Launch warning times.

[rcaf_777]

I think it's about 20-30 min if I remember my Intro to NORAD brief right

[nuke11]

It is closer to 28 to 33 minutes for ICBM's from Russia.

The 3 phases of launch are;

Boost Phase: 3 to 5 minutes (this is the point of detection for the US side)
Midcourse Phase: about 25 minutes
Re-entry Phase: 2 minutes

The US might not have been using launch on warning protocols during the 1990's. As there are ways to reduce the effectiveness of this protocol, the US might have switched away from this protocol, read up on X-ray pin-down, it is a very interesting concept and use of SLBMs.

[SongofWar]

I seem to recall one of the modules mentioned an SLBM strike from a missile boat off the eastern seaboard, which would cut the warning time way down. That said, its right around half an hour for a land based launch as the others have said.

[Legbreaker]

SLBMs can be as little as a few minutes. Barely enough time to make a phone call.

[Matt Wiser]

From the patrol areas south or north of Bermuda to hit the East Coast: Six minutes for a SLBM. However, there'd be a SSN following the boomer, and you can bet in the T2K situation, the ROE would be very simple-if you're not killing missile boats whenever possible: If a missile boat begins flooding tubes and moving to launch depth, that missile boat dies. Cut and dry, that is it. As soon as sonar reports multiple missile tubes being flooded, and missile doors opening, there'd be a pair of Mark-48s in the water as soon as a snapshot solution could be generated. Or, if the fast-attack is too far away for a Mark-48, Sea Lance (cancelled OTL but available in T2K) is available. The SUBROC replacement with a Mark-90 Nuclear Depth Bomb or a Mark-50 torpedo. If you're killing a boomer, the Mark-90 is the weapon of choice-since it's likely that by Nov 97, SSN skippers would have authority to use their Sea Lances with the Mark-90.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

However, there'd be a SSN following the boomer, and you can bet in the T2K situation, the ROE would be very simple...

That assumes the SSN found the Soviet sub in the first place. Sure some may be lost, but enough would survive to give the US a good pasting.
And the same can be said for Nato SLBM attacks against Pact.

[Matt Wiser]

Oh, there'd be enough SSNs around to trail any boomers headed to their East Coast or West Coast patrol stations. And kill them.

Not to mention that the USN and RN boomers were never tracked, according to both navies. The first sign of a USN or RN boomer's location is when the missile-warning radars pick up the missiles coming from mid-ocean.