REVEALED: Biden's 'nuclear football' contains BOOK that tells president how to launch attack by contacting 'Looking Glass' plane and spherical bunker where four keys ignite missiles

The most important football in the world is not a ball at all, rather it is the 'nuclear football' carried with the President of the United States that tells them how to launch a nuclear attack - and its contents may surprise most Americans.

Moran Cerf, 46, a neuroscience professor who studies the procedures of how a president can order a nuclear attack, told The Sunday Times what steps the leader of the free world has to take to launch a strike.

Cerf said the satchel does not contain the technology to directly launch missiles. Instead, it holds a number of plans for the president to pick through.

'There's a book, a really thick book with all the nuclear options. Essentially it's like Choose Your Own Adventure,' said Cerf. 

'You open the book and it says, "If you want to bomb North Korea, go to page 470. And if you want to bomb North Korea and you're going to focus on Pyongyang, go to 471."'

Next, the commander in chief will tell an aide what plan they have selected and that begins moving through a chain of command.

'[This aide] has a communications device that he uses to have the president connect the command and control center, of which there are two,' said Cerf.

One of these command posts is aboard a plane that is constantly in the air as three planes fly in shifts.

'There’s always a plane in the air. It’s called the "Looking Glass,"' said Cerf.

The command then goes to a military bunker that is 'spherical, floating on springs in a hollow cavity in the ground' where two officers are required to launch the missiles. 

Cerf said: 'Someone reads to them the authentication code, so that they know it’s a real thing. Each one of them has a chain with a key round his neck and they both go to a safe and insert the keys, and then they unlock the safe that has in it two other keys. And those are the keys that are actually the keys.'

'They have to turn the keys at the same time and hold for eight seconds. And then it launches and from then on, no one can stop it.'

One of five military aides to the president - one from each branch of the armed forces: army, navy, air forces, marines and coast guard - always carries the 'nuclear football' in close proximity to the leader.

It has been carried by every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s. 

The president authenticates their identity with codes found on a small plastic card carried with them. In case the president is incapacitated or has died, an identical nuclear football is assigned to the vice president.

In the event of a devastating attack on the US, the president – or vice president as backup – would confirm their identity to the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon over a secure phone by reading codes from the Sealed Authenticator System card – also known as the 'biscuit' – that they are supposed to carry with them at all times.

Military leaders and White House national security advisors would then brief the president or vice president on the nature of the threat and the options for retaliating. If either person wanted to consult the written options, they could do so.

Then, the president would choose a retaliatory option and the command would be read back to them. Once confirmed, the command center would use the military's launch authorization codes to release nuclear missiles.

'In the U.S. protocol you have to rehearse the entire process every four months, so three times a year,' Cerf said.

However, Cerf said modern presidents rarely run through the drill.

'The answer is zero times — [Biden] never does it. He always says, "I’m going to send someone else instead. Not a good time for me..." What about Trump? How often do you think Trump did it? And the answer is zero.'

'The last person to have done it is Carter in the Seventies,' Cerf said.