the shadows are so dark (or the secrecy so official?)....that for all we are able to know, they already done it.
If their application of the technology were so secret that we couldn't tell it existed, then it wasn't worth whatever they paid.
> If their application of the technology were so secret that we couldn't tell it existed, then it wasn't worth whatever they paid.
I would posit that, were a system like this feasible and already implemented by the military, we wouldn’t hear about this until the football has to be activated.
There is no single other decision as monumental and requiring of extremely precise timing. And it’s not a decision that is used very often or would be obvious if something “not physically possible” were done since it happens in secret. It’s pretty much the perfect usecase for such a technology.
Though I think everyone secretly knows that, in the Mexican standoff that is a nuclear stalemate, if one side launches all their nukes, the best outcome for everyone is for the other side to just let it happen. This would afford any survivors the best chance at rebuilding. The important part is the threat of what you can do, not what you actually do.
Or we wouldn’t, because it would only be used where an alternative information cover story could be concocted or where the decision and action itself could be kept secret, to avoid exposing the capability.
i'm not aware enough of what any world government is doing at any given time to confidently assert that so easily.