The Next High-Tech Threat to U.S. Security

Cross Action News ^ | 7-1-08 | Paul M. Weyrich

[Victory111]

EMP is electromagnetic radiation from an explosion (especially a nuclear explosion). The worst of the pulse lasts for only a second but any unprotected electrical equipment - and anything connected to electrical cables, which act as giant lightning rods or antennas - are affected by it. If a nation with a nuclear bomb and the ability to explode it high above an American city were to do so, it would have a massive effect in all directions. Almost immediately all communications systems in the country would be disrupted completely. No radio. No television. No internet. Indeed no electricity at all. Most of the country literally would be in the dark with no possibility of recovering any electrical facilities.

[Red Badger]

EMP is electromagnetic radiation from an explosion (especially a nuclear explosion).

I wasn't aware that any other kind produced EMP..............

[saganite]

There’s nothing new about this idea. It’s been around for decades.

[Hot Tabasco]

Indeed no electricity at all.

I remember the east coast blackout a few years ago that lasted about 2 1/2 days here in S.E. Michigan. The worst effect was immediate gridlock on virtually every road and major highway that had stop lights. it took me about 4 1/2 hours to drive the 17 miles home.

Next was the supermarkets. The frozen foods that hadn't been sold ultimately had to be thrown away. Didn't matter because we couldn't store any of it with the power out.

Electricity holds "our" society together. Without it for any length of time I think you would see total chaos.......

[JRandomFreeper]

There are other methods of producing emp.

/johnny

[boogerbear]

Next?! We’ve been talking about the dangers of EMP on our electrically addicted society since the middle of the Cold War. Glad this guy finally caught up.

[massgopguy]

I was working in the OEM Dept. at Digital Equipment Corp. in 1981 when a “Tempest” version monitor came in for repair. Some “people” came and took it away.

[Rick.Donaldson]

Good grief. He is just getting around to reading about this stuff? We’ve been talking about this for... well, since the 1940s... gosh.

[Little Ray]

Actually, there are designs for non-nuclear EMP weapons. They seem to involve explosives and magnets.
Naturally the area affected is much smaller... But you can build ‘em with stuff you can order on-line or buy from a store!

[Red Badger]

There are other methods of producing emp.

As long as it doesn't involve ethanol or cause global warming, I don't care......................;^)

[chimera]

We've been studying this stuff going back tot eh 1950s and the Starfish test series. Very lovely aurora effects as well as EMP.

[TC Rider]

Indeed no electricity at all.

Hoover Dam will keep on producing the watts. Everything in the dam is analog, not to mention buried in concrete. Not so sure about the distribution system.

The DOD has had EMP resistant chips since the 80s, not sure how the commercial stuff will hold up.

[Squantos]

http://survivalmonkey.com/SF%20books/LightsOut!/LightsOut-Current.pdf

Good emp read / fiction ......free pdf file !

[TC Rider]

Would a CFL bulb survive a EMP? Or would its little diode be fried?

Save the incandescents!

[Max in Utah]

There’s nothing new about this idea.

There's a new dimension to this idea: the possibility that Iran may be preparing to administer the EMP blow to the US. Just one large nuclear device could lay this country flat, completely destroying our economy and causing a dog-eat-dog struggle for survival in the aftermath. One ship fitted to launch one missle. That's all they'd need.

Our superpower status would be lost, probably forever. No more projecting power across the globe, no more influence on world events. The islamist lunatics of Iran probably swoon just thinking about it.

[Rick.Donaldson]

It now has been four years since Dr. William Graham, Science Advisor to President Ronald W. Reagan and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, and a distinguished panel completed a study of High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and its potential effects upon this country.

That may be true, but it has been 63 years since the first atom bomb was detonated, and a year later we were certain of the effects of EMP. Eleven sitting Presidents have been in office since then and we knew about it the ENTIRE TIME.

The reason it has not been made public is simple: if EMP were understood by the American people, the next logical question would be what steps the government has taken to reduce the possibility of an EMP attack in this country. To date little has been done. When the American people realize as much, the outrage will be palpable.

This is untrue. The American public DOES know about it as evidenced by the many, many articles on EMP written by all sorts of people (including ME). Those that "don't know" are suffering what many American suffer, APATHY and IGNORANCE. Anyone with half a clue and even use Google and do a search on thousands of articles and find out more than you will discover in ANY classified report. There won't be any outrage, because basically people don't give a damn and it's NOT UP TO THE GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT THEM!

EMP is electromagnetic radiation from an explosion (especially a nuclear explosion).

Ummm only nukes. Unless you consider certain, small, conventional explosive devices that MIGHT be used to cause a pulse, but this is very inefficient and basically, won't work to cover a large area. So, essentially this too is wrong, and should have read "(ONLY nuclear explosions)."

The worst of the pulse lasts for only a second but any unprotected electrical equipment - and anything connected to electrical cables, which act as giant lightning rods or antennas - are affected by it.

Wrong again. An electromagnetic pulse lasts for fractions of a second, usually in the nanosecond range. However, various measurements have shown different lengths of time at different frequencies. What folks need to realize is that the explosion is what causes the EMP. The pulse is a short duration, extremely high-energy pulse of a combination of a magnetic field and Radio Frequency pulse. A lightning strike is basically an EMP as well. Lightning generates a pulse of energy that can be heard in any standard AM radio for thousands of miles and the RF energy actually is radiated as broadband, high-energy RF which can be heard from the lowest RF radio frequencies to well into the high gigahertz frequencies.

In fact, TECHNICALLY a lightning bolt is a type of energy that can be said to go from "DC to Daylight". Why? Lightning is a ONE WAY current flow. It is a direct current when it flows in something (like the AIR for instance) as massive quantities of electrons (measured in coulombs) are released and flow to a more positive point in space. The pulse puts out RF radiation across the spectrum, and you can SEE it - thus my DC-to-Daylight explanation.

Not everything connected to cables is susceptible to EMP. Many things are, however, going to get the pulse.

The damage is caused by the high-energy pulse cutting across a wire (any wire connected to anything with a path to ground, especially being susceptible). This magnetic field (and radio energy) will induce into the conductor a spike of electrical energy as the spike's field builds. The spike of energy has to have both movement and energy in it. This induced current will then flow into circuits (active or not, plugged into the wall or not) and can damage certain kinds of electronic devices like CPUs, memory circuits, and many types of semiconductors (especially CMOS type devices).

Vacuum tube sets won't be bothered by this.

Antennas are not "lightning rods". A lightning rod is pointed and dissapates static built up by spraying it from the objects that are being protected. The rods and system are grounded in the EVENT that lightning STILL happens to strike, conducting the blast to ground. Lightning rods usually ARE NOT hit by lightning and do not ATTRACT lightning.

Almost immediately all communications systems in the country would be disrupted completely. No radio. No television. No internet. Indeed no electricity at all.

Remember this, when all else fails, AMATEUR RADIO. People scoff at that, but it is true. Major communications infrastructures WILL BE terminated, and useless. Amateur Radio however is not connected to any infrastructure. It is a stand-alone system of diversified radio systems, operators and in widely varying locations. Hams will come to the rescue. There will be generators, batteries and ways to charge them. We won't have cell phones, and most phone systems will cease to function, the internet will be gone, satellites won't work, dead in space and many television and radio stations will be off the air.

But the Hams will be there.

We would not be able to run our cars because the gasoline pumps would not work. Water distribution systems would not work.

Never heard of a hand pump I'm betting.

While there would be few immediate deaths connected with such an explosion, the long-term consequences would be profound.

There won't be ANY deaths from such a detonation. The higher, the better, the wider the foot print. This means the altitude will be at the edge of space to get the best efficiency and widest range to take out the most stuff. Somewhere probably over Kansas at the edge of space. Unless the International Space Station happens to be there... then there won't be ANY immediate deaths.

The national power grid would be rendered completely impotent. It would take many months or even years to have it up and running but with no power tools available, accomplishing this likely would be impossible.

The NATIONAL power grid might not be up. However, most of the small grids can be repaired and back online in a few days to a few months. Not YEARS. Nothing, at all, is 'impossible'. This is an example of liberal emotionalism bouncing to the forefront.

There would be no telecommunications. Railroads would be unable to run. Even if the few steam locomotives left were employed, there would be no signal systems and no ability to switch tracks.

No, there would be messages being passed. Sorry, there would be communications systems up as I explained, and the military has a rather robust system of HF systems around the world. No, we would be hearing the news. There would be shortwave stations on the air and many other local stations would be back with generator power at least.

Railroads with steam engines could run easily, but there aren't many left, and switches can still be thrown, golly, by HAND. (Oh man, this is HARD work, doing something without a power tool ain't it?)

I could go on but you get the picture.

You could go on, but you'd still be wrong about all those things you were talking about.

Recovery would depend upon the restoration of electric power, the possibility of which would depend upon whether a part of the country was unaffected and that would depend upon where the bomb explodes.

Recovery would depend on people pulling together, as they did during the attacks on WTC and DC, the OKC building and many other situations America has gone through. Not electricity. It will be tough for many who don't know how to live without power, but they will survive. (Much better than a direct strike on an area of the country certainly!)

Graham says that an EMP attack is a credible, potentially catastrophic threat to the United States. He says that the U.S. strategy should balance prevention, preparation, protection and recovery.

Scientist Graham isn't the only one that believes this is a credible, potentially catastrophic threat to the US (or other countries for that matter) - and many of us have been talking about this aspect of "survival" to the point of planning for the eventuality.

The Administration of President George W. Bush has known this for years, yet almost nothing has been done about it. Had he released this report and enforced the panel’s recommendations he would be remembered as the President who saved America. Some scientists think the report may be released next month. If so it would behoove Bush to spend his remaining six months in office implementing Graham’s recommendations. He cannot begin a moment too soon.

The "administrations" of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, AND Bush have "know about this for years" and almost nothing CAN be done about it.

Good God..... Where do these Liberals come from? Blame BUSH for something that has been a problem for six decades?????

Give us a BREAK!

Rick Donaldson, CET, NØNJY

moˈloːn laˈbe!

An Armed citizen with a gun, is better than a cell phone and 911!

It's better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for who you're not.

" A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. " Robert Heinlein

http://realitycheck.blogsome.com
http://www.transasianaxis.com
http://www.damhban.com

[AZ .44 MAG]

I own one of these near Tucson, Arizona:

http://www.strategic-air-command.com/missiles/Titan/Titan_II_missile_complex.htm

They were deactivated and partially demolished after removing the missiles in the early 80s and sold at auction. They’ll withstand a near miss from one of the big Russian city buster nukes. They are also shielded against EMP making them a good place to store electronics and magnetic back up media. The entire complex is underground except for the top of the stairway.

My intention is to turn it into a secure storage facility. There are four 12-inch, 6,000-pound steel blast doors set in 31,000-pound door jambs protecting the underground facilities from blast overpressure and intrusion by bad guys. To get anywhere in the facility you have to go through three of the doors. The doors are held in place by 4 hydraulic dead bolts on each door.

[AZ .44 MAG]

12-inch should read 12-inch thick

[Red Badger]

I work in the HF band. When all the satellites are blown to space debris, all the cell phones are inop, all the fancy hi-tech gighz gizmos are nothing worthless pieces of silicon and plastic, HF band stuff will still be working fine and dandy...................

[Rick.Donaldson]

I seemed to remember that (which is why I pinged you instead of someone else). lol

I’ve had arguments with folks even here on FR that will say “Well, nothing will stop the ham gear from being destroyed”.

/sigh