U.S. unaware of Soviet 'doomsday machine'

MOSCOW, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Cold War-era Soviet Union built a so-called doomsday machine that may still be active, writers who verified the nuclear retaliatory system's existence say.

Nicholas Thompson, a senior editor for Wired magazine and author of "The Hawk and The Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War," told ABC News he learned about the system, known as The Perimeter, through interviews with former Soviet officials.

The Perimeter was built 25 years ago to ensure a nuclear retaliation should Russia be attacked by the United States, ABC News reported Thursday. It would be triggered by an elaborate system of sensors strategically placed across Russia and was designed to launch a fleet of missiles at major targets in the United States.

It was constructed to guarantee the ability to strike back with nuclear warheads even if the Soviet chain of command was wiped out.

Information from the former officials indicates it was never retired.

"It's still in place, but it's not as though they're sitting around waiting for America to strike. It's on lower alert," Thompson said.

David E. Hoffman, author of "The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy," and others say neither side likes to talk about the Perimeter, ABC said.

"The scary part to me is that they built it and nobody knew," Hoffman said.

Other experts say the system has even been upgraded over the years.

"As far as I know, the system remains in essentially the same status as it was," said Bruce Blair, president of the World Security Institute, a Washington think tank, and one of the first to write about the system in the early 1990s.