Without this chain of command, neither a launch nor a nuclear explosion is possible. The radioactive material is there, but an atomic bomb only becomes active when the explosive lenses inside it are ignited at exactly the same time. This ignition is electronically tuned and only possible by entering the correct code.
So you could throw a nuclear warhead out of an airplane, put dynamite under it or screw it around – so there’s no big bang for the time being.
