“For example, I really don’t like airplanes that depend on a computer for stability. Why? Because sooner or later, and I’m betting sooner, our enemies will field a missile that’s sorta like the old Genie atomic rocket except that it’ll have a magnetostrictive compression type EMP warhead in it.”
You need to look into modern military EMP requirements. Those fly by wire systems use fiber optics for a reason. There is also a concept called “Faraday cage”.
Re: Faraday Cage.
I’m familiar with both. I also know what happened during some of the tests at the Trestle facility and also what an ungrounded Faraday cage can and can not do.
And it’s not just EMP. Aside from what the purpose built EMP weapons can do, I also recall that when the AGM-86B reached IOC, that when the B-52’s ECM was on, that the AGM-86 ALCM’s onboard computers would shut down. If you wanted to launch cruise missiles, you had to turn the jammers off first.
We’ve got a mode that the F/A-18 can use with it’s radar now, that will kill missile electronics the same way.