Posted on 04/25/2005 6:19:49 AM PDT by DJ Taylor
A commercial aircraft capable of flying at an altitude of a couple hundred miles?
Maybe this was published as a sort of reverse-psychology propaganda piece.
Senator Kyl: "Hey guys, if the mullahs detonate an EMP in precisely this way, they can cripple us. He! He! He!"
Mullahs: "Hey, if we can detonate an EMP, we will cripple them. A stupid US Senator just said so."
"Maybe this was published as a sort of reverse-psychology propaganda piece. "
I think it's propaganda to try to galvanize the American public into wanting to attack Iran. I can't imagine how big the next terrorist attack that forces our hand there will be, given the scale of 9-11 and its downstream effects of getting America to be pissed at Iraq and ultimately invade them.
Americans need more than bogus claims like this one, though.
It was published so more suckers will subscribe to Farah's crappy newsletter.
I don't think Iran is capable of building a nuclear weapon large enough to to do the EMP thing.
While one bomb, detonated at the right altitude could make a smell of hess of systems with electronic and even electrical components, it would have little effect on military systems, at least the strategic ones, which are hardened against the EMP effects.
Big talk from a bunch of guys who haven't even dug ONE nuke shelter.
IIRC, Iran does have such shelters, up in the northern mountains.
The shielding is to protect against local, low level EM noise. Nuclear EMP radiation levels compared to conventional EM radiation levels are logarithmic dimensions apart.
Every watch, cell or copper phone, vehicle, PC, radio, TV, POS terminal (we all know how well cashiers make change without any electronics), all bank equipment, all your prescriptions, all records of everything everywhere not on paper... all gone forever. (only optical data storage will survive, just no way to read it)
That'd be fun, huh?
Ronald Raygun's Star Wars defense system begins to sound a bit less crazy, does it not.
What Ballistic Missile Defenses(BMDs) we will have by the time the Mullahs get this thing, if they ever do, should be sufficient to stop a small attack such as could be launched by Iraq. The now being built laser on a 747 would be quite handy for shooting down this sort of missile during the launch phase.
You don't need to be able to launch into orbit, just to orbital altitudes, IOW, suborbital trajectories. You'd have to get pretty close to the US mainland for a SCUD type missile to be at the required altitude over the central US. In fact I don't think you could do it at all, since the range of the SCUD is 250-700 km depending on the weight of the warhead. However Iran has several missile types that have ranges on the order of a few thousand kilometers, so those could do the job.
Mike
All our high altitude tests where conducted way out in the South Pacific, and did cause disruptions in electric power systems in Hawaii. You must remember that those tests were conducted before most people had even heard the word "transistor", let alone "chip", and even longer before the use of MOSFET transistors in almost everything. MOSFETS are more vulnerable to EMP than the older (but still used for some things) Bipolar transistors.
Ideally it would be at a couple hundred miles, but an aircraft flying at 35,000 feet above a major metropolitan area would cover a whole lotta electronics by line of sight.
That would be a good definition of Hell.
Not nearly high enough to get widespread EMP effects.
It does of course, but the mechanism of generation of the EM waves is spread over a considerable amount of space.
From the FAS website:
A high-altitude nuclear detonation produces an immediate flux of gamma rays from the nuclear reactions within the device. These photons in turn produce high energy free electrons by Compton scattering at altitudes between (roughly) 20 and 40 km. These electrons are then trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field, giving rise to an oscillating electric current. This current is asymmetric in general and gives rise to a rapidly rising radiated electromagnetic field called an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Because the electrons are trapped essentially simultaneously, a very large electromagnetic source radiates coherently. The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400–500 km over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.
The EMP produced by the Compton electrons typically lasts for about 1 microsecond, and this signal is called HEMP. In addition to the prompt EMP, scattered gammas and inelastic gammas produced by weapon neutrons produce an “intermediate time” signal from about 1 microsecond to 1 second. The energetic debris entering the ionosphere produces ionization and heating of the E-region. In turn, this causes the geomagnetic field to “heave,” producing a “late-time” magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) EMP generally called a heave signal.
Initially, the plasma from the weapon is slightly conducting; the geomagnetic field cannot penetrate this volume and is displaced as a result. This impulsive distortion of the geomagnetic field was observed worldwide in the case of the STARFISH test. To be sure, the size of the signal from this process is not large, but systems connected to long lines (e.g., power lines, telephone wires, and tracking wire antennas) are at risk because of the large size of the induced current. The additive effects of the MHD-EMP can cause damage to unprotected civilian and military systems that depend on or use long-line cables. Small, isolated, systems tend to be unaffected.
The additive effects of the MHD-EMP can cause damage to unprotected civilian and military systems that depend on or use long-line cables. Small, isolated, systems tend to be unaffected
Which I think makes my point. First, it would have to be a very large device, which Iran cannot get into space, and the effect would be largely limited to power grids which have safety mechanism built in. It would probably be similar to a solar coronal mass ejection striking the earth, inconvenient, but not calamatious...
Mike
And don't forget the FOBs at Loral fixing the Chinese rocket systems for 'em!
And like good neighbors, the Chinese help Pakistan who in turn helps everyone with enough cash!
Why haven't we obliterated their nuclear installations yet?
What are we waiting for?
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