Cheget

Development

The Cheget was developed from the 1970s at the request of the Soviet General Staff as the portable subscriber terminal of 'Kazbek' (Kavkaz-7), the automated command-and-control system for the Strategic Nuclear Forces. It entered experimental operation in 1983 and was formally adopted on June 6, 1984. The name was taken from Mount Cheget in Kabardino-Balkaria, following the practice of using Caucasus toponyms as code names for nuclear weapons projects. Development was led by Leningrad's OKB 'Impuls' and NIIAA, with key contributions from Vladimir Semenikhin, Nikolai Devyanin, and others; designer Mikhail Loginov coined the colloquial term 'nuclear briefcase' (ядерный чемоданчик).

Operation

The Cheget takes the form of a waterproofed, shock-resistant black attaché case weighing approximately 10 kg, linked via satellite to the General Staff command post and reserve posts. It transmits and receives encrypted symbol data rather than voice, and only operates after the president's personal authentication code is entered. Three primary terminals are held by the head of state, the minister of defense, and the chief of the General Staff, with reserve units on standby. Each terminal is technically equal; a launch order requires matching authorization codes from at least two of the three.

The August 1991 Coup

When the GKChP placed Gorbachev under house arrest at his Foros dacha on August 18, 1991, the Cheget operations officers were on nuclear duty in a guest building roughly 100 meters from the president's quarters. With all communication links to Moscow severed, at 19:38 on August 19 Colonel Vasilyev, commanding the group, flew the Cheget back to Moscow aboard the reserve presidential Tu-134; during this transfer, the terminal's magnetic memory was erased, rendering it inoperative. Gorbachev had thereby effectively lost nuclear command authority. In the same period, Air Force chief Shaposhnikov, Navy chief Chernavin, and Strategic Rocket Forces chief Maksimov each informed Defense Minister Yazov that they would refuse any nuclear launch order, a defining sequence of military resistance to the coup.

Later History

On January 25, 1995, when Russia's early-warning system mistook the Norwegian Black Brant XII scientific rocket for a Trident missile, Yeltsin activated the Cheget in combat mode for the first time, the only publicly confirmed activation on record. The Cheget continues to be held and operated by the President of the Russian Federation, the Minister of Defense, and the Chief of the General Staff.