Admittedly, I am not well versed on EMP attack consequences, but while I understand the theory, I still don’t see how a single attack could disrupt every square mile of the U.S. It would seem that many such devices would have to be detonated.
Light one off height enough and you can cover at great deal of territory. What the effects would be we can only guess, I'm pretty sure the US Army knows but they are not saying. But if the effects are as bad as some people say then bad turns into horrible as dozens of nuke plants go into melt down all across the country.
The right altitude and power level as I understand it.
I agree. This threat is really just a theory. The tests that I'm aware of have shown minimal effect from EMP. Nukes have already been detonated in space and we are still functioning just fine. I seriously doubt even the US could produce an EMP that would wipe out thousands of square miles of electronics.
OPERATION STARFISH PRIME
In 1962, long before the idea of a weapon designed to maximize EMP effects was on the horizon, the US carried out a nuclear test in the South Pacific that created some unexpected EMP impact.
Known as the Starfish Prime test, the US exploded a 1.44 megaton bomb 250 miles above the mid-Pacific Ocean to explore the impact of a high-altitude nuclear explosion.
The impact and effects of the detonation were much larger than had been expected. The Starfish Prime test caused electrical damage in Hawaii, almost 1,000 miles away from the detonation point. It knocked out about 300 streetlights, set off numerous burglar alarms and damaged a microwave link.
This was long before the advent of micro-circuits and computer chips that operate on a fraction of the electrical power it takes to knock out a street light from 1,000 miles away.
Today that same detonation would probably knock out most computers and computer operated systems in Hawaii. And that device was not even designed to maximize the EMP effect.
Imagine the damage one or two nuclear weapons designed to maximize the EMP effect would have if detonated over the continental US in strategic locations.
Or just one over the Washington, DC - Boston corridor.
For more detail read up on the Starfish Prime test and the Soviet Project K nuclear tests. The Soviet test with a weapon of only .3 megatons fried an underground cable and set a generating station on fire.
Also the The US EMP Commission report of 2008 is worth researching. The findings are chilling.
The grid, other than in very rural areas, is interconnected.
Sept 1, 1859. An EMP-like event occurred 93 MILLION miles away and covered the entire earth, stopping all then-primitive communications.
As I understand, the power grids in this country are linked in a manner to pull power from another area adjacent if possible.
Like a mess of dominoes falling, a serious breach/damage to a large system could cause the load to switch elsewhere, and then it all could collapse.
About 12 years ago ( I think) there was a power failure in Pennsylvania & before it was stopped, it had spread into about 5 surrounding states.
Electronic transactions-—not just e-mail—were affected. Banking & ATM & credit card transactions were interrupted in mid-stride. It took experts at every bank over a year to match up all the debits & credits.