It looks like the handle of a gun from the Time Crisis arcade game, but this is the device that would launch a nuclear warhead from a British submarine.
Fortunately this is just a replica, the real trigger is locked away in a safe that only Lieutenant Commander Woods – his first name cannot be revealed – and his deputy know the combination for.
They serve on board the Vanguard-class submarine HMS Vigilant, which defence secretary Michael Fallon toured with journalists at HM Naval Base Clyde, at Faslane near Glasgow, on Thursday.
The submarine is one of four that make up Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent, which Labour is considering ending its decades-long support for and the Scottish National Party wants to scrap.
The visit on Vigilant was the first in 10 years, and allowed a glimpse into the process that would lead to the UK launching a nuclear missile, and the people who would be involved.
Woods said it would be an "honour and a burden" to press the button, which he says would only take place in a situation where the UK had been hit by a nuclear strike.
The strike would only be launched after the prime minister's order to fire had been verified, but Woods would not know the missile's target or the events that had let up to the deterrent failing.
"We have to act on the orders of our political lords and masters," he told the Telegraph.
"When we are at sea, we don't know the whole story and we have to trust that they know what they are doing."
Once the missile has been fired, there is no way back, no self-destruct function. Or, as father-of-three Woods describes it, "fire and forget".