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First strike (nuclear strategy)

In nuclear strategy, a first strike or preemptive strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation while the opposing side is left unable to continue war. The preferred methodology is to attack the opponent's strategic nuclear weapon facilities (missile silos, submarine bases, bomber airfields), command and control sites, and storage depots first. The strategy is called counterforce.

Historical background
First-strike attack, the use of a nuclear first strike capability, was greatly feared during the Cold War between NATO and the Soviet Bloc. At various points, fear of a first strike attack existed on both sides. Misunderstood changes in posture and well understood changes in technology used by either side often led to speculation regarding the enemy's intentions.

1948–1961
In the aftermath of World War II, the leadership of the Soviet Union feared the United States would use its nuclear superiority to initiate a full-scale attack, as from 1945 to 1948 the U.S. was the only state possessing nuclear weapons and until the late 1960s preserved an overwhelming superiority. The USSR countered by rapidly developing their own nuclear weapons, surprising the US with their first test in 1949. In turn, the U.S. countered by developing the vastly more powerful thermonuclear weapon, testing their first hydrogen bomb in 1952 at Ivy Mike, but the USSR quickly countered by testing their own thermonuclear weapons, with a test in 1953 of a semi-thermonuclear weapon of the Sloika design, and in 1956, with the testing of Sakharov's Third Idea – equivalent to the Castle Bravo device. Meanwhile, tensions between the two nations rose as 1956 saw Soviet invasion of Hungary; the U.S. and European nations drew certain conclusions from that event, while in the U.S., a powerful social backlash was afoot, prompted by Senator Joseph McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, U.S. citizens executed in 1953 after conviction of espionage. This atmosphere was further inflamed by the 1957 launch of Sputnik, which led to fears of Communists attacking from outer space, as well as concerns that if the Soviets could launch a device into orbit, they could equally cause a device to re-enter the atmosphere and impact any part of the planet. John F. Kennedy capitalized on this situation by emphasizing the bomber gap and the missile gap, areas in which the Soviets were (inaccurately) perceived as leading the United States, while heated Soviet rhetoric added to political pressure. The 1960 U-2 incident, involving Francis Gary Powers, as well as the Berlin Crisis, along with the test of the Tsar Bomba, escalated tensions still further.

Cuban Missile Crisis
This escalating situation came to a head with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The arrival of Soviet missiles in Cuba was conducted by the Soviets on the rationale that the US already had nuclear missiles stationed in Turkey, as well as the desire by Fidel Castro to increase his power, his freedom of action, and to protect his government from US invasion, such as had been attempted during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961. During the crisis, Fidel Castro wrote Khrushchev a letter about the prospect that the "imperialists" would be "extremely dangerous" if they responded militarily to the Soviet stationing of nuclear missiles aimed at US territory, less than 90 miles away in Cuba. The following quotation from the letter suggests that Castro was calling for a Soviet first strike against the US if it responded militarily to the placement of nuclear missiles aimed at the US in Cuba:

If the second variant takes place and the imperialists invade Cuba with the aim of occupying it, the dangers of their aggressive policy are so great that after such an invasion the Soviet Union must never allow circumstances in which the imperialists could carry out a nuclear first strike against it. I tell you this because I believe that the imperialists' aggressiveness makes them extremely dangerous, and that if they manage to carry out an invasion of Cuba—a brutal act in violation of universal and moral law—then that would be the moment to eliminate this danger forever, in an act of the most legitimate self-defense. However harsh and terrible the solution, there would be no other.

The Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in Nikita Khrushchev publicly agreeing to remove the missiles from Cuba, while John F. Kennedy secretly agreed to remove his country's missiles from Turkey. Both sides in the Cold War realized how close they came to nuclear war over Cuba, and decided to seek a reduction of tensions, resulting in US-Soviet détente for most of the 1960s and 1970s.

Nonetheless, this reduction of tensions only applied to the US and the USSR. Recently declassified interviews with high level former Soviet nuclear and military–industrial planners reveal that Fidel Castro continued to favour nuclear options, even during the later Cold War – according to former Soviet General Andrian Danilevich, "(...in the early 1980s...) Cuban leader Fidel Castro pressed the USSR to take a tougher line against the United States, including possible nuclear strikes. The Soviet Union, in response, sent experts to spell out for Castro the ecological consequences for Cuba of nuclear strikes on the United States. Castro, according to the general, quickly became convinced of the undesirability of such outcomes."

1970s/1980s
However, tensions were inflamed again in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Soviet deployment of the SS-20 Saber and the SS-18 Satan, and the decision of NATO to deploy the new Pershing II IRBM as well as the Tomahawk Ground Launched Cruise Missile, along with U.S. President Ronald Reagan's talk of 'limited' nuclear war. This increased Soviet fears that NATO was planning an attack. NATO's deployment of these missiles was a response to the Soviet deployment of the SS-20 Saber, which could hit most European NATO bases within minutes of launch. These mutual deployments led to a destabilizing strategic situation, which was exacerbated by malfunctioning U.S. and Soviet missile launch early warning systems, a Soviet intelligence gap that prevented the Soviets from getting a "read" on the strategic intentions of U.S. leaders, as well as inflammatory U.S. rhetoric combined with classical Soviet mistrust of the NATO powers. This culminated in a war scare that occurred during 1983 due to the inopportune timing of a NATO exercise called Able Archer, which was a simulation of a NATO nuclear attack on the Soviet Union; this exercise happened to occur during a massive Soviet intelligence mobilization called VRYAN, that was designed to discover intentions of NATO to initiate a nuclear first-strike. This poor timing drove the world very close to nuclear war, possibly even closer than the Cuban Missile Crisis over 20 years before.

Terms used

 * CEP – circular error probable; the radius within which a weapon aimed at a given point will land with a 50% confidence; for example, a CEP of 150 m indicates that 50% of the time, the weapon will impact within 150 m of the target. This measure of accuracy assumes that everything up to the point of impact works correctly.
 * Range – the maximum distance from a target a weapon can be fired to successfully hit the point where it is targeted at. (When range is used without qualifiers, like maximum or minimum, it is assumed that it refers to maximum; however, many of these described weapons have minimum ranges as well, though they are not mentioned, or, in all likelihood, even known to the public.)
 * kt/Mt – This is an approximate measure of how much energy is released by the detonation of a nuclear weapon; kt stands for kilotons TNT, Mt stands for megatons TNT. Conventional science of the period contemporary to the Manhattan project came up with these measures so as to reasonably analogize the incredible energy of a nuclear detonation in a form that would be understandable to the military, politicians, or civilians. Trinitrotoluene (TNT) was and is a high explosive with industrial and military uses, and is around 40% more powerfully explosive than an equivalent weight of gunpowder. A ton is equivalent to 1000 kg or approximately 2200 pounds. A 20 kt nuclear device, therefore, liberates as much energy as does the explosion of 20,000 tons of TNT (this is the origin of the term, for the exact definition see TNT equivalent). This is a large quantity of energy. In addition, unlike TNT, the detonation of a nuclear device also emits ionizing radiation that can harm living organisms, including humans; the prompt radiation from the blast itself and the fallout can persist for a long period of time, though within hours to weeks, the radiation from a single nuclear detonation will drop enough to permit humans to remain at the site of the blast indefinitely without incurring acute fatal exposure to radiation.

Likely first strike weapons systems
Because of the low accuracy (large circular error probable) of early generation intercontinental ballistic missiles (and especially submarine-launched ballistic missiles), counterforce strikes were initially only possible against very large, undefended targets like bomber airfields and naval bases. Later generation missiles with much improved accuracy made counterforce attacks against the opponent's hardened military facilities (like missile silos and command and control centers) possible. This is due to the inverse-square law, which predicts that the amount of energy dispersed from a single point release of energy (such as a thermonuclear blast) dissipates by the inverse of the square of distance from the single point of release. The result is that the power of a nuclear explosion to rupture hardened structures is greatly decreased by the distance from the impact point of the nuclear weapon. So a near-direct hit is generally necessary, as only diminishing returns are gained by increasing bomb power.

 * Pershing II MRBM. Single warhead, variable yield 5–50 kt, CEP 50 m with active radar terminal guidance. Short, 7-minute flight-time and range of 1,800 km, designed to strike C4ISTAR installations, bunkers, air fields, air defense sites, and ICBM silos in the European part of the Soviet Union. Decommissioned.
 * R-36 (NATO designation SS-18 "Satan"), MIRV. Believed to be a first-strike weapon by some in the West, due to high accuracy of 220 m CEP, and high throw-weight of 8,800 kg; could deploy 40 penetration aids and deliver at least 10 warheads of at least 500 kt through independent, separate targets. Each warhead could probably take out even hardened nuclear silos, such as those used by the Minuteman III. Deployed in 1976, aimed at CONUS. Still in service.
 * LGM-118 Peacekeeper. Similar in capability to the SS-18 Satan, the Peacekeeper had a throw-weight of 4,000 kg, and could carry only 10 MIRVed warheads of 300 kt each, as well as a CEP of 120 meters. Deployed in the mid-1980s. Decommissioned; however, guidance systems and re-entry vehicles moved to Minuteman III missiles.
 * SS-20 Saber MIRV IRBM. Deployed by the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, this MIRVed IRBM could hide out behind the Urals in Asian Russia and strike NATO C4ISTAR facilities in Europe with scarcely any warning, due to very short flight time, high accuracy, and MIRV payload (rare on an intermediate-range missile). Decommissioned.

First-strike enabling weapons systems
Any missile defense system capable of wide-area (e.g., continental) coverage, and especially those enabling destruction of missiles in the boost phase, is a first-strike-enabling weapon because it allows for a nuclear strike to be launched with reduced fear of mutual assured destruction. Such a system has never been deployed, although a limited continental missile defense capability has been deployed by the U.S., but it is capable of defending against only a handful of missiles.

This does not apply, in general, to terminal missile defense systems, such as the former U.S. Safeguard Program or the Russian A-35/A-135 systems. Limited-area terminal missile defense systems, defending such targets as ICBM fields, or C4ISTAR facilities may, in fact, be stabilizing, because they ensure survivable retaliatory capacity, and/or survivable de-escalation capacity.

This also might not apply to a "non-discriminatory" space-based missile defense system, even if it is—actually, precisely because it is—of global reach. Such a system would be designed to destroy all weapons launched by any nation in a ballistic trajectory, negating any nation's capability to launch any strike with ballistic missiles, assuming the system was sufficiently robust to repel attacks from all potential threats, and built to open standards openly agreed upon and adhered to. No such system has yet been seriously proposed.

Other possible first-strike weapons systems

 * UGM-133 Trident II missiles may carry up to 8, 100 kt W76 (C4) or 12 (START-limited 8, SORT-limited 5) W76 or 475 kt W88 MIRVed warheads (D5). The circular error probability of the weapons is classified but is believed to be less than 120 m (C4) and 100 m (D5). The missile attains a temporary low altitude orbit only a few minutes after launch. The guidance system for the missile is an inertial guidance system with an additional star-sighting system, which is used to correct small positional errors that have accrued during the flight. GPS has been used on some test flights but is assumed not to be available for a real mission. Trident I-C4 has a range of over 4,000 nmi, and the Trident II-D5 can surpass 6,000 nmi; however, the absolute ranges of the missiles are classified and withheld from public domain for reasons of national security.
 * R-36 (SS-18 Satan) Mod I/II 25 megaton variant. Although it is widely accepted that Soviets never had a first-strike strategy because of their conventional arms superiority in Europe, some experts believed that the single-warhead 25 megaton version of R36-M (SS-18, CEP 250 m) was a first-strike weapon targeted against Minuteman III silos. However, a much more logical explanation comes from retired Soviet military officers, who report that the 25 megaton SS-18 was targeted against heavily fortified command-and-control facilities. The reason is that a single 25 megaton warhead could take out only one hardened missile silo if the silos are sufficiently separated—probably by only 2–4 km, depending on the amount of hardening because of the inverse square law, which predicts that the amount of energy dispersed from a single point release of energy (such as a thermonuclear blast) dissipates by the inverse of the square of distance from the single point of release. Therefore, the power of a nuclear explosion to rupture hardened structures is greatly decreased by the distance from the impact point of the nuclear weapon. Therefore, a nearly direct hit is generally necessary, as only diminishing returns are gained by increasing bomb power. The only purpose for gigantic nuclear weapons like the SS-18 25 megaton variant is to take out extremely hardened targets, like command-and-control facilities, such as NORAD, located at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex; Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), located at Mount Weather; or Site R, located at Raven Rock. (The amount of energy needed to rupture missile silos is orders of magnitude greater than the amount necessary to destroy cities, which made the SS-18 25 megaton variant effective for the destruction of large urban centers, as well.) This could be a useful weapon for a decapitation strike, but that is a very risky move, and both the U.S. and Russia have extensive countermeasures against such methods.

Anti-first-strike countermeasures
According to the theories of nuclear deterrence and mutual assured destruction, full countervalue retaliation would be the likely fate for any state that unleashed a first strike. To maintain credible deterrence, nuclear-weapons states have taken measures to give their enemies reason to believe that a first strike would lead to unacceptable results.

The main strategy relies on creating doubt among enemy strategists regarding nuclear capacity, weapons characteristics, facility and infrastructure vulnerability, early warning systems, intelligence penetration, strategic plans, and political will. In terms of military capabilities, the aim is to create the impression of the maximum possible force and survivability, which leads the enemy to make increased estimates of the probability of a disabling counterstrike, and in terms of strategy and politics, the aim is to cause the enemy to believe that such a second strike would be forthcoming in the event of a nuclear attack.

Second strike
One of the main reasons to deter a first strike is the possibility of the victim of the first-strike launching a retaliatory second strike on the attacker.

Increasing SSBN deployment
Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) carrying submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), commonly known as "boomers" in the US and "bombers" in the UK, are widely considered the most survivable component of the nuclear triad. The depths of the ocean are extremely large, and nuclear submarines are highly mobile, are very quiet, have virtually unlimited range, and can generate their own oxygen and potable water. In essence, their undersea endurance is limited only by food supply. It is unlikely that any conceivable opponent of any nuclear power deploying ballistic missile submarines can locate and neutralize every ballistic missile submarine before it launches a retaliatory strike in the event of war. Therefore, to increase the percentage of nuclear forces surviving a first strike, a nation can simply increase SSBN deployment and the deployment of reliable communications links with SSBNs.

Hardening or mobilizing land-based nuclear assets
In addition, land-based ICBM silos can be hardened. No missile launch facility can really defend against a direct nuclear hit, but a sufficiently hardened silo could defend against a near miss, especially if the detonation is not from a multimegaton thermonuclear weapon. In addition, ICBMs can be placed on road or rail-mobile launchers (RT-23 Molodets, RT-2PM2 Topol-M, DF-31, Agni 5, Agni 6, MGM-134 Midgetman), which can then be moved around. As an enemy has nothing fixed at which to aim, that increases its survivability.

Increasing alert state and readiness
The effectiveness of a first strike is contingent upon the aggressor's ability to deplete its enemy's retaliatory capacity immediately to a level that would make a second strike impossible, mitigable, or strategically undesirable. Intelligence and early warning systems increase the probability that the enemy has the time to launch its own strike before its warmaking capacity has been significantly reduced, which renders a first strike pointless. Alert states such as DEFCON conditions, apart from serving a purpose in the internal management of a country's military, can have the effect of advising a potential aggressor that an escalation towards first strike has been detected and therefore that effective retaliatory strikes could be made in the event of an attack.

Maintaining survivable C4ISTAR links
Looking Glass, Nightwatch, and TACAMO are US airborne nuclear command posts and represent survivable communication links with US nuclear forces. In the event of significant political-military tensions between the nuclear powers, they would take to the skies and provide survivable communications in the event of enemy attack. They are capable of the full exercise of all available MAOs (Major Attack Options), as well as the full SIOP, in the event of a first strike or the destruction of the NCA. They can directly initiate launch of all American ICBMs via radio and satellite communication, signal SLBMs to launch and send bombers on their strike missions. In addition to those airborne assets, the US government has several command and control bunkers, the most famous of which is that of NORAD, which is tunneled a few thousand feet into the granite of Cheyenne Mountain Complex, outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is believed to be able to withstand and to continue to operate after a nuclear direct hit. Other US C4ISTAR bunkers include an installation called Site R, located at Raven Rock, Pennsylvania, which is believed to be the Pentagon's relocation site if Washington, DC, is destroyed, as well as Mount Weather, located in Virginia, which is believed to be the relocation site for top executive branch officials. The Greenbrier, located in West Virginia, was once the site of the Supreme Court of the United States and Congress's relocation bunker, but it is no longer a secret but is now a tourist attraction.

The Russians have a system called SPRN (СПРН), which can detect nuclear launches and providing early warning so that any such strike would not be undetected until it is too late. However, their unique and special capability can be found with their Dead Hand fail-deadly computerized nuclear release system, which is based at Kosvinsky Kamen in the Urals. Apparently, Dead Hand, named for either the dead man's hand in poker or the dead man's switch in dangerous or deadly machinery, can be turned on whenever the Russian leadership fears a nuclear attack. Allegedly, once Dead Hand is activated, if it detects a loss of communications with Moscow as well as nuclear detonations inside Russian territory, it can give final authority for the release of nuclear weapons to military officers in a bunker under Kosvinsky Kamen, who can then, if they so determine, launch Russia's arsenal.

Decreasing tensions by mutual adoption of minimum credible deterrent posture
Instead of relying on sophisticated communications links and launch-on-warning postures, the French, the British, and the Chinese have chosen to assume different nuclear postures more suited to minimum credible deterrence or the capability to inflict unacceptable losses to prevent the use of nuclear weapons against them, rather than pursuing types of nuclear weapons suitable to first-strike use.

China is believed to pursue a minimum credible deterrent/second strike strategy with regards to the US. That may or may not be true with regards to China's stance with regard to Russia, as few Chinese nuclear platforms are intercontinental, and most of the platforms are deployed on the Russian-Chinese border. Unlike relations of the US and China, Russia and China have had military conflicts in the past. In recent years, China has improved its early warning systems and has renovated certain of its platforms for intercontinental strike, which may or may not be due to the US missile defense system. In general, it appears that China's leaders do not greatly fear a first strike, because of their posture of inflicting unacceptable losses upon an adversary, as opposed to the American and Russian policy of trying to "win" a nuclear war. The Chinese arsenal is considered to suffice in ensuring that such a first strike would not go unavenged.

The United Kingdom and France have sophisticated nuclear weapons platforms, and their nuclear strategies are minimum credible deterrent-based. Both have ballistic missile submarines, armed with intercontinental submarine-launched ballistic missiles, to ensure a second-strike retaliation anywhere in the world. France also has a number of nuclear capable fighter aircraft. Both have nuclear policies that are believed to be effective deterrence towards a would-be nuclear strike against themselves, NATO, European Union members, and other allies.

Destabilizing role of land-based MIRVed ICBMs
MIRVed land-based ICBMs are generally considered suitable for a first strike or a counterforce strike, due to:
 * 1) Their high accuracy (small circular error probable), compared to submarine-launched ballistic missiles which used to be less accurate, and more prone to defects;
 * 2) Their fast response time, compared to bombers which are considered too slow;
 * 3) Their ability to carry multiple MIRV warheads at once, useful for destroying a whole missile field with one missile.

Unlike a decapitation strike or a countervalue strike, a counterforce strike might result in a potentially more constrained retaliation. Though the Minuteman III of the mid-1960s was MIRVed with 3 warheads, heavily MIRVed vehicles threatened to upset the balance; these included the SS-18 Satan which was deployed in 1976, and was considered to threaten Minuteman III silos, which led some neoconservatives ("Team B") to conclude a Soviet first strike was being prepared for. This led to the development of the aforementioned Pershing II, the Trident I and Trident II, as well as the MX missile, and the B-1 Lancer.

MIRVed land-based ICBMs are considered destabilizing because they tend to put a premium on striking first. When a missile is MIRVed, it is able to carry many warheads (up to 8 in existing U.S. missiles, limited by New START, though Trident II is capable of carrying up to 12 ) and deliver them to separate targets. If it is assumed that each side has 100 missiles, with 5 warheads each, and further that each side has a 95 percent chance of neutralizing the opponent's missiles in their silos by firing 2 warheads at each silo, then the attacking side can reduce the enemy ICBM force from 100 missiles to about 5 by firing 40 missiles with 200 warheads, and keeping the rest of 60 missiles in reserve. As such, this type of weapon was intended to be banned under the START II agreement, however the START II agreement was never activated, and neither Russia nor the US has adhered to the agreement.

Destabilizing role of missile defense
Any defense system against nuclear missiles such as SDI will be more effective against limited numbers of missiles launched. At very small numbers of targets, each defensive asset will be able to take multiple shots at each warhead, and a high kill ratio could be achieved easily. As the number of targets increases, the defensive network becomes "saturated" as each asset must target and destroy more and more warheads in the same window of time. Eventually the system will reach a maximum number of targets destroyed and after this point all additional warheads will penetrate the defenses. This leads to several destabilizing effects.

First, a state that is not building similar defenses may be encouraged to attack before the system is in place, essentially starting the war while there is no clear advantage instead of waiting until they will be at a distinct disadvantage after the defenses are completed. Second, one of the easiest ways to counter any proposed defenses is to simply build more warheads and missiles, reaching that saturation point sooner and hitting targets through a strategy of attrition. Third, and most importantly, since defenses are more effective against small numbers of warheads, a nation with a defense system is actually encouraged to engage in a counterforce first strike. The smaller retaliatory strike is then more easily destroyed by the defense system than a full attack would be. This undermines the doctrine of MAD by discrediting a nation's ability to punish any aggressor with a lethal retaliatory second strike.

title: First strike (nuclear strategy)


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Talk:First strike (nuclear strategy)

worth a mention? it's what we all think..
is it worth mentioning that when the US was the only power to poses nuclear weapons it used them. And in the MAD era that followed, nobody used them. Which is probably why the US is finding it difficult to get people to disarm now?

I deleted peacekeeper as a counter first strike weapon, because it is really silly putting it as counter first strike considering it would not have survived first strike by SS-18 if one would be executed by USSR. Trident though is a good example, I don't know about Pershing, it is land based system too, with range of 1800 km, there is great doubt whether it would survive first strike by 5000 km range of SS-20 Pioneer. Some of the numbers are also wrong, CEPS in particular, for soviet system and for american. Also, what does Russel's opinion has to do with all these issues, especially considering his ignorant "west victory anyway" comments, Russell probably never talked to american CIA military analysts, who would disagree with his optimism and had no clue of what Red Army was. 99.231.59.7 23:17, 9 October 2007 (UTC)Pavel. October 9, 2007.

Poorly written article, presents only western point of view. USSR's SS-18 was a perfect fisrst strike weapon, 8 warheads, each with 1.2 MT was more than capable of destroying Minuteman silos with one or two warheads. USSR's silos, SS-18's silos in particular, were fortified to withstand a direct nuclear strike. 74.98.216.68 02:32, 3 July 2007 (UTC)Pavel Golikov. July 2, 2007.

 * It's worth mentioning that the last time nuclear weapons were used was during a world war. Quite likely the soviet union would have found uses for nuclear weapons in a world war as well.Zebulin (talk) 09:56, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

'Wild Speculation"
"In response, President Bush cited Hersh's reportage as "wild speculation"[4] but did not deny its veracity." - Is labelling something as 'wild speculation' not questioning its veracity?
 * No, and questioning is not denying. What it means is that he won't deny or confirm it or discuss it at all. If later it came out that it was true, he wouldn't have lied about it.

POV in History section
A paragraph in the History section reads:

"In the 1940s the US enjoyed a monopoly of nuclear forces, while in the late 1950s and early 1960s Khrushchev incautiously and inaccurately boasted of a Soviet superiority in missile forces. The arrival of Soviet missiles in Cuba was meant to weaken the US as it exposed the homeland to attack almost without warning, but instead exposed Khrushchev to personal humiliation as the "Cuban Missile Crisis" resulted in him backing down rather than risking war. During the crisis, Fidel Castro wrote Nikita Khrushchev a letter about the prospect that the US might follow an invasion of Cuba with a first strike against the USSR. The following quotation from the letter suggests to some writers that Castro was calling for a Soviet first strike against the US."

1. If it's going to say that Khrushchev was "inaccurately" boasting of Soviet missile superiority, then it must be referenced. Anyway, this claim is questionable -- there's considerable debate and until everything is declassified, we won't know for sure.

2. The line "instead exposed Khrushchev to personal humiliation" is at least POV; it's probably also an exaggeration. There was a bigger context to the Soviet placement of weapons in Cuba (not least, the American deployment of short range nuclear missiles in Turkey). This line should be removed or changed. --Rhombus 05:09, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

 * I've altered that line to a somewhat more balanced view of what happened. I think part of the problem here is that the Soviets gave up their missiles in public, while the American agreement to remove missiles from Turkey was kept somewhat more secret, so it was perceived that the USSR backed down when in reality they were both giving up some of their bargaining chips.

Other comments
Definition is WRONG! The concept of attacking MILITARY is VANITY and not logic. MAIN target is always FOOD and forests and it insulting that an OLD definition clearly wrong in this age is still here to be seen. 1st strike is not about hitting military or ability to strike back and easy can be for simple revenge or hate or spite and insanity. The 1st strike is NOT about Military as important but FOOD and FORESTS and the BILLIONS in starvation and 1 man does no care what [X] BILLION others might say or think or do! VANITY in the definition makes it completely wrong...one cares not about the military prepared and go for the crops and forests IGNORED due to this wrong definition? SO PLEASE CHANGE THE INCORRECT DEFINITION! I poison the food and burn the forests...what you ALL going to eat on the planet? Central Canada and USA all the way to the south Americas and Africa burns...you die in the hundreds of millions AT HOME! and inside of what? 3 months? ANY MILITARY EFFORT IN ANY WAY becomes MUTE! Damages are DONE and it is too late... MADMAN or WOMAN does not care what you do AFTER it is done. He or she does NOT have to like own people or even LIFE ITSELF! To assume military targets and ability to fight back....not very logical since the 1960's in my opinion. Nuke the food and forests...and not care what anyone thinks after is a very possible 1st strike concept when 1 human is in such power as to be able to use nukes that way and get mindless reactions from all under him or her. SO my point here is NOT Military ANYTHING has to do with 1st strikes in this age...it is even a avoided target if you got much more deadly easy ones..like food forests sea coast and giant lakes...silly to think reactions are important when insane people do not care what you do AFTER. SO please change the definition to reflect reality not 1945 logic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.229.70.228 (talk) 10:28, 1 March 2022 (UTC)

Bertrand Russell said "better red than dead" and it got reversed by some American commentators during the Cold War.

 * Interestingly, before the Soviets obtained atomic weapons, Bertrand Russell publically advocated a first strike on the USSR during a speech he gave to Westminster School (a famous educational establishment between Parliament and Westminster Abbey). His argument was that if both sides of the cold war had nuclear weapons the apocalypse was certain to come, whereas if one side destroyed the other utterly (which America theoretically had the chance to do, when it was the only nuclear power) then it would be a holocaust but not an apocalypse. This speech was witnessed by many pupils who went on to become prominent figures, including Nigel Lawson, who became the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) under Margaret Thatcher. I can cite sources for these, and in fact I'm going to add this to the article right now. Okay, I've added it, I've tried to keep it as balanced as possible because it's not totally clear whether Russell advocated actual First Strike, or just the public advocacy of First Strike as a diplomatic tool to force the Soviets to back down from Eastern Europe.

Also, first strike and assured destruction and madness of mad are so similar as to be hard topics to distinguish. Madness of mad was not just resource use but also the probability of error, communications or equipment failure, and other things that had nothing to do with intent to destroy each other - film War Games was a nice demonstration of this.

Linking the death penalty debate, terrorism debate, nuclear arms debate, as I did in assured destruction, is difficult, so the illustration of all three in advance of my next edit would probably improve "assured destruction" a lot - I would be summarizing rather than introducing the topic, with three examples...

Okay, but bear in mind that we are trying to create an encyclopedia here -- not just giving our own opinions about things.

Except for uncontroversial and generally accepted information, it's better to provide a source. Such as

 * the Green Party believes that global warming is one of the biggest problems facing the world today.

or

 * the WWF supports the Kyoto Treaty because a scientist reported a rising temperature trend in a recent scientific paper (please specify).

The goal is that a reader who disagrees with the position advocated will nevertheless agree that the article is correct because it accurately reports that X believes Y about Z. A reader might disagree about whether Y is true, so the article shouldn't say "Y is true" but rather "X believs Y is true".

User:Ed Poor

"NATO later explicitly ruled out a first-strike posture - a pledge not matched by the Soviets."

Completely untrue. The "no first strike" posture was first ever taken by the USSR in 1982 at special session of General Assembly of UN. This has not been matched by NATO throughout the Cold War (not sure about later, though.)

Egor.

Castro letter

 * I said that if the second variant took place and the imperialists -- this was a very common word at that time -- invaded Cuba with the aim of occupying it, the Soviet Union must never allow a situation to develop in which the imperialists would launch the first nuclear strike. This was literally what I said, because I was absolutely convinced that if they invaded our country, this would create the grave risk for the Soviet Union of the U.S. taking the second step of carrying out a nuclear air strike against the Soviet Union. That's why I raised this question with Khrushchev as delicately as I could, saying that the Soviet Union must never allow a situation to develop in which the imperialists could launch the first nuclear strike -- because I was sure that after [an invasion], the second step would be for the Americans to launch a first nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. -- March 1998 interview with Castro

There is clearly nothing in there to suggest that Castro was promoting a first strike by the Soviet Union. Any mention of a nuclear first strike in that paragraph is linked with his justifiable fear that the Americans would be insane enough to do such a thing. In the same interview he goes on to say
 * "I dictated this letter to the [Soviet] ambassador. I wrote the letter on the basis of the notes that I had, and the ambassador did not even speak good Spanish, and we had no interpreters. Who knows what the ambassador actually sent over there, but apparently he did convey something of this idea, perhaps not very clearly."

It is impossible to be sure of what Castro was saying without seeing the original Spanish version, as well as the Russian translation that was presented to Khrushchev. To impute these intentions to Castro is a grossly speculative distortion of historical facts. Eclecticology 21:27, 2004 Apr 23 (UTC)

Yes Ed, your changes are a definite improvement. I'll be wanting to look at the earlier paragraphs. This is a situation where, perhaps because of multiple edits, I had to read it several times to make sense of it, and it even seems that some of it ends up with the opposite sides mixed up. Eclecticology 22:57, 2004 Apr 23 (UTC)

I don't at all understand how that quote from Castro could be construed to say he is recommending first strike against the USA. He's saying that the USA must never be able to get first strike cability on the Communist bloc -- which is no more damning that Robert McNamara saying that the USA would take first strike capability if it had the chance, or that it would be unacceptable for the USA to let the USSR have first strike capability against it. There are many ways to prevent another country from getting first strike capability without advocating nuclear war (for example, the arms race). --Fastfission 22:40, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

merge in "First-strike attack"
I don't have the time to research the history of nuclear war strategy, so I haven't completed the merge. In general, my thoughts are:

 * the introduction, headings, links, and categorization of this article is better than that of the "First-strike attack" article.
 * the history from the "First-strike attack" article is interesting, and should be folded into this article - it'd be nice if the editor had a solid knowledge of the history or time to research it, and I don't have either.

Asmendel 23:10, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Move Bertrand Russell & Hersch/Iran to Different Articles.
Moving Bertrand Russell and Hersch/Iran out of this article and into more appropriate locations would be a good idea. Russell only gave his opinions on a first strike, while quite provocative, it never led to one, while the Hersch/Iran item might be better in an article about Iran, the current situation there, or Hersch. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Katana0182 (talk • contribs) 06:28, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

If nobody has any objections, I am going to be WP:BOLD and move the Hersch/Iran to something about Iranian nuclear weapons programs, and the Bertrand Russell section to an article about Bertrand Russell. I think that these would be more appropriate places for the content of the two sections. Any objections, please discuss; otherwise, will move them in 24-48 hours from of 04:00Z 15-7-08.Katana0182 (talk) 03:44, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

It is done.Katana0182 (talk) 06:31, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Historical Analysis Reads Like a Cheap Novel
Sorry, but it does. In particular the phrase

"Luckily for the world, when the superpowers drew close to the edge of the nuclear abyss during both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Able Archer/VRYAN Crisis, they took the time to stare intently into its depths, and came away knowing that the abyss stared back into them."

What abyss is this? did the leaders travel to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine to look out the window? and if so, the deep ocean environment has eyes? or is this another abyss that has eyes?

id fix it, but I dont know where to begin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.76.72 (talk) 14:43, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

This article reads like somebody just pasted their high school history paper into Wikipedia. It contains countless uncited and possibly biased points, and uses rhetoric for dramatic effect that has no place in an encyclopedia. 96.48.73.85 (talk) 19:30, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

Anti-Russian bias?
This article seems to have many POV issues, for example: The military invasion of Iraq was seen by Russia as indicating potential U.S. disrespect for what the Russian leadership views as international law, which it allegedly values. 24.36.78.185 (talk) 15:36, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Will rewrite phrasing in attempt to avoid appearance of impropriety. 74.106.86.91 (talk) 00:11, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Trident II incomplete sentence problem
In the article section on possible first strike systems, the Trident II is discussed, and ends with this sentence:

 * However, the fact that SSBNs are usually deep underwater for their mission, and can only receive very low rate data communications via VLF or ELF, causing slow reception and verification of strike orders, and the one-missile at a time fire rate of a nuclear missile submarine.

This is not a complete sentence. I would assume that something needs to be added that either relates to the GPS guidance discussed in the preceding sentence or the countervalue purpose mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph. As it is, I'm not sure where the sentence was headed. --Wesley R. Elsberry (talk) 05:10, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Overall Content of this Article
There is a problem overall with this article. As mentioned by others, it is written as a personal reflection essay. While reading it I discovered another flaw, one that has not already been posted. This flaw is that, the article itself, focuses too much on the "Cold War", and it's history. This article is only about what a "Nuclear First Strike" is, not any other social, or political issues. (Unless there is a specific sub-category, but presently, there is not). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gold Contaxt (talk • contribs) 18:15, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

This Entire Article Needs to Be Re-Written, In a Neutral, Scholarly Manner
This article is written like an essay, and is full of personal opinions/interpretations. Additionally, like another user said, this article only covers the U.S & Soviet Russia; this must be widened to include the entire world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gold Contaxt (talk • contribs) 02:27, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Historical Background Problems
Maybe the Historical Background section should just be removed entirely. None of it seems directly related to the topic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nivlek273 (talk • contribs) 19:12, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Detailed source and film : SIOP-62

 * The Creation of SIOP-62 More Evidence on the Origins of Overkill National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 130'', gwu.edu, July 13, 2004
 * "Nobody Wins a Nuclear War" But "Success" is Possible Mixed Message of 1950s Air Force Film on a U.S.-Soviet  Conflict (              Air Force Special Film Project 416, "Power of Decision"- Produced by Air Photographic and Charting  Service (component of Military Air Transport Service) Circa 1958, For Official  Use Only)

Launch on Warning
From the section on Increasing alert state and readiness: "By adopting a launch on warning nuclear posture, the possibility of a first-strike can be significantly mitigate."

This might be a matter of the definition of "first strike", but it seems to me that the launch on warning strategy increases the probability of it happening: an incorrect warning could lead to an inadvertent first strike. I assume that the point being made here is that the term "first strike" is being used to refer to an unprovoked, deliberate nuclear attack rather than what the "attacking" side might see as a counterattack; but the distinction is not particularly clear. 200.121.193.133 (talk) 06:48, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Jargon of "first strike capability"
The use of the term "first strike capability" appears twice, once in the opening summary and a second time in the body of the article. In both cases it appears to be used as technical jargon of nuclear warfare strategy, but in neither case are there any citations as to this concept. Contrast this with "second-strike capability," which indeed is a major concept, literally the ability (capability) of a country to retaliate on the perpetrator of an initial nuclear attack and thereby guarantee, in most cases, mutually-agreed destruction, another well-established term and concept.

I don't think "first strike capability" is a thing outside of casual use and coincidental formation, eg, discussing that cruise missiles are too slow to have the capability to be used in a first strike (ergo "first strike capability"), and/or misstatements by, at best, the media. After all, ANY nation possessing nuclear weapons thereby has a "first strike capability," - that is, the ability to use their weapons first - but in the context it seems to be used (suppression of enemy weapons to deny them second strike capability) this is more properly a [pre-emptive] disarming nuclear strike - another variety for instance is the decapitation strike. These specific terms are more narrow in their definition and obvious in their meaning, so I think this term either needs some backup in the form of references or should really be extinguished, especially with its spurious treatment as a genuine technical term. AnyyVen (talk) 17:43, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

"First strike" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect First strike. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 November 3 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. TheAwesome Hwyh  15:35, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

"First-strike" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect First-strike. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 November 3 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. TheAwesome Hwyh  15:35, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

Unsourced
Some parts of this page like "historical analysis" are unsourced and terribly written. My very best wishes (talk) 19:49, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

 * @My very best wishes much of this article seems like the writer's opinion. Angiest (talk) 18:47, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Move to "First strike (nuclear strategy)"?
The article unanimously uses the term "first strike" and makes zero mention of the term "pre-emptive [sic?] nuclear strike", even though that is the article's title.

Given that, I argue the article should be titled "first strike".

I understand that the term "first strike" refers to other things, so I think a fair and unambiguous title would be "First strike (nuclear strategy)". Quohx (talk) 06:17, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

I am going to move it preemptively, as this is probably not very controversial. Quohx (talk) 06:21, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

... to be updated...
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/03/bidens-nuke-review-omits-no-first-use-kills-naval-cruise-missile/363823/ 88.163.124.35 (talk) 08:56, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:First strike (nuclear strategy)


text:
Line printer

A line printer prints one entire line of text before advancing to another line. Most early line printers were impact printers.

Line printers are mostly associated with unit record equipment and the early days of digital computing, but the technology is still in use. Print speeds of 600 lines per minute (approximately 10 pages per minute) were achieved in the 1950s, later increasing to as much as 1200 lpm. Line printers print a complete line at a time and have speeds in the range of 150 to 2500 lines per minute.

Some types of impact line printers are drum printers, band-printers, and chain printers. Non-impact technologies have also been used, e.g., thermal line printers were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, some inkjet and laser printers produce output a line or a page at a time.

Designs
Many impact printers, such as the daisywheel printer and dot matrix printer, used a print head that printed a character then moved on until an entire line was printed. Line printers were much faster, as each impact printed an entire line.

There have been five principal designs:
 * Drum printers
 * Chain (train) printers
 * Bar printers
 * Comb printers
 * Wheel printers

Because all of these printing methods were noisy, line printers of all designs were enclosed in sound-absorbing cases of varying sophistication.

Timing-sensitive designs
Several designs of printers have similar characteristics.

Drum printer
In a typical drum printer design, a fixed font character set is engraved onto the periphery of a number of print wheels, the number matching the number of columns (letters in a line) the printer can print. The wheels, joined to form a large drum (cylinder), spin at high speed. Paper and an inked ribbon are stepped (moved) past the print position. As the desired character for each column passes the print position, a hammer strikes the paper from the rear and presses the paper against the ribbon and the drum, causing the desired character to be recorded on the continuous paper. Because the drum carrying the letterforms (characters) remains in constant motion, the strike-and-retreat action of the hammers has to be very fast. Typically, they are driven by voice coils mounted on the moving part of the hammer.

Large mechanical and electric stresses occur when the line to be printed requires firing all of the hammers simultaneously. With simple type layouts, this happens when the line consists of a single character repeated in all columns, such as a line of dashes ("...---") To avoid this problem, some printers use a staggered arrangement, with the characters in each column rotated around the drum by a different amount. Then simultaneous firing occurs only if the printed line matches the character layout on the drum, which should not happen in normal text.

Lower-cost printers do not use a hammer for each column. Instead, a hammer is provided for every other column, and the entire hammer bank is arranged to shift left and right, driven by an additional voice coil. For this style of printer, two complete revolutions of the character drum are required to print each line, with one revolution being used to print all the "odd" columns and another revolution being used to print all of the "even" columns. This requires only half (plus one) the number of hammers, magnets, and the associated channels of drive electronics.

At least one low-cost printer, made by CDC, achieves the same end by moving the paper laterally while keeping the hammer bank at rest.

Dataproducts was a typical vendor of drum printers, often selling similar models with both a full set of hammers (delivering, for example, 600 lines-per-minute of output) and a half set of hammers (delivering 300 LPM).

Chain printer
Chain printers place the type on a horizontally-moving circular chain. As with the drum printer, as the correct character passes by each column, a hammer is fired from behind the paper. Compared to drum printers, chain printers have the advantage that the type chain can usually be changed by the operator. A further advantage is that vertical registration of characters in a line is much improved over drum printers, which need extremely precise hammer timing to achieve a reasonably straight line of print. By selecting chains that have a smaller character set (for example, just numbers and a few punctuation marks), the printer can print much faster than if the chain contains the entire upper- and lower-case alphabet, numbers, and all special symbols. This is because, with many more instances of the numbers appearing in the chain, the time spent waiting for the correct character to "pass by" is greatly reduced. Common letters and symbols appear more often on the chain, according to the frequency analysis of the likely input. It is also possible to play primitive tunes on these printers by timing the nonsense of the printout to the sequence on the chain, a rather primitive piano. IBM was probably the best-known chain printer manufacturer, and the IBM 1403 is probably the most famous example of a chain printer.

Train printer
Train printers place the type on a horizontally-moving circular train of print slugs. with multiple characters per slug, on a track, The technology is almost identical to print chains.

Band printer

Band printers are a variation of chain printers in which a thin steel band is used instead of a chain, with the characters embossed or etched onto the band. Again, a selection of different bands are generally available with a different mix of characters so a character set best matched to the characters commonly printed can be chosen. Dataproducts was a well known manufacturer of band printers, with their B300, B600, and B1000 range, the model number representing the lines per minute rate of the printer. (The B300 is effectively a B600 with only half the number of hammers—one per two character positions. The hammer bank moves back and forth one character position, increasing the average number of band movements required for each line.)

Bar printer
Bar printers were similar to chain printers but were slower and less expensive. Rather than a chain moving continuously in one direction, the characters were on fingers mounted on a bar that moved left-to-right and then right-to-left in front of the paper. An example was the IBM 1443.

Common characteristics
In all four designs, timing of the hammers (the so-called "flight time") was critical, and was adjustable as part of the servicing of the printer. For drum printers, incorrect timing of the hammer resulted in printed lines that wandered vertically, albeit with characters correctly aligned horizontally in their columns. For train and bar printers, incorrect timing of the hammers resulted in characters shifting horizontally, printed closer or farther from the next character, or blurred on one side, albeit on vertically-level printed lines. The vertical misalignment of drum printers is more noticeable and annoying to human vision (see the sample pictured in this article).

Most drum, chain, and bar printers were capable of printing up to 132 columns, but a few designs could only print 80 columns and some other designs as many as 160 columns.

Comb printer
Comb printers, also called line matrix printers, printed a matrix of dots instead of individual characters in the same way as single-character dot matrix printers, but using a comb of hammers to print a portion of an entire row of pixels at one time (for example, every eighth pixel). By shifting the comb back and forth slightly, the entire pixel row could be printed (continuing the example, in eight cycles). The paper then advanced and the next pixel row was printed. Because far less print head motion was involved than in a conventional dot matrix printer, these printers were much faster, and competitive in speed with formed-character line printers without being restricted to a set of available characters, thus being able to print dot-matrix graphics and variable-sized characters.

Printronix and TallyGenicom are well-known vendors of comb printers. In 2009, TallyGenicom was acquired by Printronix.

Wheel printers
In 1949 IBM introduced the IBM 407 Accounting Machine with a wheel print mechanism that could print 150 alphanumeric lines a minute. Each of the 120 print positions had its own type wheel which rotated under electromechanical control. Once all were in position, print hammers struck the wheels against a ribbon and the paper. The 407 or its wheel line printer mechanism was attached to a variety of early IBM computers, including the IBM 650, most members of the IBM 700/7000 series and the IBM 1130, the last introduced in 1965.

Paper (forms) handling
All line printers used continuous form paper provided in boxes of continuous fan-fold forms rather than cut-sheets. The paper was usually perforated to tear into cut sheets if desired and was commonly printed with alternating white and light-green areas, allowing the reader to easily follow a line of text across the page. This was the iconic "green bar", "blue bar" or "music-ruled" form paper that dominated the early computer age in several variants. Standard "green bar" page sizes included portrait-format pages of 8½ × 11 inches (letter size), usually printed at 80 columns by 66 lines of characters (at 6 lines per inch) or 88 lines (at 8 LPI), and landscape-format pages of 14 × 11 inches, usually printed at 132 columns by 66 or 88 lines. Also common were landscape-format pages of 14 × 8½ inches (legal size), allowing for 132 columns by 66 lines (at 8 LPI) on a more compact page.

Pre-printed forms were also commonly used (for printing cheques, invoices, etc.). A common task for the system operator was to change from one paper form to another as one print job completed and another was to begin. Some line printers had covers that opened automatically when the printer required attention. These continuous forms were advanced through the printer by means of tractors (sprockets or sprocket belts). Depending on the sophistication of the printer, there might simply be two tractors at the top of the printer (pulling the paper) or tractors at the top and bottom (thereby maintaining paper tension within the printer). The horizontal position of the tractors was usually adjustable to accommodate different forms. The earliest printers by IBM used a hydraulic motor to move the forms. In later line printers, high-speed servomechanisms usually drove the tractors, allowing very rapid positioning of the paper, both for advancing line-by-line and slewing to the top of the next form. The faster line printers, of necessity, also used "stackers" to re-fold and stack the fan-fold forms as they emerged from the printer.

The high-speed motion of the paper often developed large electrostatic charges. Line printers frequently used a variety of discharge brushes and active (corona discharge-based) static eliminators to discharge these accumulated charges.

Many printers supported ASA carriage control characters which provided a limited degree of control over the paper, by specifying how far to advance the paper between printed lines. Various means of providing vertical tabulation were provided, ranging from a paper carriage control tape loop to fully electronic (software-controllable) tab simulation.

Origins
Tabulators built by the U.S. Census Bureau for the 1910 census could print their results. Prior to that, tabulator operators had to write down totals from counter wheels onto tally sheets. IBM developed a series of printing accounting machines, beginning in 1920. The 285 Numeric Printing Tabulator could read 150 cards per minute. The 405, introduced in 1934, could print at 80 lines per minute. It had 88 type bars, one for each print position, with 43 alphanumeric bars on the left, followed by 45 numeric-only bars. The IBM 402 series, introduced after World War II, had a similar print arrangement and was used by IBM in early computing devices, including the IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator.

IBM's first commercial computer, the IBM 701, introduced in 1952, used a line printer, the IBM 716, that was based on the type wheel IBM 407 accounting machine. The 716 was incorporated in subsequent mainstream computers in the IBM 700/7000 series.

An early drum printer was the "Potter Flying Typewriter", in 1952. "Instead of working laboriously, one character at a time, it prints whole lines at once, 300 lines per minute, on a paper band. ... Heart of the machine is a continuously spinning disk with the necessary letters and numbers on its rim. ... As the disk revolves, 80 electrically operated hammers tap the back of the paper against an inked ribbon in contact with the disk, thus printing the proper characters in the proper places on the line."

Influence on hardware and software
The names of the  and   commands in Unix were derived from the term "line printer". Analogously, many other systems call their printing devices "LP", "LPT", or some similar variant, whether these devices are in fact line printers or other types of printers. These references served to distinguish formatted final output from normal interactive output from the system, which in many cases in line printer days was also printed on paper (as by a teletype) but not by a line printer. Line printers printed characters, letters and numbers line by line. The parallel ports of computers so equipped were usually designated LPTx, for line printer.

title: Line printer


text:
Trento

Trento ( or ; Ladin and Trent; Trient ; Tria; ; Trénto/Trènt; Tridentum), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th century, the city was the location of the Council of Trent. Formerly part of Austria and Austria-Hungary, it was annexed by Italy in 1919. With 118,142 inhabitants, Trento is the third largest Italian city in the Alps and second largest in the historical region of Tyrol.

Trento is an educational, scientific, financial and political centre in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, in Tyrol and Northern Italy in general. The city contains a picturesque Medieval and Renaissance historic centre, with ancient buildings such as Trento Cathedral and the Castello del Buonconsiglio.

Together with other Alpine towns Trento engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention to achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc. Trento was awarded the title of Alpine Town of the Year 2004.

The city often ranks highly among Italian cities for quality of life, standard of living, and business and job opportunities, being ranked 5th in 2017. Trento is also one of the nation's wealthiest and most prosperous cities, with its province being one of the richest in Italy, with a GDP per capita of €31,200 and a nominal GDP of €16.563 billion.

The University of Trento, founded in 1962 as a Higher University Institute of Social Sciences, is one of the most prestigious medium-small Italian universities, with a strong international vocation. It ranks 1st among 'medium-sized' Universities in the Censis ranking and 2nd in the Il Sole 24 Ore ranking of Italian universities.

The School of International Studies of the University of Trento is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (Apsia), a selected group of institutions for higher education in the field of international relations. It is the first, and currently unique, Italian institute and one of the few Europeans present in the club of the best international study schools in the world that form policy makers.

In the last twenty years, thanks to the gradual creation of various research centers (FBK, FEM) and laboratories in the IT, engineering and sciences fields, Trento and its university have been nicknamed the "Silicon Valley of the Alps".

History
The origins of this city on the river-route to Bolzano and the low Alpine passes of Brenner and the Reschen Pass over the Alps are disputed. Some scholars maintain it was a Rhaetian settlement: the Adige area was however influenced by neighbouring populations, including the (Adriatic) Veneti, the Etruscans and the Gauls (a Celtic population). According to other theories, the latter instead founded the city during the 4th century BC.

Trento was conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC, after several clashes with the Rhaetian tribes. Before the Romans, Trento was a Celtic village. Julius Caesar re-founded it as a Roman municipality when Rome extended citizenship to the part of Cisalpine Gaul north of the River Po. The Latin name given to the settlement was Tridentum, meaning "Three-teeth place" or "Trident-town" (tri- "three" + dēns, dent- "tooth"). The reason for the name is uncertain: the new town may have been consecrated to the god Neptune, or possibly named after the three hills that surround the city (known in Italian as Doss Trento, Doss di Sant'Agata and Doss di San Rocco). The Latin name is the source of the adjective "tridentine". On the old city hall, a Latin inscription is still visible: "Montes argentum mihi dant nomenque Tridentum" ("Mountains give me silver and the name of Trento"), attributed to Fra' Bartolomeo da Trento (died in 1251). Tridentum became an important stop on the Roman road that led from Verona to Innsbruck.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the independent bishopric of Trento was conquered by Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards and Franks, finally becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1027, Emperor Conrad II created the Prince-Bishops of Trento, who wielded both temporal and religious powers. In the following centuries, however, the sovereignty was divided between the Bishopric of Trent and the County of Tyrol (from 1363 part of the Habsburg monarchy). Around 1200, Trento became a mining center of some significance: silver was mined from the Monte Calisio – Khalisperg, and Prince-Bishop Federico Wanga issued the first mining code of the alpine region.

In the 14th century, the Habsburg Family that ruled as dukes of Austria were also the counts of Tyrol.

A dark episode in the history of Trento was the Trento blood libel. When a 3-year-old Christian boy, Simonino, later known as Simon of Trent, disappeared in 1475 on the eve of Good Friday, the city's small Jewish community was accused of killing him and draining his blood for Jewish ritual purposes. Eight Jews were tortured and burned at the stake, and their families forced to convert to Christianity. The bishop of Trento, Johannes Hinderbach, sought (without success) to have Simonino canonized and published the first book printed in Trento, "Story of a Christian Child Murdered at Trento", embellished with 12 woodcuts. In a governmental ceremony in the 1990s, Trento apologized to the Jewish community for this dark episode and unveiled a plaque commemorating the formal apology.

In the 16th century, Trento became notable for the Council of Trent (1545–1563) which gave rise to the Counter-Reformation. The adjective Tridentine (as in "Tridentine Mass") literally means pertaining to Trento, but can also refer to that specific event. Among the notable prince-bishops of this time were Bernardo Clesio (who governed the city from 1514 to 1539 and managed to steer the council to Trento) and Cristoforo Madruzzo (who governed from 1539 to 1567), both able European politicians and Renaissance humanists, who greatly expanded and embellished the city.

During this period, and as an expression of this Humanism, Trento was also known as the site of a Jewish printing press. In 1558 Cardinal Madruzzo granted the privilege of printing Hebrew books to Joseph Ottolengo, a German rabbi. The actual printer was Jacob Marcaria, a local physician; after his death in 1562, the activity of the press of Riva di Trento ceased. Altogether, 34 works were published in the period from 1558 to 1562, most of them bearing the coat of arms of Madruzzo.

Prince-bishops governed Trento until the Napoleonic era, when it changed hands among various states. Under the reorganization of the Holy Roman Empire in 1802, the Bishopric was secularized and annexed to the Habsburg territories. The Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 ceded Trento to Bavaria, and the Treaty of Schönbrunn four years later gave it to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy.

The population staged armed resistance to French domination. The resistance leader was Andreas Hofer. During his youth, he lived in Italian Tyrol, where he learned the Italian language. When Hofer recovered Trento for the Austrians (1809), he was welcomed with enthusiasm by the population of Trento. Approximately 4,000 Trentinian volunteers (Sìzzeri or Schützen) died in battle against the French and Bavarian troops. In 1810, Hofer was captured and brought to Mantua, and was shot by French soldiers on the express order of Napoleon.

With Napoleon's defeat in 1814, Trento was annexed by the Habsburg Empire. Church government was finally extinguished, and Trento was henceforth governed by the secular administration of Tyrol. In the following decades, Trento experienced a modernization of administration and economy with the first railroad in the Adige valley opening in 1859. The entire Mediterranean basin was at risk of malaria, a factor that affected the entire Italian peninsula and this Alpine region was not spared. Even Tuscany was particularly hard hit; malaria existed far inland into the Veneto area, reaching the Italian Alps. From 1918 to 1940, government figures show Italy's malaria deaths decreased by 96%, due to the efforts of the Rockefeller Foundation and Italy's own malaria experts, who themselves were international leaders in malariology.

During the late 19th century, Trento and Trieste, cities with ethnic Italian majorities still belonging to the Austrians, became icons of the Italian irredentist movement. Benito Mussolini briefly joined the staff of a local newspaper in 1909, but left Trento because they could not create an anti-Austrian group. There was dissatisfaction with the lack of provincial autonomy and the failure to establish a university for the region. Feelings of loyalty were focused on the 'father-figure' emperor, not for Austria. The nationalist cause led Italy into World War I. Damiano Chiesa and the deputy in the Austrian parliament Cesare Battisti were two well-known local irredentists who had joined the Italian Army to fight against Austria-Hungary with the aim of bringing the territory of Trento into the new Kingdom of Italy. The two men were taken prisoners at the nearby southern front. They were put on trial for high treason and executed in the courtyard of Castello del Buonconsiglio.

The region was greatly affected during the war, and some of its fiercest battles were fought on the surrounding mountains in the southernmost regions and the southeast. Of a population of just less than 400,000 in the province, 55,000 men served in the Imperial and Royal Army of whom 11,000 died. Most served on the Galician front; 700 served with the Italian Army. After World War I, Trento and its Italian-speaking province, along with Bolzano (Bozen) and the part of Tyrol that stretched south of the Alpine watershed (which was primarily German-speaking, as still is to this day), were annexed by Italy.

In July 1943 Mussolini was removed as Prime Minister when the allies invaded Sicily. Italy surrendered to the Allies, and declared war on Germany. German troops promptly invaded northern Italy and the provinces of Trento, Belluno and South Tyrol became part of the Operation Zone of the Alpine Foothills, annexed to Germany. Some German-speakers wanted revenge upon Italian-speakers living in the area, but were mostly prevented by the occupying German troops, who still considered Mussolini head of the Italian Social Republic and wanted to preserve good relations with the Italians. From November 1944 to April 1945, Trento was bombed as part of the so-called "Battle of the Brenner". War supplies from Germany to support the Gothic Line were for the most part routed via the rail line through the Brenner Pass. Over 6,849 sorties were flown by the Allies over targets from Verona to the Brenner Pass, with 10,267 tons of bombs dropped. Parts of the city were hit by the Allied bombings, including the church of S. Maria Maggiore, the Church of the Annunciation and several bridges over the Adige river. In spite of the bombings, most of the medieval and renaissance city center was spared. It was finally liberated on 3 May 1945.

In 1947, Trento became the host of the Rally Stella Alpina.

Since the 1950s, the region has enjoyed prosperous growth, thanks in part to its special autonomy from the central Italian government.

On 4 August 2015, the cathedral tower caught fire by "spontaneous combustion". The clock stopped at 10:50 AM, a matter of minutes after the fire began.

In 2020, Trento was listed as the most sustainable city in Italy, according to the Smart City Index.

Geography
The township of Trento encompasses the city centre as well as many suburbs of extremely varied geographical and population conditions (from the industrial suburb of Gardolo, just north of the city, to tiny mountain hamlets on Monte Bondone). Various distinctive suburbs still retain their traditional identity of rural or mountain villages.

Trento lies in a wide glacial valley known as the Adige valley, just south of the Dolomite Mountains, where the Fersina River and Avisio rivers join the Adige River (the second longest river in Italy). River Adige is one of the three primary south-flowing Alpine rivers; its broadly curving course alongside Trento was straightened in 1850. The valley is surrounded by mountains, including Vigolana (2,150 m), Monte Bondone (2,181 m), Paganella (2,124 m), Marzola (1,747 m) and Monte Calisio (1,096 m). Nearby lakes include Lake Caldonazzo, Lake Levico, Lake Garda and Lake Toblino.

Frazioni
Frazioni, or subdivisions of Trento:

 * Povo
 * Villazzano
 * Gardolo
 * Roncafort
 * Mattarello
 * Martignano
 * Cognola
 * Ravina
 * Romagnano
 * Montevaccino
 * Vela
 * Meano
 * Sardagna
 * Sopramonte
 * Vigo Meano
 * Cortesano
 * Gazzadina
 * Candriai
 * Vaneze
 * Cadine
 * Vigolo Baselga

Climate
The municipality of Trento stretches across a wide range of altitude levels, going from just under 200 m above sea level at the city centre, to 400 m in Povo and Cognola, to 2000 m above sea level at Monte Bondone, boroughs at higher elevation, for instance Viote, have a colder alpine climate (Dw). Urban Trento has a humid subtropical-continental climate (Cfa-Dfa) according to the Köppen climate classification. Monthly average temperatures range between 1.6 °C (January) and 23.4 °C (July). Average annual precipitation exceeds 900 mm spread out on an average of 87 days, with peaks in late spring (May–June, 90 mm monthly average in 9–10 rain days) and autumn (October–November: 100–110 mm monthly average in 7–8 days), and lows in winter (January–February, 30–40 mm monthly average in 3–4 rain days). Winters are cold to freezing, with infrequent snowfall but usual frost from mid-November to mid-March. In winter, daytime highs may not exceed 5 °C and lows may rarely dip down to -10 °C, but the former usually stand around 8°C, while the latter usually hover between -3 °C to 0 °C. Spring brings unpredictable weather with wind blowing north to south or vice-versa through the valley. Many spring days are pleasant, but the transition may be very quick, for example going from frosty mornings to 30 °C in two months. In May, it is possible to have either rainy days with daytime highs below 18 °C, or sunny days with the temperature soaring up to 30 °C. Summers are hot, sometimes sweltering, with highs getting to 35 °C at least for a week a year and more rarely to 38 °C. Summer nights can be hot as well, with overnight lows hovering around 22-24 °C (in the hilly suburbs east, north and west of Trento summer nights can be much cooler, with overnight temperature differing by up to 6 °C from the ones experienced in the city centre). Early fall is pleasant, with foliage starting around mid-October at higher elevations, late October in the uphill suburbs and in November downtown. Fall days can be humid, grey and dim, with temperatures rapidly declining through October and November. The first snowfall in the suburbs may occur as early as late November, with December and early January being the snowiest period of the year.

Demographics
In 2007, there were 112,637 people residing in Trento, of whom 48% were male and 52% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 18.01 percent of the population compared to pensioners who numbered 19.37 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners). The average age of Trento residents is 41 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Trento grew by 5.72 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.56 percent. The current birth rate of Trento is 9.61 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.

, 92.68% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant group came from other European countries (mostly Albania, Romania): 4.13%, North Africa: 1.08%, and the Americas: 0.85%.

Trento Informa (a magazine distributed by the "comune") reports that in 2011 there were 117,190 people residing in Trento, of whom 48.5% aged between 45 and 65. The average age was 43.1 years.

Economy

The city owes much of its unique economy to its position along the main communication route between Italy and Northern Europe and to the Adige river which, prior to its diversion in the mid-19th century, ran through the center of the city. The Adige river was formerly a navigable river and one of the main commercial routes in the Alps. The original course of the river is now covered by the Via Torre Vanga, Via Torre Verde and the Via Alessandro Manzoni.

As late as World War II, Trento depended on wine-making and silk. Sparkling wine made in the Trentino province is part of the Trento DOC classification. The manufacturing industry installed in the post-war period has been mostly dismantled. Today, Trento thrives on commerce, services, tourism, high-quality agriculture and food industry (including wine and fruit), as a research and conference center thanks to a small but renowned university and internationally renowned research centers such as Fondazione Bruno Kessler, active in both fundamental and applied research, the Italian-German Historical Institute, the Centre for Computational and Systems Biology and ECT*, active in theoretical nuclear studies and part of FBK, and as logistics and transportation thoroughfare.

Valued pink and white porphyry are still excavated from some surrounding areas (Pila). This stone can be seen in many of Trento's buildings, both new and old.

The city has two long-running annual sporting events: the Giro al Sas (a 10 km professional road running competition) was first held in the city in 1907 and continues to the present, while the Giro del Trentino is an annual road cycling race which the city has hosted every year since 1963.

Economy Festival of Trento
The Festival dell’Economia di Trento (Economy Festival of Trento) was brought into being in 2006 in order to enable and facilitate discussions between economists and a broad public. The aim of this festival is to put economic terminology across to everyone. The festival takes place every year at the end of May on the historic Palazzi of the old town in Trento. Well known economists explain and interpret current economic issues, both from an economic-scientific as well as from a social and entrepreneurial viewpoint. In the course of recent years, numerous economic scholars and managers such as Sir Anthony Atkinson, Fan Gang, Zygmunt Bauman and the Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker took an active part.

Government
Trento is governed by the City Council of Trento. Voters elect directly 40 councilors and the mayor of Trento every five years. The current mayor of Trento is Franco Ianeselli, elected for the first time on 21 September 2020. Ianeselli, a former trade unionist, was elected as a left-leaning independent with the support of a wide coalition of parties. These parties ranged from the left (as in the case of Europa Verde) to the Catholic centre (including Partito Autonomista Trentino Tirolese, and Insieme per Trento). When determining the composition of his Giunta (the equivalent of a City Cabinet), Ianeselli selected seven members of the City Council: Monica Baggia, Elisabetta Bozzarelli, Mariachiara Franzoia, Chiara Maule, Salvatore Panetta, Roberto Stanchina, and Paolo Zanella. However, in late November 2020 Paolo Zanella announced he would leave his position as a member of the Giunta, in order to fill a vacancy in one of the 35 seats of the legislative assembly of the Trentino province, upon the resignation of member Paolo Ghezzi. Shortly after, mayor Ianeselli announced Ezio Facchin as Zanella's successor.

Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino
In 1996, a joint session between the states, further cultural and economic integration between the Austrian province of Tyrol and the Italian autonomous provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino was mutually agreed on. This activity was steadily extended, eventually followed by the creation of the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino in 2011.

Main sights

Although off the beaten path of mass tourism, Trento offers rather interesting monuments. Its architecture has a unique feel, with both Italian Renaissance and Roman influences. The city center is small, and most Late-Medieval and Renaissance buildings have been restored to their original pastel colours and wooden balconies. Part of the medieval city walls is still visible in Piazza Fiera, along with a circular tower. Once, these walls encircled the entire city and were connected to the Castello del Buonconsiglio. The main monuments of the city include:
 * Cattedrale di San Vigilio (Cathedral of Saint Vigilius), also known as Duomo di Trento (12th–13thcentury) is a Romanesque-Gothic cathedral built on top of a late-Roman basilica (viewable in an underground crypt).
 * Piazza Duomo (1767–1768), on the side of the cathedral, has frescoed Renaissance buildings and the Late Baroque Fountain of Neptune (Fontana di Nettuno).
 * Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (1520), site of the preparatory congregations of the Third Council of Trent (April 1562 – December 1563). It was built for Bishop Bernardo Clesio by the architect Antonio Medaglia in Renaissance-Gothic style. The façade has a notable 16th-century portal, while the interior has works by Giambettino Cignaroli and Moroni.
 * Castello del Buonconsiglio (Buonconsiglio Castle) (13th century), which includes a museum and the notable Torre dell'Aquila, with a cycle of fine Gothic frescoes depicting the months, was commissioned by the prince-bishop Georg von Lichtenstein.
 * Church of San Pietro (12th century) features a neo-Gothic façade added in 1848–1850.
 * Church of Sant'Apollinare (13th century) is a Gothic church.
 * Church of San Lorenzo (12th century) features a Romanesque apse.
 * Torre Verde (Green Tower), along the former transit path of the Adige river, is said to be where persons executed in the name of the Prince-Bishop were deposited in the river.
 * Palazzo delle Albere (Palace of the Trees), a Renaissance villa next to the Adige river built around 1550 by the Madruzzo family, now hosting a modern art museum.
 * Palazzo Pretorio (12th century), next to the Duomo, with a bell tower (Torre Civica) of the 13th century that now hosts a collection of baroque paintings of religious themes. It was the main Bishops' residence until the mid-13th century.
 * Palazzo Salvadori (1515) is one of the first examples of Renaissance civil architecture in the city.
 * Palazzo Geremia (15th century) features a Renaissance exterior and Gothic interiors.
 * Palazzo Lodron, built during the Council of Trent. The interior has a large fresco cycle.
 * Various underground remains of the streets and villas of the Roman city (in Via Prepositura and Piazza Cesare Battisti).

Trento also sports modernist architecture, including the train station and the central post office, both by rationalist architect Angiolo Mazzoni. In particular, the train station (1934–36) is considered a landmark building of Italian railways architecture and combines many varieties of local stone with the most advanced building materials of the time: glass, reinforced concrete, metal. The post office was once decorated with colored windows by Fortunato Depero, but these were destroyed during bombings in World War II. Other buildings of that time include the Grand Hotel by Giovanni Lorenzi with some guest rooms furnished with futurist furniture by Depero, and the "R. Sanzio" Primary School built in 1931–34 and designed by Adalberto Libera.

Museums

 * MUSE - Museo delle Scienze, museum of science and natural history. The museum was planned by Renzo Piano and opened in 2013.
 * Municipal Gallery, part of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART).
 * Regional Museum of Art, in the Castello del Buonconsiglio, former seat of the Prince-Bishops of Trento.
 * The Tridentine Diocesan Museum, located in the Palazzo Pretorio, Trento, next to the Cathedral Square of Trento, shows the artistic treasures of the diocese of Trento as well as the influence of the council on the city.
 * Viote Alpine Botanical Garden, located on Monte Bondone in Le Viote, founded in 1938. Trento's surroundings are known for the mountain landscapes and are a destination of both summer and winter tourism.
 * Museo dell'Aeronautica Gianni Caproni, an aeronautical museum located in Mattarello, near Trento's airport.

Theatre

 * Teatro Sociale, realized in 1819
 * Teatro Auditorium
 * Teatro San Marco
 * Teatro di Meano, located in the frazione of Meano

Events

 * Economy Festival Trento
 * Mountain Film Festival
 * Christmas Market of Trento
 * A Tutto Nosiola – Food and Wine Event
 * Gemme di Gusto – Food and Wine Event
 * DiVin Ottobre – Food and Wine Event

Education

The University of Trento was founded in 1962 and has its headquarters in the city of Trento. The other university location is in Rovereto. In total, over 16,000 students study in Trento. Through the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, the university also works closely together with the universities of Innsbruck and Bolzano.

Transport
The Autostrada A22 (part of the European route E45) highway connects Trento to Verona and to Bolzano, Innsbruck and Munich.

Trento railway station, opened in 1859, forms part of the Brenner railway (Verona–Innsbruck), which is the main rail connection between Italy and Germany. The station is also a junction with the Valsugana railway, which connects Trento to Venice. Trento has several other railway stations, including Trento FTM railway station, terminus of the Trento-Malè-Marilleva railway (FTM).

Bus or train services operate to the main surrounding valleys: Fassa, Fiemme, Gudicarie, Non, Primiero, Rendena, Sole, Tesino, Valsugana.

The public transport network within the city consists of 20 bus lines operated by Trentino Trasporti and a funicular service to Sardagna. The various railway stations within Trento's city limits are integrated into the public transport network.

Local teams

 * Trentino Volley, one of the top teams in Italian volleyball, has won the Italian championship four times, three times the CEV Champions League title and five times the club world cup.
 * Aquila Basket Trento has been playing regularly in the highest Italian basketball league for several years and reached the final of the play-offs in the 2016/17 season and 2017/18 season.
 * A.C. Trento S.C.S.D. is one of the oldest football clubs in the region of Trentino Alto Adige since its foundation in 1921. Starting in 2021, the club is to play in the third highest Italian league, the Serie C.

Sports venues
PalaTrento, now known as BLM Group Arena, opened in 2000, is an indoor arena with a capacity of 4300 seats. Trentino Volley and Aquila Basket Trento play their respective games there.
 * Stadio Briamasco is a football stadium with a capacity of 4277 seats and is currently the home stadium of AC Trento.

People

Notable people born in or associated with Trento include:
 * Jacopo Aconcio (c. 1520–1566), Italian jurist, theologian, philosopher and engineer
 * Beniamino Andreatta (1928–2007), Italian economist and politician
 * Cesare Battisti (1875–1916), Italian patriot during the Italian irredentism
 * Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672–1749), Italian priest and amateur composer
 * Aliprando Caprioli, engraver of the 16th century
 * Alcide De Gasperi (1881–1954), 30th Prime Minister of Italy and one of the founding fathers of the European Union
 * Ernest von Koerber (1850–1919), Austrian liberal statesman, prime minister of the Austrian portion of Austria-Hungary from 1900 to 1904
 * Johann Baptist von Lampi the Younger (1775–1837), Austrian portrait painter
 * Chiara Lubich (1920–2008), Italian teacher and author. She founded the Focolare Movement.
 * Martino Martini (1614–1661), Jesuit missionary, geographer, historian and missionary
 * Paolo Oss Mazzurana (1833–1895), Trento's most notable mayor, with progressive economic policies that impacted Trento's commercial sector and its eventual independence
 * Francesca Neri (born 1964), Italian actress
 * Aldo Pancheri (born 1940), painter and printmaker
 * Antonio Pedrotti (1901–1975), Italian conductor and composer
 * Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709), Jesuit Brother, baroque painter and architect
 * Galeas von Thun und Hohenstein (1850–1931), the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 1905 to 1931
 * Alessandro Vittoria (1525–1608), Italian Mannerist sculptor of the Venetian school
 * Hermann Zingerle (1870–1935), Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist

Sport

 * Lorenzo Bernardi (born 1968), Italian volleyball coach and former player, team silver medallist at the 1996 Summer Olympics
 * Attilio Bettega (1953–1985), rally driver
 * Alessandro Bonetti (born 1985), racing driver
 * Mirko Bortolotti (born 1990), racing driver
 * Thomas Degasperi (born 1981), water skier, two time World Champion
 * Cesare Maestri (1929–2021), Italian mountaineer and writer
 * Amos Mosaner (born 1995), Italian curler, team gold medallist at the 2022 Winter Olympics
 * Marvin Vettori (born 1993), Italian professional mixed martial artist
 * Renzo Videsott (1904–1974), Italian alpinist and conservationist

Twin towns – sister cities
Trento is twinned with:

 * 🇩🇪 Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (Berlin), Germany (1966)
 * 🇪🇸 San Sebastián, Spain (1987)
 * 🇩🇪 Kempten, Germany (1987)
 * 🇨🇿 Prague 1, Czech Republic (2002)

Districts of Trento are twinned with:

 * 🇦🇹 Schwaz, Austria
 * 🇦🇹 Fließ, Austria
 * 🇩🇪 Ergolding, Germany
 * 🇩🇪 Herrsching, Germany
 * 🇩🇪 Neufahrn bei Freising, Germany
 * 🇨🇿 Znojmo, Czech Republic

Partner cities

 * 🇧🇦 Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * 🇵🇱 Sławno, Poland

title: Trento