Glad to see there are at least a couple of people here who know what they are talking about.
The danger is real — not theoretical.
I have imagined a scenario that would accomplish the result describe in “One Second After.” Take a terrorist state like Iran that has the funds. Manufacture three small, high-yield EMP nuke warheads, and attach to superscud type missiles. Buy a handful of Club-K missile launchers from Russian, throw out the cruise missiles and replace with nuke-armed scuds. (Or have the Ruskies attach them for you.) (For those who don’t know, Club-K launchers look exactly like shipping containers. Deploy containers via ship and truck at multiple points of entry. Once in position, all they have to do is point and click. War heads explode at set altitude. No need for sophisticated satellite tracking etc.?
America is thrown back to the stone age. Forget the 1800s. The people in the 1800s had tools and technology suitable to live in the 1800s. We will become cave men with personal fire arms...and that’s about it.
Those of you who doubt this better 1) shut up about it being exaggerated, 2) read “One Second After”, and 3) read the 2001 Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP).
If I were an islamic terrorist with access to Iran-level funding I would focus on nothing else BUT an EMP strike. Nothing — NOTHING — else comes close. Entirely feasible right now, today.
No, not gonna shut up. Quit acting like a DU'r please.
I'll trust my ten years with DOE OST and the 1945-1992 tests, all with EMP data. Heck, I bet I'm the only Freeper that has been in active Russian missile silo (and they build those damn things VERY DEEP, and VERY thick). Russians wouldn't confirm it, but our DIA guys suspected that our tour of the SS-18 "Satan" Silo housed a 25MT warhead (mod 3 IIRC). Anyways, we were there to help tighten up their nuclear security program in the late 90s.
2) read “One Second After”, and
I have. It is a WORK OF FICTION! just like Lucifer's Hammer, Alas Babylon!, On the Beach, and Earth Abides.
You don't see me moving to high altitude next to a nuke plant, taking my relatives in, storing up on cyanide, or collecting rattlesnakes (re the above books) because of some good fiction writing.
3) read the 2001 Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP).
I have....and I have read the peer-reviewed research that thoroughly shoot holes in the entire report.
What are you going to tell me to research next? Al Gore's An Inconvienent Truth, and then point me to a Presidential or ICCC Global Warming Report? Sheesh....get a grip.
Glad you and everyone else are prepping for all eventualities though. Having worked with and for the government, I have come to the conclusion that when TSHTF, you are on your own. Nothing wrong with being prepared, just don't put all your eggs in one basket.