Permissive Action Links
cs.columbia.edu> "Unauthorized" covers a wide range of sin, from terrorists who have stolen bombs to insane American military officers
Nonsense, of course. Authorisation is authorisation regardless of sanity.
The point is that a pilot sitting on quick alert can't go bomb the Russians on their own.
Even more importantly, a NATO pilot sitting on quick alert with a borrowed American nuclear bomb cannot bomb the Russians (or their mother-in-law) on their own.