I think Snopes and the other sources mentioning nuclear response times as being unclassified are wrong in that the times they mention are not confirmed and therefore speculative. However, a presidential nominee receives current classified intelligence briefings and therefore when Hillary mentioned the nuclear response time, this became a different matter from the times mentioned in unconfirmed and speculative sources.

According to Pentagon sources, the information Clinton disseminated publicly is Top Secret intelligence governed under the U.S. Special Access Program (SAP) which dictates safeguards and protocols for accessing and discussing highly classified and Top Secret intelligence. The specific details of the country’s nuclear response time discussed by Clinton, sources said, are only known by a handful of individuals outside top military brass, including the following “need-to-know” (NTK) officials …

I spent 24/7 every third week for eight years on alert duty next to an aircraft loaded with 5 nukes, ready to launch and attack targets upon receipt of an authenticated go code. During my assignment to a Strategic Air Command Combat Ready Crew, our launch time was highly classified. I simply cannot believe that nuclear decision times and launch times are no longer classified today.

If this is still supposed to be secret, it is a poorly kept secret. Publication of four minute launch time is apparently as harmless as claiming a launch time capability of thirty seconds flat. It essentially says we can launch before incoming missiles can land. The public claim may be optimistic.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-nuclear-weapon-launch/

To Launch a Nuclear Strike, Clinton or Trump Would Follow These Steps

By Dave Merrill, Nafeesa Syeed and Brittany Harris
September 7, 2016

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have repeatedly accused each other of lacking the fitness, temperament and qualifications, to be commander-in-chief. Clinton has said Trump isn’t someone “we can trust with nuclear weapons.” Trump has called Clinton “close to unhinged.” How much power does the president alone have to launch a nuclear strike? Bloomberg News asked Bruce G. Blair, a former Minuteman missile-launch officer and research scholar at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, to spell out the step-by-step procedure.

The president considers a nuclear strike

The commander-in-chief’s power is clear: He or she has sole authority to use nuclear weapons.

The top brass is brought in

Before initiating military action, the president convenes a conference with military and civilian advisers in Washington and around the world to talk through options. In the White House, the call takes place in the Situation Room. If traveling, the president is patched in on a secure line. A key participant in the meeting: the Pentagon’s deputy director of operations, an officer in charge of the National Military Command Center, also known as the “war room.” This around-the-clock operations center is responsible for preparing and ultimately transmitting a launch order from the president. The head of all U.S. strategic nuclear forces at Strategic Command in Omaha would probably also be asked for a briefing on strike options.

[Time elapsed: less than one minute]

The consultation lasts as long as the president wishes, but if enemy missiles are heading toward the U.S. and the president must order a counterstrike, the consultation may last just 30 seconds. The tight time line raises the risk of launching hastily on a false warning.

The president decides to launch

Some advisers may try to change the president’s mind or resign in protest—but ultimately, the Pentagon must comply with the commander-in-chief’s order.

The order is verified

The senior officer in the Pentagon war room must formally authenticate that the person ordering the strike is indeed the president. The officer reads a “challenge code,” often two phonetic letters from the military alphabet, such as “Delta-Echo.” The president retrieves the “biscuit,” a laminated card the president or military aide carries at all times, and finds the matching response to the challenge code: “Charlie-Zulu,” for instance.

The order goes out

The war room prepares the launch order, a message that contains the chosen war plan, time to launch, authentication codes and codes needed to unlock the missiles before firing them. The encoded and encrypted message is only about 150 characters long, about the length of a tweet. It is broadcast to each worldwide command and directly to launch crews.

[Time elapsed: two or three minutes]

The submarine and ICBM crews receive the message within seconds of the broadcast. Just a few minutes have passed since the initial conference call. Launch crews take over

Launch message in hand, the crews open locked safes to obtain sealed-authentication system (SAS) codes prepared by the National Security Agency and distributed throughout the military’s nuclear chain of command. They compare the SAS codes in the launch order with those in their safes.

If the missiles are launched from a submarine:

The captain, executive officer and two others authenticate the order. The launch message provides the combination to an on-board safe holding the “fire-control” key needed to deploy the missiles. Missiles are ready for launch about 15 minutes after receiving the order.

If the missiles are launched from land:

Five launch crews in various underground centers control a squadron of 50 missiles. Each crew consists of two officers. The individual teams are spread miles apart. Each receives the orders, opens safes and compares their SAS codes to those sent by the war room. If they match, the crews enter the message’s war plan number into their launch computers to re-target missiles from their peacetime targets in the ocean to their new targets. Using additional codes in the message, the crews enter a few more keystrokes to unlock the missiles before turning launch keys retrieved from their safe. At the designated launch time, the five crews turn their keys simultaneously, sending five “votes” to the missiles.

Mutiny is unlikely

It takes just two “votes” to launch the missiles. So even if three two-officer ICBM crews refuse to carry out the order, it won’t stop the launch.

Missiles are launched

About five minutes may elapse from the president’s decision until intercontinental ballistic missiles blast out of their silos, and about fifteen minutes until submarine missiles shoot out of their tubes. Once fired, the missiles and their warheads cannot be called back.

Bruce G. Blair is a research scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University and a co-founder of Global Zero.

If this is still supposed to be secret, it is a poorly kept secret.

I don’t know if this is still classified information or not. I only know it was at one time. I have read Blair’s statement to Bloomberg News before. A a former Minuteman missile-launch officer, he had access to the same level of classified information I had….but he no doubt had more current information than I, since I have long been retired. How he was able to gain access to that information as a research scholar at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security is also unknown, if it is still classified. I would think if the information were still classified, he would have had to get approval for his publication.

If looks like he may have been just posting a logical sequence time based on calcualtions, rather that any official secret reaction time.

I am sure however, under any and all circumstances and based on Hillary’s history of dealing with classified information and whether the information is classified or not….nothing will EVER be done to Hillary for releasing it. She has proven to be immune from prosecution.

Edit:

Blair is non-specific on his timing when he states “about five minutes may elapse…” Hillary was specific in her time.

I will go with the go with the “Pentagon sources, [claiming] the information Clinton disseminated publicly is Top Secret intelligence governed under the U.S. Special Access Program …”

I simply cannot believe that nuclear decision times and launch times are no longer classified today.

That depends on who is doing the classifications and who has the proper security clearance to have access to that information. Don't forget that there is also "Eyes Only" access but that also depends on what security clearance you have. In other words, "Need to know" access.

I simply cannot believe that nuclear decision times and launch times are no longer classified today.

That depends on who is doing the classifications and who has the proper security clearance to have access to that information. Don't forget that there is also "Eyes Only" access but that also depends on what security clearance you have. In other words, "Need to know" access.

Okay, after your considering your “depends on”….I still cannot believe that nuclear decision times and launch times are no longer classified today. I would need to read that they are not from an official government source.

The president considers a nuclear strike
The commander-in-chief’s power is clear: He or she has sole authority to use nuclear weapons.

[…] The president decides to launch
Some advisers may try to change the president’s mind or resign in protest— but ultimately, the Pentagon must comply with the commander-in-chief’s order.

He is correct when he states that only the president can order a nuclear strike. But, there has been an exception(s) where Pentagon would not “comply with the commander-in-chief’s order.” Raymond Lockey, advisor to the US Congressional Advisory on Energy and Security, can explain it as well as I can and it saves me time to quote him.

If the US President at the spur of the moment decided to launch a nuclear missile as a first strike attack, could anyone stop him?

Yes, it is was is unofficially called the “two man” rule with regards to any nuclear launch. [The president is not subject to the “two man rule” but I believe the rest of his statement is correct]. And it actually happened for the first known time during the Nixon Administration and President Nixon’s pending impeachment. At that time, not sure of the psychological state of mind of President Nixon, both the Secretary of Defense (the first cabinet member in the peeking order who assumes the “second man” role within the two man rule on agreeing to a nuclear pre-emptive launch) and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon agreed to have the military officer who is always within close proximity to the Commander in Chief, with the “football”—or the secure briefcase with the nuclear authorization and launch codes—was instructed to “stand down” and literally to place himself in communicado to the President. The military office was instructed to only report directly to the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs; in effect, they committed treason, but under the circumstances their reasoned actions preserved their ability to monitor and control any errant act by the President if he should attempt to do something unthinkable in his state of mind.

Many people outside of the military, and federal government service at higher levels, are unaware that the US military, while serving the nation under the political restraints of the chain of command—with the President as the political control in the duty of the office as Commander in Chief—is obligated under both military law, tradition and the US Constitution to protect and preserve the nation against all foes both foreign and domestic. They also are bound by the Geneva Convention of which the United States is a signator, which dictates not only the use of certain types of weapons (interestingly though, nuclear weapons—the greatest threat—is not included) as well as a prohibition on the use of any military force directed against civilians. The US military’s officers also in their oath of office are bound to uphold the law and not agree to any order which is, in their opinion, illegal. So while the Secretary of Defense and the Joints Chiefs entered into an ad hoc agreement to completely “slow down” any attempt by President Nixon to order a pre-emptive launch, and instituted a series of back channel impediments meant specifically to block and subvert the process if any such order were given, they never reached the “Rubicon” and had to decide whether to cross the line and refuse an outright order or not.

The reality is that the President’s cabinet is organized in a peeking order within the two man” rule, with the Secretary of Defense the head of the priority list of cabinet officials; and if the first cabinet member refused to consent to the pre-emptive launch, the President could go down the list until theoretically he found a cabinet secretary who would agree. Not even the vice president is included in the process at this level. It has never happened before, so it is an open question as to whether all cabinet secretaries would desist or one of them would agree. And if one agreed, what the Joint Chiefs would do.

I hope I answered your question, although there is no precedent other than what happened during the Nixon Administration to point to in order to know just what would happen. Having served, my best educated guess is clearer heads would prevail. In fact, there is a little discussed protocol to declare the President incompetent without going through the legal process of having a court make that assessment and assigning what basically would be a transition of power to the vice president. If pressed, I have little doubt that the Joint Chiefs—all patriots, intelligent and highly educated and experienced officers—would make the right decision. I want people to realize that whist many incorrectly assume that the military and its offices live for war and want to fight whenever possible, they are probably the staunchest guarantors within our government, and advocators, of peace. As military officers they know firsthand the consequences of war—especially a nuclear war. If anything, their positions are always being the strongest and most capable military on the planet in order to prevent war. I think we should all understand their goal is to protect and preserve the nation and its citizens.

Raymond Lockey, advisor to the US Congressional Advisory on Energy and Security
https://www.quora.com/If-the-US-President-at-the-spur-of-the- moment-decided-to-launch-a-nuclear-missile-as-a-first-strike-attack-could- anyone-stop-him.

Also see NYT story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/science/donald-trump-nuclear-codes.html? _r=1 .

If this is still supposed to be secret, it is a poorly kept secret.

I don’t know if this is still classified information or not. I only know it was at one time. I have read Blair’s statement to Bloomberg News before. A a former Minuteman missile-launch officer, he had access to the same level of classified information I had….but he no doubt had more current information than I, since I have long been retired. How he was able to gain access to that information as a research scholar at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security is also unknown, if it is still classified. I would think if the information were still classified, he would have had to get approval for his publication.

If looks like he may have been just posting a logical sequence time based on calculations, rather that any official secret reaction time.

I stand corrected.

I have just learned that after Blair left the Air Force, he eventually became a consultant to the Congressional Office of Science and Technology, where he was given "above top secret" clearance to study the Pentagon's nuclear command and control systems.

I still do not know if the timing sequence Blair used is unclassified and real, or if they are classified and he used approximations on the times for purpose of his interview.

So, I am now conflicted as to whether to go with his times as unclassified or with the go with the “Pentagon sources, [claiming] the information Clinton disseminated publicly is Top Secret intelligence governed under the U.S. Special Access Program …”

I spent 24/7 every third week for eight years on alert duty next to an aircraft loaded with 5 nukes, ready to launch and attack targets upon receipt of an authenticated go code. During my assignment to a Strategic Air Command Combat Ready Crew, our launch time was highly classified. I simply cannot believe that nuclear decision times and launch times are no longer classified today.

I knew a lot of people who had done duty as missile launch officers (guys in the silos) when I was in the Air Force. Many had gone in thinking, "how hard can it be; I can push a button." It is an extremely complex process that I doubt Mrs. Bill Clinton can even begin to understand. I don't know if the specific information she gave is technically classified or not. However, she had no business announcing that information to the public simply to try and prop herself up as some kind of expert.

With each passing day I become more firm in my belief that Hillary simply cannot properly handle the control and dissemination of classified information. The lady is flat out dangerous….IMO

I don’t know if this is still classified information or not.

I could not firmly establish it one way or the other. I looked at a public claim that it could be done in four minutes and could not see how anyone knowing that "fact" would compromise national security. It essentially says there is no way an enemy strike can hit before a retalitory strike is launched.

I think the asserted four minute time is a bit optimistic, especially in the following assertion,

The consultation lasts as long as the president wishes, but if enemy missiles are heading toward the U.S. and the president must order a counterstrike, the consultation may last just 30 seconds.

I should think the President (and others) would likely take more than 30 seconds verifying that there is a real incoming missile strike before initiating WWIII by mistake. Four minutes may be the unclassified low end of a time range estimate whose high end is top secret.

Fortunately, delay and verification occurred in Russia in 1983:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident

With each passing day I become more firm in my belief that Hillary simply cannot properly handle the control and dissemination of classified information.

Wikileaks will help with the dissemination part.

That really made me laugh ...

No reaction times are mentioned in this Wikipedia summary of the Single Integrated Operational Plan.

The Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) was the United States' general plan for nuclear war from 1961 to 2003. The SIOP gave the President of the United States a range of targeting options, and described launch procedures and target sets against which nuclear weapons would be launched. The plan integrated the capabilities of the nuclear triad of strategic bombers, land- based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and sea-based submarine- launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). The SIOP was a highly classified document, and was one of the most secret and sensitive issues in U.S. national security policy.

The first SIOP, titled SIOP-62, was finished on 14 December 1960 and implemented on 1 July 1961 (the start of fiscal year1962). The SIOP was updated annually until February 2003, when it was replaced by Operations Plan (OPLAN) 8044. Since December 2008, the US nuclear war plan has been OPLAN 8010, Strategic Deterrence and Global Strike.

[…]

Executing the SIOP

In the United States, the decision to use nuclear weapons is vested in the National Command Authority (NCA), composed of the President of the United States and the United States Secretary of Defense or their duly deputized alternates or successors. The President alone cannot order an attack.^{[ citation needed]} The ordering of use, communication of orders, and the release of nuclear weapons is governed by the two-man rule at all times.

Deputy's launch keyswitch in an old Minuteman ICBM launch control center. Commander's key was too far away to be turned by the same person.

No one person ever can take such an action. All military personnel that participate in loading, arming, or firing weapons, as well as transmitting launch orders, are subject to the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP).

If the NCA decides that the United States must launch nuclear weapons, they will direct the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) to do so via the Nuclear Football briefcase. At the NCA/JCS level, the orders will be to execute SIOP strike options, broken into Major Attack Options (MAOs), Selected Attack Options (SAOs), and Limited Attack Options (LAOs). Individual countries or regions can be included in or withheld from nuclear attacks depending on circumstances. The CJCS in turn will direct the general officer on duty in addition to one other officer on duty in the National Military Command Center (NMCC) at the Pentagon to release an Emergency Action Message (EAM) containing an Emergency War Order (EWO) to all nuclear forces; another officer will validate that order.^[37] Additionally, the message will go to the Alternate National Military Command Center (ANMCC),^[38] located in Raven Rock Mountain, Pennsylvania, and also to an airborne command post, either the presidential National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) or the military E-6 Mercury Looking Glass.^[39] If the NMCC is destroyed by a first strike, either the ANMCC, NAOC or Looking Glass can issue the orders to execute the SIOP.

E-6 Mercury

As the orders go down the chain of command, always subject to the two-man rule, intermediate headquarters, and eventually the nuclear delivery platforms themselves, will receive Emergency Action Messages (EAM) to arm or launch weapons. For most modern weapons, the EAM will also include codes for Permissive Action Links (PAL).

At a minimum, a PAL code will actually arm a weapon for release. The circuitry controlling the PAL is deliberately positioned inside the warhead such that it cannot be reached without disabling the weapon, at a minimum, to a level that would require a full factory-level rebuild. There may be separate PAL codes for arming and launch. Some weapons have "dial-a-yield" functions that allow the power of the nuclear explosion to be adjusted from minimum to maximum yield. Most weapons have additional arming circuitry that, even if a valid launch code is entered, will not arm the warhead unless the weapon senses that it has been released on an expected delivery path. For example, the first steps of the final arming process for a ballistic missile depend on physical characteristics of the weapon release, such as the acceleration of a rocket launch, zero-gravity coasting, and various physical aspects of hypersonic reentry into the atmosphere. A gravity bomb dropped from an aircraft will detect the altitude of release and the decreasing altitude as it falls.

Journalist Ron Rosenbaum has pointed out that the SIOP is entirely concerned with the identity of the commanding officer and the authenticity of the order, and there are no safeguards to verify that the person issuing the order is actually sane.^[40] Notably, Major Harold Hering was discharged from the Air Force for asking the question "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president.

[…]

https:/ /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Integrated_Operational_Plan.

For another viewpoint, see Breitbart and Dr. Sebastian Gorka. With somme careful dancing here, he does not actually say that the cited 4-minute time was classified.

http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/10/21/gorka-hillary-clintons-disclosure-nuclear-response-times-debate-unconscionable/

Dr. Sebastian Gorka: Hillary Clinton’s Disclosure of Nuclear Response Times During Debate Was ‘Unconscionable’

John Hayward
Breitbart
October 21, 2016

[excerpt]

Marlow brought up an overlooked moment from the third debate, when Clinton inadvertently revealed some sensitive information about U.S. response times to nuclear attack. Gorka said he wanted to address this issue “in a certain way, if you’ll permit me, as somebody who actually cares for the security of the Republic and who lives in the national security arena.”

From that perspective, he declined to comment on “the veracity, or lack thereof, of what she said.”

“Just one thing has to be drawn, one conclusion has to be drawn: the whole platform of the Hillary campaign, that Mr. Trump is not fit to serve as commander-in-chief, he’s not stable, he can’t be trusted – all of that applies to her, and solely to her,” Gorka said. “Anybody who puts Top Secret/SCI super-classified information on a private homebrew server, and then talks about our nuclear reaction times on live television, in front of tens of millions of people – that woman should not be allowed – I know this is a line Mr. Trump has borrowed from me, but I have to use it – that individual should not be allowed to run for local dog catcher, let alone the most powerful person in the world. It is unconscionable what she did on national television, and the fact the liberal media is giving her heat on that tells you everything you need to know.”

Okay, after your considering your “depends on”….I still cannot believe that nuclear decision times and launch times are no longer classified today.

Well there is a lot of information out there that is no longer classified today thanks to Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

From that perspective, he declined to comment on “the veracity, or lack thereof, of what she said.”

I know the reaction timing was once classified and I believe it still is. So, if I have no access to the classified SIOP data and I am a reporter who mentions the time is 5 minutes….nothing will be done because that is just a conjecture. Likewise, if I am a researcher and I mention the time is 6 minutes and I have no access to the classified data….then nothing will be done.

But if a former Secretary of State and a presidential candidate who is receiving classified briefings mentions the time is 4 minutes and that is the actual reaction time….then I believe she should be prosecuted. But I know that if this is what happened, she will receive a total pass on it.

Some people probably know whay she said is classified, but if they challenge her on it….then they are guilty of releasing classified information. the old Catch 22.

I will let it go at that. Thanks for chasing this with me. I, like you, want to find the fundamental facts.

I don’t say it enough, so I will say it again. Thank you for all the research you post on LF. I of course cannot read all of it, but I always scan the beginning and the ending….and I am grateful when you highlight with boldness the important parts. Keep up the good work, I know you will.

Well there is a lot of information out there that is no longer classified today thanks to Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

Actually, if something is considered classified and it splashed on the front page of the N.Y. Times, it is still considered classified.

I know the reaction timing was once classified and I believe it still is. So, if I have no access to the classified SIOP data

I remember pinnacles in all colors of the rainbow, long, long ago.

But if a former Secretary of State and a presidential candidate who is receiving classified briefings mentions the time is 4 minutes and that is the actual reaction time….then I believe she should be prosecuted. But I know that if this is what happened, she will receive a total pass on it.

I believe you are correct in all you say, if a 4-minute time is real and classified.

Years ago the possible reaction time was greater than 4 or 5 minutes. I can readily see why anything long enough to possibly allow for missile hits without a response launch would be Top Secret. I'm not sure why it would be classified that I can launch 10 or 15 minutes before their missiles can get here. I might want them to believe that, even if I'm fibbing.

Some people probably know whay she said is classified, but if they challenge her on it….then they are guilty of releasing classified information. the old Catch 22.

If it is classified, you are correct. After it is published, it is still classified and you cannot confirm it is classified without subjecting yourself to liability.