fail-deadly

Adjective

fail-deadly (not comparable)

1. Of a nuclear weapons strategy: encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack, even if the command-and-control infrastructure has been damaged by the enemy's first strike.
   • One, admittedly extreme, means of reducing the impact of a command, control, and communication failure would be the adoption of a "fail deadly" mode of operation. For example, as opposed to requiring a positive signal to proceed on to target after launch-on-warning, airplanes might be permitted to...1976 May 15, Lewis A. Dunn, Herman Kahn, “Parameters of Nth Country Nuclear-weapon Programs and Postures”, in Trends in Nuclear Proliferation, 1975–1995: Projections, Problems, and Policy Options...
   • If one were to assume a more traditional Realist image of human fallibility, then one's confidence in the safety of the elaborate nuclear "fail deadly" deterrence order might not be so sanguine.1993, Daniel Deudney, “Dividing Realism: Structural Realism versus Security Materialism on Nuclear Security and Proliferation”, in Zachary S. Davis, Benjamin Frankel, editors, The Proliferation...