Missile flight times and warnings
 

Spinning off from another thread.

Here's the ones I know.

ICBM, US to USSR or vice versa: 25-30 mins
Pershing II, West Germany to Western USSR: c.10 mins
Scud missile: 3-5 minutes
UK BMEWS early warning time: 4.5 minutes (the 'four minute warning').

Not exactly a lot of time is it.
I wonder if the shorter ranged missiles with shorter flight times would have been launched at the same time as the ICBMs (thereby potentially giving an earlier warning of attack), or held off until a little later?
There's pros and cons for both approaches I think.

That's why the Vulcans were designed to be able to take off within two minutes if the crew were on board, Blue Streak got axed and we ultimately bought Polaris then Trident; an undersea deterrent was and is by far the most survivable.

As for the missile launches, I'd imagine SIOP, the Soviet equivalent and their modern successors probably have options for both same time and held off.

For SLBMs off the East or West Coasts of the U.S., it was estimated six to 12 minutes' depending on where the missile subs were patrolling.

Or less than 5 minutes with a depressed trajectory shot.

It's the waiting that'd make it awful. If I was at a primary site (I probably am anyway living in the Orlando area), assuming it was just an ICBM strike and not SLBMs, that 24-30 minute wait would just be ... horrible.

I grew up on Long Island, east of New York City. I lived within 5 miles of where
the F14 and the F111 were being built.

The only way for the mass of population to get off Long Island is through New York City.

When I was 12, I figured out that they would not bother telling us. Where could we (serveral million of us) go in half an hour?

Uncle Ted

Down into your bomb shelters? Really about the only option available besides sitting out on the deck with the sunglasses and factor 50,000 sunscreen.

If you didn't have one, it would be under the table. Or huddle together as a family and if need be, pray.

Pre-launched nuclear weapons
 

There were persistent rumors that the soviet union had launched a couple of satellites containing nuclear weapons.
These satellites were designed to be a first strike weapon vs key targets in the united states. The most important benefit is that their "launch" would not be detected by the standard launch detection systems and could potential strike withing 2-3 minutes of the go signal (assuming the attack was times to coincide with the optimal orbital position).

Adi

The US would be able to track them however; their orbital surveillance is far better than the USSR's ever was.

The us would absolutely track them , but warning time would only be approx 2 minutes. And this assumes they wouldn't maneuver.
I very much doubt (though have no information to disprove) that tracking was continuous. It is far more likely orbit would be calculated with periodic checks.
If object-X a soviet "weather satellite" would not appear in it's expected trajectory. I don't think it will trigger a preemptive strike by the us even if it was known to be a pre-launched weapon. Thus leaving the us open to surprise attack.

Adi