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United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is the commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, which hosts the 843rd Bomb Wing of nuclear-armed B-52s. The base's aircraft are currently part of a SAC airborne alert force, holding at their fail-safe locations only hours from Soviet airspace. Ripper calls Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers), a Royal Air Force exchange officer serving as General Ripper's executive officer, and has him place the base on alert and issue attack orders to the aircraft. Mandrake initially suspects this is a drill, but Ripper tells him it is not.