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.

[TC Rider]

Utter Baloney.

Don't know about HiDef TVs, but silicon carbide was one of the materials we worked with in the 80s, along with galium arsenide and others.

[DinkyDau]

Here it is folks! The ultra-secret U.S. military weapon that's gonna do in Saddam!

[snarkpup]

I once heard a story about some engineers who were laughing at the primitive vacuum tube electronics in a captured Russian MIG, until someone pointed out that this stuff would be relatively immune to EMP.

[DAnconia55]

Someone set us up the E Bomb.

[desertcry]

You will still need transistors, and micro chips to generate, and transmit any signal through fiber optics.

[DAnconia55]

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).

This would be a legit national defense expenditure. Still got your street cred.

Now troops in 130 countries on the other hand......

[desertcry]

Yeah, but the tolerance to EMP radiation is much higher for People than the NANO metal interconnects in micro chips. But people close to the EMP Radiation pulse may have thier brains baked, their eyeballs roasted, and water in their bodies boiled off.

[Zack Nguyen]

But people close to the EMP Radiation pulse may have thier brains baked, their eyeballs roasted, and water in their bodies boiled off.

Well that would ruin my day.

[Poohbah]

Yeah, but the tolerance to EMP radiation is much higher for People than the NANO metal interconnects in micro chips. But people close to the EMP Radiation pulse may have thier brains baked, their eyeballs roasted, and water in their bodies boiled off.

Right. The tolerance of an individual chip may be low, but the probability of actually damaging a given component is not easily determined at low levels of EMP. To be reliably lethal, you have to have a LOT of energy hitting the target area--and that in turn raises the risks you describe.

[eno_]

There are no all-optical communictaions systems. The fiber will be so much useless glass after the head-end lasers and associated electronics are fried.

[Marysecretary]

Doesn't it make you shiver sometimes to think about what we DON'T know???? But, Clinton was still the boss and he ultimately is responsible under "his charge" as to what happened then. What a great legacy.

[DoctorMichael]

I believe this weapon has already been used by the US during the Kosovo War in Yugoslavia.

[tracer]

Such an attack would play havoc with OBL's next dialysis session.

And we can only hope that Saddam and his cronies all have pacemakers.............

[js1138]

There are no all-optical communictaions systems. The fiber will be so much useless glass after the head-end lasers and associated electronics are fried.

I'm not an expert, but I believe that an emp weapon needs long wires in the target to act as antennae. Power cords would do, but if point to point connections are glass, the electronic components can be hardened and shielded.

[Poohbah]

I'm not an expert, but I believe that an emp weapon needs long wires in the target to act as antennae.

Not true, unless your EMP is in the HF range.

[desertcry]

...and that in turn raises the risk...... Well, there never is a war without human casualty, But if one can minimize it in this PC world(dominated by the UN), we may gain some points with the liberals in the world, which outnumber us 10 to one specially in EU, and Africa.

[tracer]

The EMP should be named the Ronald Ray-Gun, in honor or our beloved ex-President.....

[Poohbah]

Well, there never is a war without human casualty, But if one can minimize it in this PC world(dominated by the UN), we may gain some points with the liberals in the world, which outnumber us 10 to one specially in EU, and Africa.

Generally, the USAF doesn't like EMP because it's not a precise, easily measured and calibrated weapon. A bomb can be modeled much more accurately.

[DK Zimmerman]

Nor am I an expert, but what I understand of it...

Electrical lines can cause a system outside of the 'normal' range of the weapon to be affected due to the antenna effect, just as it can funnel in a pulse sufficient to fry-through otherwise "safe" features closer in.

However, neither of those effects are required to do damage. Your Mr. Coffee, your television, and electronic ignition, all those can be fried directly.

As I mentioned before, the Army frequently resorted to protecting systems by having them disconnected and placed into a shielded case. Just unplugging them doesn't suffice.