No, there are published papers from Sandia and Lawrence/Livermore that even if every single SS-18 Satan had the Mod 3 warhead (25MT) all launched and detonated at EMP altitude, it still wouldn't cover all of CONUS or have long lasting effects. I forget the yield, but for ONE nuclear warhead to cause catastrophic EMP damage over all of CONUS would be in the gigaton range or high hundred megaton. Every nuclear weapon (less SADM/tactical nukes) the Russians have is approx. 1,056GT.
The SS18s with the 25MT warheads were strictly for destroying the LCCs outside of Warren, Malstrom, and Minot AFBs, plus Site R, Mount Weather, Greenbriar Hotel (now untargeted), NORAD, Camp David, White House Bunker, Pentagon bunker, and Naval Observatory Bunker.
Ok, thanks for the info.
“No, there are published papers from Sandia and Lawrence/Livermore that even if every single SS-18 Satan had the Mod 3 warhead (25MT) all launched and detonated at EMP altitude, it still wouldn’t cover all of CONUS or have long lasting effects. I forget the yield, but for ONE nuclear warhead to cause catastrophic EMP damage over all of CONUS would be in the gigaton range or high hundred megaton. Every nuclear weapon (less SADM/tactical nukes) the Russians have is approx. 1,056GT.”
First, thermonuclear (fusion) weapons are far from the ideal way to create EMP - fission (plain old atomic bombs, not hydrogen bombs) are better, even though the yield is lower. Second, the fission bombs can be tuned to produce far more of the particular EMP effects that are desired. You don’t need that much in the way of explosive force (1,056GT) to cripple a continent-sized nation like the US.