Boeing Unveils Amazing, Slightly Terrifying New Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon

Motley Fool ^ | May 24, 2015 | Staff

[lbryce]

Boeing's "CHAMP" (Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project) is a one-missile, flying blackout.

Born into Generation X, I grew up with the threat of nuclear war -- and all its corollaries, from visions of mushroom clouds to "duck and cover" drills in high school to Terminator movies, and of course, the ever-present worry that one day a sneaky Soviet satellite would detonate way up in the sky and fry all of our electronics with an "electromagnetic pulse."

So imagine my surprise when the U.S. Air Force confirmed last week that it's developed an electromagnetic pulse weapon of its own, and that Boeing is helping to build it.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory maps the areas likely to be blacked out in the event of a high-altitude nuclear EMP attack on the United States. Boeing's area of effect will be considerably smaller.

[lbryce]

Boeing's area of effect will be considerably smaller.So what's the point? What advantage is there if the EMP black out area of our enemy is smaller?

[lowbridge]

Count on the next democrat president to hand over the technology of this weapon over to our enemies. If the current president hasnt done that already

[MrEdd]

Well, how big is Yemen?
You want to confine the effect to your target.

[lonevoice]

ping

[kabar]

CHAMP carries a small generator that emits microwaves to fry electronics with pinpoint accuracy. It targets not nations or cities but individual buildings, blacking out their electronics rather than blowing up physical targets (or people).

What makes CHAMP even more interesting is that, unlike a nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapon, which fires once, blacking out entire nation-states, CHAMP can fire multiple times, pinpointing and blacking out only essential targets. This would permit, for example, taking down radar defenses in a hostile state, while saving the electrical grid that supports the civilian population. In a 2012 test flight in Utah, a single CHAMP was reported to have blacked out seven separate targets in succession, in one single mission.

Answer your question?

[SunkenCiv]

It's only terrifying if we *don't* build it. Thanks lbryce.

[Smokin' Joe]

Whose enemy?

It might be coming soon to a town near you!

[DeweyCA]

Israel could use this to take out Iran’s new set of Russian SAM missile systems.

[Smokin' Joe]

It's only terrifying if we *don't* build it.

True, that. I wonder how long it has taken our enemies to steal/hack it?

[coloradan]

They use electricity? What, electric camels? (And, goats?)

[RegulatorCountry]

I suppose it’s radar absorbing, but I dislike all the black military craft, they just don’t look like they belong to the good guys, starting with the bat-like B-2 Stealth bomber. Maybe I sound like an idiot lib saying that, but it does make me uncomfortable.

[cripplecreek]

I believe we dropped metallic chaff onto Iraqi power lines to short them out for localized power outages in Iraq.

Sometimes you want to keep the water running while shutting down the radar installations.

[VerySadAmerican]

Gen X grew up during the “duck and cover” period? I don’t think so. They stopped teaching that in the 70s if not sooner.

[RFEngineer]

Boeing’s CHAMP is an “IEMI” Intentional Electromagnetic Interference weapon. It is subject to the “inverse square” law - so it must be relatively close to it’s intended target, which generally must be above ground for it to be effective.

An EMP from a nuclear detonation is different - in frequency content, and in being subject to “inverse square” for a variety of technical reasons.

The map presented is for GIC (geomagnetically Induced Currents) that are a potential impact for a HEMP event, or a geomagnetic storm.

The CHAMP would not have anything to do with the depicted map.

[antidisestablishment]

Military hardware is already EMP hardened.

[ansel12]

Born into Generation X, I grew up with the threat of nuclear war

So we weren't in a nuclear face off until the Gen Xers came along? I have seen other media outlets use the same theme, as though the nuclear war threat didn't start in the 1950s, but in the 1970s or 1980s.

[alloysteel]

Several strategically placed and detonated simultaneously over Iran may prove to be extraordinarily effective....

All with little or no damage to the real estate or even to most of the people on the ground.

I should hope that countermeasures are ready to be set up and deployed at earliest opportunity.

[IMR 4350]

I recall about 1-2 years ago the electricity was going off in different places across the country without any explanation.

Here in Texas the electricity went out in a strip from where I live up through the Conroe area. No rhyme or reason to the outage. Not even the same electricity providers.

My buddy up around Conroe had some of his electronics fried cost him several hundred bucks.

[piasa]

So what's the point? What advantage is there if the EMP black out area of our enemy is smaller?

Versatility- this is not a nuclear strike so there are fewer ethical reasons to avoid using it.

You can attack smaller countries or targets on the border of an enemy country without collateral damage to allied nations that might alienate them or their populations.

You can attack an enemy base or wmd/nuclear site without taking down your enemy's hospitals or civilian air corridors and thus minimize the damage done to civilians that would otherwise feed into Anti-American rage and damage our humanitarian reputation and alliances.

[Leaning Right]

I wonder how long it has taken our enemies to steal/hack it?

Hillary would remind you that there is also the option to buy it outright. Just call the Clinton Foundation and ask for Bill.