United States military nuclear incident terminology
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The United States military uses a number of terms to define the magnitude and extent of nuclear incidents.
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[edit] Origin
United States Department of Defense directive 5230.16, Nuclear Accident and Incident Public Affairs (PA) Guidance, [1] and the United States Air Force Operation Reporting System (AFOREPS), as set out in AFMAN 10-206 [2] detail a number of terms for internally and externally (including press releases) reporting nuclear incidents. They are used by the United States of America, and are neither NATO nor global standards.
[edit] Terminology
[edit] Pinnacle
Pinnacle denotes an incident of interest to the National Command Authority, and Department of Defense, in that it:
- Generates a higher level of military action.
- Causes a national reaction.
- Affects international relationships.
- Causes immediate widespread coverage in news media.
- Is clearly against the national interest.
- Affects current national policy.
All of the following reporting terms are classified Pinnacle, with the exception of Bent Spear and Faded Giant, and Dull Sword.
[edit] Bent Spear
Bent Spear refers to nuclear weapons incidents that are of significant interest but are not categorized as Pinnacle - Nucflash or Pinnacle - Broken Arrow.
[edit] Broken Arrow
Pinnacle - Broken Arrow refers to an accidental event that involves nuclear weapons or nuclear components but which does not create the risk of nuclear war. These include:
- Nuclear detonation.
- Non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon.
- Radioactive contamination.
- Jettisoning of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component.
- Public hazard, actual or implied.
[edit] Nucflash
Pinnacle - Nucflash refers to detonation or possible detonation of a nuclear weapon which creates a risk of an outbreak of nuclear war. Events which may be classified Nucflash may include:
- Accidental, unauthorized, or unexplained nuclear detonation or possible detonation.
- Accidental or unauthorized launch of a nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable missile in the direction of, or having the capability to reach another nuclear-capable country.
- Unauthorized flight of, or deviation from, an approved flight plan by a nuclear armed or nuclear-capable aircraft with the capability to penetrate the airspace of another nuclear-capable country.
- Detection of unidentified objects by a missile warning system or interference (experienced by such a system or related communications) that appears threatening and could create a risk of nuclear war.
[edit] Emergency Disablement
Pinnacle - Emergency Disablement refers to operations involving the emergency destruction of nuclear weapons.
[edit] Emergency Evacuation
Pinnacle - Emergency Evacuation refers to operations involving the emergency evacuation of nuclear weapons.
[edit] Empty Quiver
Pinnacle - Empty Quiver refers to the seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component.
[edit] Faded Giant
Faded Giant refers to an event involving a nuclear reactor or other radiological accident, which does not involve nuclear weapons.
[edit] Dull Sword
Dull Sword is an Air Force reporting term that marks reports of minor incidents involving nuclear weapons, components or systems, or which could impair their deployment. This could include actions involving vehicles capable of carrying nuclear weapons but with no nuclear weapons on board at the time of the accident.
[edit] Popular Culture
Several of these terms have, in various forms, entered popular culture. [3] [4] They have not always been used correctly.
- The John Woo action film Broken Arrow initially involves a PINNACLE - EMPTY QUIVER event, and the later "unauthorized detonation ... of a nuclear weapon" would be a PINNACLE - NUCFLASH event (because it was unauthorised) rather than a PINNACLE - BROKEN ARROW event.
- ROGUE SPEAR is supposedly a means of flagging incidents in which nuclear weapons come under the control of non-governmental groups, but the term is the invention of American thriller writer Tom Clancy, for the computer game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear. The correct term would be EMPTY QUIVER.
