A 1995 rocket launch nearly triggered a Russian nuclear retaliatory strike, marking one of the most severe post-Cold War nuclear false alarm incidents.
Key Facts
- Actual date
- January 25, 1995
- Rocket type
- Black Brant XII four-stage sounding rocket
- Launch site
- Andøya Rocket Range, Norway
- Maximum altitude reached
- 1,453 km
- Nuclear briefcase activated
- Cheget brought to President Boris Yeltsin
- Outcome
- No retaliation ordered; identified as non-threat
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII sounding rocket from Andøya to study the aurora borealis over Svalbard. The rocket flew a high northbound trajectory through an air corridor stretching from Minuteman III missile silos in North Dakota to Moscow, and its profile resembled a US Navy Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile.
Russian nuclear forces went on high alert, and the Cheget nuclear briefcase was activated and brought to President Boris Yeltsin, who had to decide whether to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against the United States. The incident unfolded within minutes, at a time of lingering Russian military suspicion toward the United States and NATO, nearly four years after the Cold War's end.
Russian observers determined the rocket posed no nuclear threat and no retaliatory strike was ordered. The incident is considered one of the most severe post-Cold War nuclear false alarms, highlighting ongoing dangers of accidental nuclear war despite the end of superpower conflict, and contrasting with the slower build-up of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.