U.S.'S SECRET WEAPON AGAINST IRAQ (electromagnetic pulse bomb)

Newsmax Insider Report ^ | 8/29/02 | Limbacher

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Last week when President Bush met with the ever proper, suit-clad Donald Rumsfeld in Crawford, Texas, he met with the press and told them that when the time comes, a full discussion will reveal all the facts about Iraq.

President Bush offered a litany of factors that will be fully discussed, including, he said, "new technologies."

The buzz in Washington is that Bush was referring to a new weapon the Pentagon plans to use against Iraq, with devastating effect.

The new weapon is known as an "EMP" or electromagnetic pulse bomb. Such a weapon is not new to military planners.

When a nuclear device is exploded, it emits a powerful EMP that blows transistors and electric circuits for hundreds of miles. A successful EMP will knock out all electrical and communication systems. Even cars and trucks will stop working. Modern life will come to a screeching halt.

Apparently, the U.S. has perfected a weapon that emits a powerful EMP without the nuclear blast.

A Washington insider says such a weapon over Baghdad would likely collapse Saddam's command and control instantly.

"Saddam's Republican Guard won't even be able to use walk talkies," the insider tells NewsMax.com.

[Poohbah]

The ship's hull makes a damn good EMP shield.

[DK Zimmerman]

Well, yes and no.

Depends mostly on how the emp is generated. If via nuke, your 200 mile radius is likely VERY low, but your description otherwise apt.

If by one of these new munitions, probably very high and definitely overblown in terms of extent. One of the sites provided before talks in terms of like .2 kms radius per AND results are dependent upon frequencies involved.

If you're after cable tv, I wouldn't consider Bagdad a terribly lucrative target. Oh, the hotel guests might complain, but the average joe on the street? The standard of life is probably somewhere about 200 years ago (US) for 60% or more of the Iraqi populace. They won't miss much, even if they're standing under one of these non-nukes when it goes off.

[dennisw]

Good EMP article

http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:Fzw3CzMPONMC:www.georgetown.edu/sfs/programs/nssp/nssq/Edwards.pdf+emp+hardening+microcircuits&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[DK Zimmerman]

Well, I'll admit I don't know the Navy systems. However, unless you have warning, have shut down, and disconnected the best hardening in the world won't do you any good as the pulse will come down your electrical and fry everything on the path (it acts like an antenna). In the Army's case, we have essentially gone to shielded cases in which to place stuff we REALLY gotta have. Only, what will we hook up to, if all generators and wiring are toast? Perhaps your hulls will help, but they could also hinder by "soaking up" the pulse, like wiring does.

[Pushi]

I have been to Trinity Site, the location where the first A bomb was exploded. It made glass of the sand. They call it Trinitite. There is lots of sand in Iraq. That would make lots of glass. It could be called Saddamite.

[AdA$tra]

But for those in Soviet tanks, APCs, and aircraft this means almost squat! When one of the first MIG29s....

Fortunatley we don't give a hoot about Iraqi MIG's or tanks. As we all know they are relatively harmless when their operators have their hands on their heads and are screaming "I surrender" and "We love George Booosh."

[SkyRat]

Why should Sadam try to get a nuke if he can get a EMP cheaper? Think about it. If Russia or China developed a EMP bomb, would they sell it?

And think about the damage done if one of those baby's explodes in NY.

Bye bye, digital money.

Anyone watched the James Bond movie 'Golden Eye' ?

[hove]

Every day we are seeing stories about how and when we are going to get Saddam. This is baiting. Our government is hoping that Saddam will feel cornered and lash out in some way. Then Our government will have its' justification to attack. I think this is a weak strategy. I wish our government was able to make a compelling case against Saddam. If they were able to, there wouldn't be so much resistance to the attack.

[TC Rider]

Nobody is more vunerable to EMP than the US.

Radiation and EMP resistant chips, memory, processors, Gate arrays, etc have been available since the late 80s in the good old USA. Till now, the military been the best customer.

[AdA$tra]

It could be called Saddamite

LOL!

[texas_fool]

Shielding can be done with wire mesh. look up Faraday Shield. Lots of mis information out there about this EMP stuff.

[Jake0001]

I agree. You can't blast someone back to the pre-industrial age if they are already there. Maybe our next brilliant plan should be to write and transmit a "super-worm" via the internet to take out their entire network of three computers.

Bin laden probably has more tanks and helicopters than Saddam hidden in Afghanistan because we blew up virtually everything Saddam had in 1991 and have prevented him from acquiring replacements.

However, how would we know such a thing would work? Where would we test such a thing? I suppose someone will say Iraq, but it begs the age-old question "if a tree falls and noone is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

[weikel]

We have elaborate infrastructure though and some crucial parts are not EMP shielded( in fact EMP is scary enough to me that I may break from my usual libertarian views on things and advocate the FedGov require all crucial infrastructure EMP shielded).

[HardStarboard]

I would guess the price of lead shielding is inflating a bit in the Arab countries.

[dennisw]

Thanks.... A Faraday shield (I've heard of them) can be made of aluminum mesh I suppose to keep it light. The shield is attached to the ground or something?

[dinasour]

If you're after cable tv, I wouldn't consider Bagdad a terribly lucrative target

But you miss the point, we won't be targeting Saddam. We'll be going after CNN.

I can only imagine that they already have a crew on hand, with mechanical cameras, at some Baghdad Neonatal ICU in anticipation of their lead story:

"Bush and the dead babies. Does the U. S. deliberately target Iraqi children?"

The grieving mothers are on call 24/7.

[Erasmus]

Utter Baloney.

[Poohbah]

What it "utter baloney" about Post #59?

[OXENinFLA]

LOL!!!!

[DK Zimmerman]

Well, if we had all of these we wanted and they/their true effectiveness weren't still probably classified, it is easy to imagine the discussion between a commander and his "targeteer:"

"C'mon LT, we KNOW Blitz is in the Hilton, just bracket it with two." "Now, sir, you understand we won't be able to knock out the ADA site down the street until the next sortie if we do that..."

But I fear such operational considerations will override such desires, at least for a while, yet.