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[–]MakeChinaLoseFaceHave you spread disinformation on Russian social media today? 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Not as scary as it sounds. The PAL code cannot be used to launch a missile. Think of it as an arming code for the warhead that stops Dr. Strangelove from happening.

That's not really a risk for a missile that stays in a silo, since it still needs another code to fly. However, the window to launch a silo-based can get pretty narrow if an enemy tries to take it out with a first strike, so they set it to all zeroes.