Electromagnetic Pulse: An Avoidable Disaster

GOPUSA ^ | January 4, 2005 | Paul M. Weyrich

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Although the risk of your house catching fire and burning to the ground is remote, are you willing to risk not having fire insurance?

That's a question that Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) poses, and the answer that I think you and I would give without hesitation is "no."

Our country is unprepared to deal with a nuclear explosion at a high altitude. The danger would be more than merely life or limb. A nuclear explosion over Chicago, for example, could plunge a large portion of our country into darkness, with electricity lost for days, even months, perhaps in some places years. All computerized activity in the region would cease. The culprit: High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse.

The very day the 9/11 Commission report was issued another report, that may one day prove itself to be even more important to our security, also was released. "The Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack" stated that our country has the ability to prevent the worst-case scenarios from occurring in this age of international terrorism.

When NATO started to bomb the Serbs in the spring of 1999 to stop Slobodan Milosevic's expulsion campaign against ethnic Albanians, the Russians were very unhappy about our military aggressions against one of their longtime allies. Rep. Bartlett was part of a bi-partisan delegation assembled by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) to examine the situation. They conferred with some counterparts from the Russian Duma. One Duma member, Vladimir Lukin (at the time chairing the Duma's International Affairs Committee and formerly a high-level member of the Soviet national security apparatus under Gorbachev), threatened that if Russia really wanted to hurt us without fear of retaliation, Russia would launch a missile against us from a submarine, explode it high over our skies and shut down our power grid and communications for six months.

Rep. Bartlett was very disturbed by what he had heard; he wanted to know if the Russians were bluffing and sought the opinions of our country's military experts. After he found that the Clinton Administration was ignoring the threat, Rep. Bartlett decided to establish the Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Commission. The EMP Commission was established by unanimous consent of the House and Senate.

If a nuclear blast occurred in high altitudes over our country, people would not be killed by the fallout from the blast itself. The most serious and far-reaching damage would be done by the EMP emissions. The result? According to the report, "the 'electromagnetic shock' that disrupts or damages electronics-based control systems, sensors, communication systems, protective systems, computers, and similar devices. Its damage or functional disruption occurs essentially simultaneously over a very large area." One scenario outlined by the EMP Commission predicted that a blast over Chicago, where 70% of our country's total power generation occurs, would instantly impact cities as distant as New York and Washington, D.C.

Important economic and life-sustaining sectors that stand to be severely damaged or shut down are our electronic power infrastructure, telecommunications, banking and finance, transportation, fuel/energy, food and emergency services, water supply, space systems and government operations.

An EMP attack cannot be compared to an ordinary blackout, even a very large blackout, because it will occur over a greater area, damage major electronic systems and cause recovery to be measured in months.

Here is some of the damage that stands to occur immediately after an attack unless sensible "hardening" precautions are taken to protect data and systems. They are:

Electronic records in computers, such as your savings and checking accounts, would be inaccessible.

Your telephone line, even for a cellular, would go dead.

The systems that operate petroleum refineries would be stopped, forcing energy production to halt for some time.

Transportation would be disrupted. Car and truck engines, train engines would be disabled. Traffic signals would become inoperable. Our air traffic control system would cease to exist.

Calling 911 would be a thing of the past.

The EMP Commission report warned: "Many citizens would be without power, communications and other services for days - or perhaps substantially longer - before full recovery could occur. During that interval, it will be crucial to provide a reliable channel of information to those citizens to let them know what has happened, the current situation, when help of what types for them might be available, what their governments are doing, and the host of questions which, if not answered, are certain to create more instability and suffering for the affected individuals, communities, and the Nation as a whole."

The Boy Scout motto -- "Be prepared" -- is sound advice for our nation's policymakers in this era of global terrorism. They cannot afford to ignore this report or its warnings or other warnings that biological and chemical warfare agents, cyber attacks and surface-burst nuclear weaponry are other significant threats. Those types of attacks would be the more deadly when combined with an EMP attack.

There are steps we can take to increase our ability to quickly recover from an EMP attack. For example, the Department of Homeland Security should have a list that prioritizes emergency electricity delivery to hospitals, regional food warehouses, water supply and critical communications and transportation. Preparing and protecting spare transformers could quickly repair the power grid and permit the recovery of electric power, enabling other important infrastructures to be functional. The EMP Commission made the point that we need wise and effective planning; it needs to be done now.

The Wall Street Journal did not ignore the Commission's report on the perils of an EMP attack. It published an editorial warning that China and Russia have the capability to launch an EMP strike against us. Over the next 15 years our relations with these countries are likely to be volatile and unpredictable. Russian Duma members threatened us five years ago. Chinese publications have carried articles about EMP, including threats to use EMP to neutralize our aircraft carriers if we were to war with China over Taiwan. The Commission appeared most concerned about an EMP attack from terrorists or rogue states who believe they have absolutely nothing to lose.

Wall Street is indeed concerned about this problem. The EMP Commission delivered a briefing to the Securities Industry Automation Corporation, which handles the communications networks responsible for the New York Stock Exchange. EMP Commissioner Lowell L. Wood, Jr. estimated in an Aerospace Daily & Defense Report article published earlier this fall that, all told, an EMP attack that shuts down our critical infrastructure systems could carry a $10 trillion dollar price tag.

The nine members who served on the EMP Commission have strong credentials: Commission Chairman, Dr. William R. Graham, served as Director of the White Office of Science & Technology Policy and as Science Advisor to President Ronald Reagan; General Richard L. Lawson, USAF, Ret., is a former President and CEO of the National Mining Association; Dr. Lowell L. Wood is Senior Staff Scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Rep. Bartlett brings a unique skill set: With a master's degree in physiology, he worked at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, directing a unit in Space Life Sciences and at IBM on biomedical engineering projects. He speaks on this issue with a background in the sciences. At 78 years of age, he has the energy and drive that would shame many young people.

Bartlett is undeterred by the lack of response from the establishment news media, driven by his understanding of what may truly be at stake if our nation's policymakers and business leaders continue to ignore the EMP Commission's work. Some have called the 9/11 Commission report a look in the rear view mirror. By contrast, the EMP Commission report is a look down the road at the kind of attack that instantaneously could change our status as the world's superpower to that of a nation with an infrastructure so diminished that Third World nations might be envied.

Many important issues will be taken up by the next Congress, starting in January. This issue deserves strong consideration as does our ability to deal with other kind of attacks, such as biological warfare, that represent the deadly future of warfare and terrorism. If the worst case scenario were to occur, it also would be important that our public officials respond in a manner that seeks to preserve our liberties and heritage as much as possible.

Rep. Bartlett advises that sensible steps taken now can prepare us to deal with, even thwart, the mayhem caused by terrorists and rogue nations. I hope we have some lawmakers who share Mr. Bartlett's concern in preserving our American way of life for future generations. If we do, then I expect Congress will delve further into the work of the EMP Commission and its unsettling findings.

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Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.

[Inge_CAV]

Is that the Duramax Diesel? I know a little about the International engines but not the ones used in GM trucks.

Military ground power units should already be hardened against EMP affects. The engine I am thinking of was a Lycoming air cooled design. It was almost the same as the engines used in some small aircraft except it was not certified as airworthy.

"I've loaned it out to dairy farmers when their barn ventilation fans go down. The cows look like they're behind prop wash from C-130's. Tails straight out from the velocity and volume. LOL!

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[DainBramage]

No it's not. Just ask underscoreJim

Now you did it. He's like letting the gimp out of the box.

[Nowhere Man]

Uhm........not so. The metal chasis on the frame is poorly grounded. Sure there is some carbon in the synthetic rubber tires to do some good, but from a technical standpoint to techno-geeks, your car is just a giant capacitor during an EMP and it will go "POP" when the pulse charges it up. It cannot discharge that fast.

Hmmm, I often wonder about that. I know many cars from the 1960's had grounding strips behind them, I remember seeing them when I was a kid. I'm into the post nuclear war role playing game, "The Morrow Project," and this topic comes up from time to time where we get into a grat debate over it. One of my gamer friends had a link to an article where EMP's effect is overstated although things like the power grid and anything with a huge antenna would be game. I guess the moral of the story is if you are that paranoid, buy an extra computer module, wrap it in aluminum foil, place it in a Faraday cage and there ya go. Then if something bad happens and it is fried, take out the old one and put in the new one and there ya go.

I've been hit by lightning while flying and can tell you that energy will really do some interesting things. It made pinholes where it hit, but then inside it made what I can only describe as ball lightning which would seek corners where it would sort of oscillate and then dim. It lasted about five full seconds before the skin managed to discharge in the air.

How did it affect the electronics in the plane? Just curious.

[blackdog]

It seemed to have less effect than my second com radio when I transmit. When I key the mike on the Narco Com 11, the entire avionics panel goes innop on guidance reception for as long as the transmission and about two seconds after. If you're chatting a lot with center, you'll miss an intercept real easy. Center tells me that everytime I key the push to talk, my squawk disappears along with altitude reporting mode C. Radio is clear as a bell though and not a spit of static, so it's a keeper.

The lighning strike didn't do much permanent damage except reskinning a section of fuselage. Not a single breaker popped. I think it melted the wiring in my pitot heater though because the next time I turned it on it exploded, again though, perfect breakers. I have never had a single breaker ever pop on an airplane! And let's face it, they are endless in number. Sometimes I wonder just what would kick one out?

[blackdog]

The airforce used to run a lot of those Cesna centerline thrust pusher/pullers. That was one noisy bird to be inside! The mechanics never worked on the Lycomings, they just replaced em. I think they were Six Cylinder 400 CID engines. Somewhere around 300 HP per engine. The engine swapping phenom produced a lot of "serviceable but not airworthy" engines during the 70's. They used em on airboats, television sets for creating high winds, and as you said, many other uses. Today a run-out engine core fetches $6,000 to $10,000 a copy. How times change!

[longtermmemmory]

What can civilians do short of wearing tinfoil hats?

What does the military do to "harden" their stuff from EMP?

(so I guess buying a classic car with points instead of electronics would be a good idea...)

[Inge_CAV]

"The airforce used to run a lot of those Cesna centerline thrust pusher/pullers. That was one noisy bird to be inside!" Mixmasters!

"Today a run-out engine core fetches $6,000 to $10,000 a copy. How times change!"

And not to mention what a rebuilt engine costs.

[StopGlobalWhining]

Roscoe Bartlett is, and has been for a long time, a national asset. We ignore his wise advice at our own risk.

[lainde]

BTTT

[G.Mason]

"But you'd need a lot more than a stick to relieve me and my family of any food stocks ;-)."

I hear you, loud and clear. You, like I, will do what it takes to protect and survive. ;)

[G.Mason]

"The real question here is............What will the recount on the electronic voting machines read in Ohio at the time of the nuclear blast, and will it throw the election as Haliburton desired when they launched a missile from Pakistan to prevent Hillary from winning, on November 8th 2008, handing it to the evil republicans once again?"

LOL ... Excellent!

Sad, I doubt even that will unblock the constipation that has plagued the Congress with regard to the "filibustering" over judicial appointments. ;)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You techie diehards out there may want to consider a second option........Change FCC, UL, EU, and CISPR standards to phase in all devices be manufactured to withstand EMP, including your VCR, coffee pot, and automobile so that economy of scale makes EMP affordable and implemented over the lifetime of a few cycles of consumer goods. It could be done without a national dog and pony show in the house and senate.

I would prefer a tax break for companies which spend money on EMP-proofing their products and tax breaks for individuals and companies buying EMP-proof equipment. There would be a dog and pony show, but in the end, the tax-breaks would create a manufacturing incentive and a market for EMP-proof items without having to deal with more regulation.

[blackdog]

All that would do is artificially inflate the costs. If you give tax breaks or credits, the market adjusts to that. It's much like the deductability of home mortgage interest. That alone inflates the price of housing by 20%. Make college expenses tax deductable and college tuition will adjust upward 28% in a year, matching the tax rate. Give tax breaks for electric cars and the cars will be crappy and expensive.

Give tax breaks for friggin nothing and nobody. It's just really vote buying and favors in return for campaign contributions to this corporation or that industry.

[GOP_1900AD]

Shoot down. Then retaliate. Scale of NMD to be able to do the first. Scale up strategic forces for the second.

[_Jim]

Radioactive: The problem is the GRID.

And just WHAT preceeded 'the grid'? (This is a technical question meant to plumb the depths of your technical and historical knowledge insofar as reviewing the development of the present day elctrical generation and distribution system.)

Methinks you don't know and are simply and mindlessly parroting something someone else mouthed ...

[null and void]

See post # 75.

Radioactive asserts that the grid can be taken down.

Who better that you to set him right?

[Radioactive]

Methinks you don't know and are simply and mindlessly parroting something someone else mouthed ...

You thinks WRONG!!!!!!!

I've had experience with the "GRID" and I know of what I speak.

Running extreme voltages at low amps and then transforming them into higher amp lower voltages resluts in losses.

Just because Tesla invented the way we provide electricity does not mean there is a better way.

Small electrical generation systems are far better than huge centralized systems because if the huge system goes down......then huge amounts of people do not have electricity.

I'm for home genereation of electricty...........there are many ways to generate electricity that does not require massive expenditures of capitol. Big money means big bills....and with all the outages that have been happening......well.....If you think the GRID is not the problem...then you are mindlessly trolling...........