Pentagon Leaning Against Use Of E-Bomb Against Iraq

drudge ^ | 2/20/03 | matt drudge

[finnman69]

Pentagon Leaning Against Use Of E-Bomb Against Iraq Thu Feb 20 2003 10:16:46 ET

The U.S. military has developed a weapon that can permanently disable electrical and telecommunications systems and has debated the possibility of using it in any military assault against Baghdad, the WALL STREET JOURNAL reported on Thursday.

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The new weapon -- known as the 'e-bomb,' for the high-velocity electromagnetic pulses it discharges -- hasn't yet been tested in battle. But some midlevel Air Force commanders have said that using such a weapon, which was long in development but veiled in secrecy, would give the U.S. a decisive initial advantage in a war with Iraq.

Top Pentagon and military-service officials are leaning against using the e-bomb, though.

They are concerned its use could alienate the Iraqi populace by crippling Baghdad's phone and electrical systems and, hence, the city's hospital and emergency-services infrastructure.

Developing...

[Blueflag]

This article has to be a red herring. It talks about crippling the phone and emergency capabilities. Excuse me? These folks are going to have a war fought around them, and then an army of occupation in place.

The civilian comm infrastructure won't be needed for a while.

It we don't destroy the cables, cabinets and racks, we can replace the circuit cards pretty easy/quickly.

Besides, I'll bet the COs are Siemens switches, and the RTs are Alltel. [French and German] They ought to become DMS-10s/ DMS-100s after the war. Nortel probably has a bunch of those in storage, available cheap. Lucent couls ship some re-furbs as well.