Nuke just has to explode in space to destroy a country

The Heritage Foundation ^ | April 10, 2009 | James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.

[LiveFreeOrDieUSA]

Sunlight fills the bedroom. It's past 8 a.m., and it's cold. Why didn't the alarm go off? The bathroom lights are out. The house is without power. The battery-operated radio plays nothing but static. The phone is dead. What on earth has happened?

In fact, what happened was not on Earth. It was above it. A nuclear weapon has detonated high over North America, an explosion so far up that neither the flash nor bang disturbed anyone slumbering in darkened bedrooms across the United States. Electrical systems and computers from New York City to San Francisco cease to function. City streets turn into chaos. Fires break out, and no communications are available to send trucks to fight them. The sick and injured perish in overwhelmed, energy-sapped hospitals. Survivors, unable to fill their gas tanks, slowly walk away from the dead zone, unsure where to go or what they will find.

This scenario may sound like the plot of a science-fiction movie, but Bill Graham, former science adviser to President Reagan, says it's a realistic portrayal of what would happen to the United States after a massive electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion.

[buschbaby]

self ping

[yankeebulldog]

Hmmmm.... please describe. Are you talking something simple like a cardboard box with aluminum foil or something more complex?

[Republic of Texas]

Unfortunately, about half the country wants Zero to do nothing.

[2ndDivisionVet]

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
Abraham Lincoln, Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838)

[hoagy62]

Faraday Cage= A metal grid cage spaced in such a way as to prevent anything inside of the grid from being damaged by electrical pulses. A car uses the Faraday principle: As long as you’re not touching the metal parts of the car (inside the cage), you’ll be fine (Saw a demo of this from “Top Gear” where one of the hosts sat inside a car while the car was repeatedly zapped by a lightning generator. No problems at all.). If you build a proper Faraday cage to surround electronic devices, it SHOULD protect them in an EMP attack.

TEOTWAKI= The End Of The World As We Know It

[Skibane]

We no longer manufacture transformers, and replacing one from overseas suppliers can take up to a year.

This is simply not true. Many of the transformers used by American electric utilities are still manufactured, repaired and rebuilt in America.

[Centurion2000]

Why does every idiot fall for the idea that one nuke can destroy, nay evaporate, entire countries?

Because EMP has one hell of a lot bigger footprint than heat and blast.

[Wyatt's Torch]

I just finished "One Second After". It finally convinced me to get off my a** and start getting prepared.

Spooky stuff.

If you find some good directions on how to build a Faraday cage and a good source for MRE's, let me know. Have you been to onesecondafter.com? Lot's of good info there. Honestly, nuclear wepons going off in downtown LA and NYC would be far better than what Forstchen depicts.

[clee1]

A Faraday cage is simply a wooden box frame covered in conductive mesh, well-grounded.

Mine is 3’x 3’, 2x2” wood frame, covered in copper mesh, with a copper braid ground strap connected on 2 corners to a 6’ copper pipe electrical ground dug in outside.

That’s the Faraday cage itself. Mine is in my home office, so it is covered with a modified desk for looks. I have a shielded power cable feeding it so that I don’t always have to run my generator to power it for normal use.

YB, I am a semi-serious survivalist, with weapons/ammo, (and the ability to make more), non-perishable foods, water purification, medicals supplies, hand tools, etc. on hand. The reason I protected what I did in a Faraday Cage is because I needed a) a little electrical power in an extreme emergency, b) communications, and c) an ability to print maps, and how-to information contained on my computer.

Me and mine will survive, and indeed thrive, in any TEOTWAWKI scenario.

[I Buried My Guns]

Tell us about your faraday cage. Can I make one with simple chicken wire and aluminum foil?

I'm interested in making a very small one to go in my closet and hold a few important items.

[I Buried My Guns]

Hey, never mind, you just did!

[clee1]

Chicken wire is not a fine enough weave.

I think you can get away with steel wire mesh with 4x4mm openings. Proper grounding (to cold water line or ground rod) is the essential part. Aluminum is not conductor of choice.

[BP2]

Rightly so, but the US Military never taught me that one space blast will crash every electronic device in the whole CONUS.

Agreed. If I still were a military planner, I would not be overly concerned about one launched over the CONUS as much as other "concentrated" parts of the world.

One lobbed by North Korea from its eastern launch site, to detonate in space over the Liancourt Rocks in the Sea of Japan, would take out most of Japan's & South Korea's electric grid, and hit the US Forces in the region pretty hard, particularly communications. North Korea is still pretty low-tech -- most of it's infrastructure and military would be unharmed, especially if warned to turn off their electronics during "North Korean Earth Hour" (or similar coordinated faux effort).

Kim Jong-il would just need to roll troops across the border in the confusion — he's mobilizing them there now. He would say no people were hurt in the "test" space explosion and just stuff any international “outrage” into his File 13 like he always does -- as he snacks on kimchi in Seoul.

[RJS1950]

The possibility of an EMP attack (High Altitude EMP Event) has been known of for over 50 years.

[JimRed]

I know that our nukes are EMP-hardened, so the counterstrike would be massive.

Which in turn would trigger the return of the 12th (hidden) Imam...

They're crazy enough to believe it, and crazy enough to try it.

[higgmeister]

Hugh Farnham, is that you!?

[Sola Veritas]

“No way does one EMP blast hobble the entire United States. Maybe 10-20 powerful EMP blasts would”

I’m going to quote something from Department of the Army Pamphlet NO. 50-3 (March 1977) “THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS.”

Chapter XI The Electromagnetic Pulse and Its Effects

Subpara 11.15 “For and explosion of high yield at a sufficient altitude, the are covered by the high-frequency EMP extends in all directions on the ground as far as the line-of-sight, i.e., to the horizon........For a nuclear explosion at an altitude of 50 miles, for example, the affected area on the ground would have a radius of roughly 600 miles and for an altitude of 100 miles the ground radius would be about 900 miles. For an explosion at 200 miles above the center of the (conterminous) United States, almost the whole country, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico, could be affected by the high-altitude burst, the damage could conceivably extend to distances from ground zero at which all other effects, except possibley eye injury at night.....would be negligible. Furthermore, because the radiations travel with the speed of light, the whole area could be affected almost simultaneaously by the EMP from a SINGLE(emphasis added) high-altitude nuclear explosion.”

[clee1]

Not quite, FRiend.... but close.

[dangerdoc]

“........For a nuclear explosion at an altitude of 50 miles, for example, the affected area on the ground would have a radius of roughly 600 miles and for an altitude of 100 miles the ground radius would be about 900 miles. For an explosion at 200 miles above the center “

The power of the EMP blast drops off exponentially with distance. I’m just not convinced that an spaceburst would have more than regional effects.

[Sola Veritas]

“The power of the EMP blast drops off exponentially with distance. I’m just not convinced that an spaceburst would have more than regional effects.”

I’m just quoting the “very detailed” book put out by the Army in 1977. It is a very interesting read, but does get rather technical. The publication is:

Department of the Army Pamphlet NO 50-3
“The Effects of Nuclear Weapons”
Headquarters, Department of the Army March 1977

You can find copies for sale on Amazon. I obtained my copy back in 1982 when I was training to be an Army Officer specializing in Nuclear, Biological, & Chemical warfare. To the best of my knowledge, such a complete work has not been duplicated since. This pub is often referenced in Field Manuals.

What is very interesting is that it lists “Low-power, high-speed digital computer, either transistorized or vacuum tube” as “Most Susceptible” to EMP. Our more modern microprocessors would be much more vulnerable than the technology of 1977. The effects of EMP would be much worse today than then. Our computerized society would crumble.