Nuclear command and control (NC2), sometimes referred to as nuclear command and control and communications (NC3) includes the personnel, equipment, communications, facilities, organisation, procedures, and chain of command involved with maintaining a nuclear weapon capability. A Command and Control Centre is typically a secure room, bunker, or building in a government or military facility that operates as the agency’s dispatch centre, surveillance monitoring centre, coordination office and alarm monitoring centre all in one.
If access to command and control centres is obtained, terrorists could fake or actually cause one nuclear-armed state to attack another, thus provoking a nuclear response from another nuclear power. This may be an easier alternative for terrorist groups than building or acquiring a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb themselves. …
A sophisticated and all encompassing combination of traditional terrorism and cyber terrorism could be enough to launch nuclear weapons on its own, without the need for compromising command and control centres directly. …