What If North Korea Launched a Nuclear Bomb (Minute by Minute)

It's 0233 hours local, and in a  mountain complex in North Korea just over a hundred miles from the Chinese  border, technicians scramble to remove camouflage netting from the entrance to a deep  underground bunker. The bunker has been cut into the mountainside and covered over with  camouflage to fool American spy satellites loitering hundreds of miles overhead. The cover  of night helps to obfuscate the rush of activity, and the heavy cloud cover is exactly what  the hermit kingdom has been waiting for.

Out of the converted mineshaft a huge truck is  carefully backed out. The massive vehicle has only one purpose: to transport the equally massive  Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile. Finally eased out of its hiding hole, the truck  begins the laborious process of lifting the giant missile into position.

Over forty feet tall,  the missile is taller than a two-floor home, and has the power to destroy several  square miles of a densely packed city. The launch command officer picks up a phone  hardwired straight into an underground telephone line that's connected directly  to Kim Jong Un. The North Koreans have to resort to primitive telephone technology to  ensure the United States or its allies aren't listening in somehow.

On the other end the  North Korean dictator gives a single word. 00:01 (make these bold and have the time  take up the entire frame- make it red on an all-black screen. Also on all of these tick  up from the last second to the current time, so for example we should see on  screen this go from 00:00 to 00:01) The Hwasong-15 intercontinental  ballistic missile fires its main engine, shaking the entire launch complex to  its core.

Launch personnel hide behind blast screens or huddle inside the relative  safety of the launch truck's armored cab, hunkering down in case something goes wrong and  the missile and its entire fuel load explodes. Two seconds later the missile proves to be  in good operation and lifts off the ground. 00:05 A thousand miles above the earth the United  States' Space Based Infrared System immediately detects the thermal plume of the massive rocket.

A  low-earth satellite sends an immediate flash alert to the 2nd Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Air  Force Base in Colorado, brother and sister units across the broad web of US missile defense, and to  the commanders of every US geographical command. 00:07 A second US satellite in a geostationary  orbit confirms the thermal signature of a large ballistic missile and  chirps a second emergency alert. 00:08 The massive Hwasung-15 is  nearing supersonic flight and has punched several hundred feet  through the clouds and into the open sky.

00:10 The US's Space Based Infrared System satellites have now focused their  full attention on the tell-tale thermal signature of the big rocket. Cloud cover may have made it  impossible to see lift off with the naked eye, but the incredible heat given off by the fiery  lift-off was easy to spot by infrared sensors. Now the large rocket is screaming through the air riding a thermal plume several hundred  feet long and thousands of degrees hot.

The US satellites immediately begin to compare  the thermal signature of the North Korean rocket with a large on-board library  of known missile launches. In less than a second there's a match with  two different Hwasong-15 test launches from the late 2010s. The confirmed match is  immediately sent to US Space Command.

00:15 US Space Force personnel are stunned  by the multiple threat warnings from the space-based network and rush to  pour through the data. Humans are far slower than machines though, and  it'll take time to verify the threat. 00:30 The North Korean missile is now twice  as high as a commercial airliner, and its main rocket engine is still going strong.

00:45 Space Force personnel have confirmed the launch  as authentic. An emergency flash is dispatched to US forces in South Korea and across the  Pacific. It's impossible to know where the missile is headed this early in its flight. 

Via hotline to the DoD and the White House the alert is out- North Korea has fired a ballistic  missile- possibly tipped with a nuclear warhead. 01:00 The main engine on the Hwasong-15 shuts down as  it runs out of fuel. The missile coasts for a brief second, traveling at several thousand  miles an hour now in the upper atmosphere, before a series of explosive bolts  just under three quarters of the way up separate the first stage of the rocket from the  second stage.

A second later, the second stage engine fires and the vehicle lurches forward  as it prepares to exit the earth's atmosphere. 01:25 An aide rushes to interrupt a meeting between  the President of the United States of America and the leader of a partner nation.  There is no time for formalities, and the President is practically dragged  out of the room so he can be informed: North Korea has launched a nuclear  attack- target is still unknown.

The President immediately heads for the highly  restricted and secretive situation room in the heart of the White House. From there  he'll be able to communicate with American forces around the world and be fed real-time  tracking data from various American assets. 01:30 US Space Command issues an order for  radar installations in South Korea and Japan to begin tracking the North Korean launch. 

Sea-based Spy-1 radars on American naval vessels are networked into the massive surveillance  effort tracking the North Korean missile. While boosting into space the missile is  at its most vulnerable, but the United States still lacks the capability to rapidly  destroy a missile during this initial phase. With development on high-velocity projectiles  and directed energy weapons, it's hoped that in the near future US forces will be able to  down a missile during this vulnerable phase.

For now though, all US assets can do is  watch and gather data which will help determine where the missile is headed, and  which missile defense assets to activate. 01:35 With a nuclear threat confirmed, the  United States Secret Service begins preparations to move the President to a  secure and highly classified location. If the missile is aimed at the White House, the  President has less than 40 minutes to vacate.

02:00 US Terminal High Altitude Defense batteries in  South Korea, Guam, and Hawaii are activated. Their powerful AN/TPY-2 radars begin sweeping  the sky for signs of the threatening missile. Designed to obliterate an incoming ballistic  missile during its terminal phase, the batteries of interceptors are currently useless, and can  only defend the areas they are assigned to.

02:10 Patriot missile defense batteries in US  bases across the Pacific go on alert. These too are short-range defenses which are  only useful for defending specific locations. US AEGIS equipped warships in the region are  given the same alert.

Their SM-3 missiles can also be used for short-range ballistic  missile intercepts just outside the atmosphere, but require the target to be in its descent stage.  With a range of several hundred miles though, each AEGIS equipped ship can help protect  multiple US installations or naval battle groups. 02:20 US Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base  begins preparations to activate the United States' homeland defenses.

At Fort Greely, Alaska,  and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California the Ground Based Midcourse Defense system is  activated. A collection of 44 interceptors, these missiles have a far greater range than  either mobile THAAD or the navy's SM-3 missiles, and are designed to intercept a target  in the midcourse- before it has had a chance to enter terminal phase and  is still cruising through space. More data is needed however, and all that US  forces can currently do is watch and wait.

03:00 It has now become clear from the  missile's trajectory that this is not an attack against forces in South  Korea or Guam. Japan is also ruled out as a target. Hawaii remains a likely target,  but so does the rest of the US mainland.

03:15 The US president is notified that based on the  missile's trajectory and speed, this is not a test of a new missile. All the data points to this  being a legitimate launch against American forces. Given North Korean capabilities, it's likely this  is an attack against either Hawaii or the American West Coast.

While North Korea has missiles  capable of reaching the east coast, it's not believed they have the targeting capabilities  to strike that far with any sort of precision. The president authorizes the use of Ground-Based  Interceptors against the incoming threat, and orders US Navy ships near  Hawaii or the American west coast to move into positions to best  protect major population centers. 04:00 Across the United States a fleet of specially  modified aircraft put to the air.

These big planes are loaded with communications gear  and hardened against electromagnetic pulses. They're known as doomsday airplanes, because  it's their job to ensure that the President of the United States can remain in  contact with all US military forces even in the event of a massive  nuclear strike against the homeland. The planes will fly high enough to avoid  being caught up in the destruction below, and provide a direct airborne link between each  other and surviving space and ground stations across the world.

They will not come back down  until the crisis is over, with a special fleet of aerial tankers dedicated to keeping them  fueled and flying. For the moment they settle into an orbital pattern across the west coast,  the east coast and the American heartland. 04:30 The full might of the US nuclear triad  is officially on alert and prepared to retaliate against any potential threat. 

With the possibility of another nation using the cover of a North Korean strike  to attack the US with its own weapons, America from this point on has to be prepared  to fight a nuclear war against any adversary. Troop recall orders are issued for  American units across the world, informing soldiers they must drop whatever  they are doing and immediately report for duty. Nuclear-capable aircraft are  prepared for a possible nuclear mission, and nuclear munitions are prepared  for possible loading and launch.

Deep in the darkest recesses of the world's  oceans, the American nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet makes its own preparations to  rain down apocalypse on the president's command. 04:45 The second stage of the Hwasong-15  missile runs out of fuel. The payload detaches from the second stage and  using chemical-powered thrusters adjusts its course and heading.

The missile is now  flying unpowered, riding the incredible momentum built up by the massive two-stage rocket  and moving as much as 4. 2 miles a second. 05:00 US Space Command issues new tracking data on  the North Korean missile and confirms separation of the payload from the second stage.

Based on  this new data, Hawaii is ruled out as a target. Current speed and elevation dictate that a hit  on the southern American West Coast is likely. 05:15 Armed with this new data, US missile  defense personnel opt for a GBI launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base instead of  Fort Greely in Alaska.

Four of the long, skinny missiles are activated and fed live  targeting data- but they can't be launched yet. They must wait until the enemy  missile draws closer before launching. 06:00 The American president is rushed out  of the Situation Room and to Marine 1, his personal helicopter.

Two attaches join the  President- on carries the nuclear football, the remote nuclear command authority unit which gives  the President the power to order Armageddon from anywhere in the world. The second carries a large  backpack-like communications device that serves to keep the President in contact with all branches  of the government and the military at all times. Rather than head to a predetermined shelter, the  President opts to instead board Air Force One, believing that there's little risk of a  full-blown nuclear attack on the homeland.

From Air Force One he'll be safe from  the ground effects of a nuclear blast and be able to remain in contact with  the rest of the military and government. 07:00 US and South Korean Special Forces  stationed in South Korea and Japan are mustered and rushed to armories in  preparation for a strike into the North. These elite units have been kept at  high readiness due to recent hostilities from the north.

Their specially modified  Blackhawk helicopters can evade enemy radar and even fly more silently than  any other helicopter in the world. They have one mission: infiltrate known North Korean nuclear  sites and neutralize them from within. 07:30 US and South Korean alert aircraft take to  the skies in anticipation of a full-blown offensive from the North.

On the ground,  forces across the DMZ prepare for combat, and an alarm is sounded in Seoul. In case  of hostilities, it's expected that North Korea will shell Seoul directly from behind the  DMZ, and has so many guns that it can deliver a whopping 10,000 rounds of high explosives  per minute to the city of 10 million. 08:00 American supercomputers calculate the trajectory,  altitude, and speed of the North Korean warhead and feed that data to the Ground-based Midcourse  Defense system.

With careful math, the computers calculate a firing solution and the green  light is given for the launch of interceptors. 08:05 Four GBIs lift off from their silos in the  California desert. The missiles will fly not at where the North Korean nuke is, but rather  where it will be when they intercept it with a 'dumb' kinetic warhead that will destroy  the enemy nuke through sheer kinetic energy.

As they lift into the sky, TPY-2 and  sea-based radars are networked together and feed them a steady diet of tracking data. 10:00 In Guam, Japan, and South Korea, air crews rush to  their aircraft in anticipation of full-blown war with North Korea. First up will be F-15s and F-16s  to establish air dominance.

Normally stealthy B-2 bombers would slip in behind the air superiority  fighters to take out critical air defense and communications nodes, but the bulk of the B-2  fleet is in Missouri and unprepared for combat. Instead, the Air Force's 'big stick', the  B-52, is prepared for immediate action. These aircraft will require at least an  hour to prep, but taking off from bases across the South Pacific, will be able  to put steel on target within the day.

12:00 US interceptors are now in space and speeding  towards the calculated intercept point with the North Korean warhead. The interceptors have  ditched their ascent stages and make only small corrections using chemical thrusters-  if the calculated firing solution is bad, they could miss the North Korean warhead  by miles. In that case it will be up to the Navy's AEGIS vessels to down the warhead  before it can strike an American city.

12:30 Updated tracking data reveals that  the likely target is Los Angeles. 13:00 The first wave of US special operations forces are  given the green light from the American president and take off in their modified Blackhawk  helicopters. Their destination is several North Korean nuclear launch facilities  believed to be capable of rapid deployment.

Other ground-attack aircraft based in South  Korea are already on their way to other targets, intent on destroying any ability for  North Korea to launch a second attack. 13:30 The US President boards Air Force  One. Upon arrival he asks the United States Congress for a formal  declaration of war with North Korea.

14:12 The North Korean warhead suddenly breaks up  into multiple smaller fragments as it ejects a cloud of highly-reflective chaff. This metallic  confetti is meant to confuse radar systems and make it harder to target the warhead. The  warhead is now in eight pieces- each piece could be a separate warhead or could be a decoy  meant to lure missile defense systems away from the real warhead.

14:14 US ground and space-based radar struggle to pick  out the real warhead from possible decoys from within the threat cloud. TPY-2 and sea-based  X-band radars are best suited for this task, and it falls on them now to give a good  intercept course for America's GBIs. Powerful processors churn through all  available data to sniff out the real threat from amongst the chaff and decoys. 

If they fail, millions of people will die. 15:00 Using extremely precise measurements,  the dummy warheads are singled out. Because of North Korea's inexperience with  MIRV warheads and the use of decoys, the dummy warheads don't quite match the profile of a  real warhead perfectly as it flies through space.

15:02 With a good intercept solution, the GBI's detach  their Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle. It will take six minutes for them to reach their target.  There's nothing anyone can do now but pray.

16:00 Unbeknownst to the United States, China has  launched its own rapid response forces into North Korea. Elite Chinese troops penetrate North  Korean airspace in fast transport helicopters. Their goal is the same as the Americans:  seize Kim Jong Un's nuclear arsenal before it can be used again, and thus incur  the wrath of the American nuclear triad.

With both American and Chinese troops headed  to the same objectives though this attack now has the possibility of sparking  all-out war between the US and China. 20:30 American EKVs scream through space  at over four thousand miles an hour. They are just seconds from a successful  intercept or a catastrophic failure.

21:05 The first EKV screams past the intercept point,  missing the North Korean weapon by a dozen miles. 21:08 The second EKV hits. .

. nothing. It too misses  the North Korean warhead by over 3 miles.

21:09 A second after the second EKV,  the third strikes its target true. Moving at a combined speed of just  under ten thousand miles an hour, the impact produces a bright flash in the sky  for a brief second. Nuclear detonation requires a precise chain of events, so the impact of the  interceptor does not set off a nuclear explosion.

21:40 Multiple ground stations and ship-based  radar assets all confirm the good news: two misses followed by a direct hit.  The threat has been neutralized and the dummy warheads will burn up in the atmosphere. 22:00 The American president receives  the good news aboard Air Force One.

He can still see Washington D. C.  out the left side of the aircraft, and despite this threat being over he will  not order a return to the White House.

This conflict has just begun, and  more nuclear attacks are possible at any minute from North Korea.  On the ground half a world away, the South Korean and US armies are preparing for  what will be the costliest war since World War II, a conflict that will make the original  Korean War look like a cap-gun shoot out. American war planes are already en route  to the hermit kingdom, preparing to drop tens of thousands of pounds of high explosives  on suspected nuclear sites, and special forces from both the US and China are racing each  other to seize Kim Jong Un's nuclear arsenal.

On the border, the North Korean army  is finally making its opening gambit, and over a thousand pieces of artillery begin  to rain hell down on the South's defenders. Now go check out North Korea vs United  States 2021 military comparison, or click this other video instead!