Why were nuclear briefcases introduced in the `80s?
The nuclear briefcases were deployed because of the threat of Pershing II missiles that were going to be deployed in Europe in the early 1980s, which in the Russian view could have been launched and reach Moscow in under ten minutes, which meant that they could catch the leadership and decapitate the top leadership before they would have a chance to decide on retaliation, unless they had, in their possession, a handy-dandy device that would allow them to give authority to launch Soviet weapons immediately on receiving warning of an incoming Pershing attack. The Pershings were not deployed as part of the arms control deal cut in the early 1980s, but the submarine threat remains. And, in fact, the submarine threat grew in the eyes of the Russian planner, so that, today, they still require use of the nuclear briefcase so that the President, or his successor, can give permission to launch nuclear weapons immediately upon determining that Moscow is under attack by Trident submarine missiles
