[Viennacon]

Yes. North Korea are already upping the ante with their new photoshop navy!

Seriously though, if they did have an EMP aboard that space craft, wouldn’t they have to launch it down to earth at the US, to detonate closer to the ground. Couldn’t we just shoot it down with a missile before it activates?

[steve86]

Couldn’t we just shoot it down with a missile before it activates?

We have classified ways to deal with things like that. But this satellite is uselessly tumbling and not of a mass or volume to carry a nuclear device.

[Myrddin]

It's already in orbit. Likely a low earth orbit ~600 miles. A brief deorbit burn wouldn't be easy to spot. At about 220 above the surface, the line of sight is still good coast to coast over CONUS. If we are tracking it and really believe it is an EMP weapon in waiting, we should try to get it before they deorbit.

[Boogieman]

“Couldn’t we just shoot it down with a missile before it activates?”

An EMP attack detonates at high altitude, but it would still have to reenter the atmosphere to hit the “sweet spot”.

Now, as to whether we could shoot it down, the Russians developed a plan for an EMP attack which they shared with NK. This plan involved attacking from a cross-polar trajectory, in which the warhead would approach us from the Southern hemisphere, and we have no early warning system in that direction. You can’t shoot down what you can’t see.

[Monorprise]

They only need to get it about 500km above Kansas to take out most all the electronics in North America.(U.S., Canada, and mexico) Nice article on the matter: http://www.futurescience.com/emp.html