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Cheget (Russian:Чегет) is a "nuclear briefcase" (named afterMount Cheget [ru] inKabardino-Balkaria) and a part of the automatic system for thecommand and control ofRussia'sStrategic Nuclear Forces (SNF) namedKazbek (Казбек, named afterMount Kazbek on theGeorgia–Russia border).[1] From when it was first developed, a "nuclear suitcase" has been available to the Russian head of state, Minister of Defense and the head of the General Staff.[2]
Thecheget was developed duringYuri Andropov's administration in the early 1980s. The suitcase was put into service just asMikhail Gorbachev took office asGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985.[3] It is connected to the special communications system code-namedKavkaz (Кавказ, the Russian name for theCaucasus region), which "supports communication between senior government officials while they are making the decision whether to use nuclear weapons, and in its own turn is plugged intoKazbek, which embraces all the individuals and agencies involved in command and control of the Strategic Nuclear Forces."
ThePresident of Russia (theSupreme Commander-in-Chief) has acheget on hand at all times. It is one of three, with the other two held by theMinister of Defence and theChief of the General Staff. It may be that affirmations from two of the three are needed to trigger an actual launch.[4][5][6] TheGeneral Staff receives the signal and initiates thenuclear strike through the passing ofauthorization codes tomissile silo launch complexes/ballistic missile submarines or by remotely launching individual land-basedintercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)/submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).[7]
On 25 January 1995, in theNorwegian rocket incident, the cheget was activated in response to a misidentifiedthree-stage scientificsounding rocket (Brant XII as third stage), launched by Norwegian and U.S. scientists; it was the only known time a nuclear briefcase has been activated in preparation for an attack.[3]
