U.S.S.R. Dead Man's Hand Patch

After Dead Hand was activated by Soviet military officials, “the first thing it does is check the communication lines to work out if there’s anyone alive and in charge of the Soviet military. “If they’re not alive, it takes over.”

If Dead Hand did not detect signs of a preserved military hierarchy, the system would perform a check for signals of a nuclear attack, such as a change in air pressure, extreme light, and radioactivity.

If the system concluded that a nuclear strike had taken place, Dead Hand would proceed to launch all of the remaining nuclear weapons from all of the silos throughout the Soviet Union at targets across the Northern Hemisphere.

Woven cloth patch 80 x 85mm