A “Broken Arrow” is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that results in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon.
After the cold war, a Russian early warning radar detected a missile launch from the coast of Norway, indicating a US intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) attack. Boris Yeltsin had already obtained nuclear launch codes before it was declared a false alarm. A communiqué from the Norwegian government had not reached the Russian military declaring the launch of a scientific rocket on a mission to study the aurora borealis.
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