptor satellites are positioned on their launch pads in Baikonur site, as well as 18 SS-9 missiles armed with FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System) are deployed and readied for launch.
In Moscow, the GKO considers that a nuclear escalation is imminent. The “six days to survive” are ended and NATO gives no signs of surrender. Given the previous estimates of the KGB for a US nuclear attack countdown (forecasted for November 15th November, at last), given the extensive preparation for an all-out nuclear war detected in the United States by the satellite reconnaissance, on November 14th, the KGB concludes that a nuclear escalation could start at any given time from now on. Soviet leaders decide not to launch, but they are getting nervous.