It's depending on the scenario. The whole point of 8022 is that it's supposed to be extremely flexible. It's a new thing.

If we did end up in a crisis where things were really tense, this decision about what is coming at you could be essential.

The sort of operational implementation of the Global Strike is CONCEPT PLAN (CONPLAN) 8022. That's the one that is the actual plan that the Navy and the Air Force translate into strike package for their submarines and bombers.

It's a package (of nuclear and conventional weapons). The implication of this obviously is that nuclear weapons are being brought down from a special category of being a last resort, or sort of the ultimate weapon, to being just another tool in the toolbox.

Someone who's able to intercept the message as it's transmitted could inject some data, and then the person who verifies the signature would be told it's a valid, unaltered message.

We aren't aware of any systems that have been compromised yet, but it's likely to happen since there's exploit code out.