MICROWAVE BOMB OUR SECRET WEAPON

New York Post ^ | 1/27/03 | NILES LATHEM

[kattracks]

January 27, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - The Pentagon says its latest deadly gadget - a precision-guided lightning bolt of microwave power - would be its most important weapon in a war with Iraq.

The high-power microwave, a k a HPM, has been under development for years in the black-operations programs at the National Laboratories and the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

[ASA Vet]

I hope nobody finds out about it.

Nobody will, there've only been 20 or so threads
about the "secret" in the past couple weeks.

[austinite]

Unamed sources at the Pentgon say the only real defense against the E-bomb is a good tinfoil helmet....

[Rain-maker]

High-power microwave (HPM) / E-Bomb

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/hpm.htm

[PJ-Comix]

Also known as the "E-bomb," the HPM is designed to zap electronics, scramble computer programs and fry communications links.

Yeah, but will it microwave my gourmet popcorn when I get the middle-of-the-night munchies?

[Ron H.]

What's the big deal, I remember my first microwave bomb I made about 25-30 years ago when I had the bright idea of boiling an egg in our first microwave oven, in the shell. Bammmmmmnnn.

[Search4Truth]

Maybe they can create a bomb that causes reproductive sterilization. That would provide a more long-term solution. :)

[Gary Boldwater]

Magnetic fields arise from currents, not voltages. The problem with large coils is that the risetime decreases with coil size, limiting the useful range of frequencies it can generate. The magnetic field of a coil is very weak and goes to zero at distances from it. It can be shielded by ferrous metals. Vaporizing a coil does not increase its field, but changing the current rapidly does. The explosion would have to propagate at near the speed of light to generate any microwave energy but disturbing the current.
If the weapon did work on this principle, it would more likely consist of circulating charged plasma. Personally, I don't think there is this type of a weapon of this level of power because there's more effective and simpler means of generating EMP.

[Veronica Lodge]

But my dear in the far field ; the E and M field's are proportional to each other by the impedience of free space; ie 120 pi ohms; or 377 ohms.

[Gary Boldwater]

True, but the intensities of the fields in the far field are much, much lower than those of the near field.

[RoughDobermann]

C-130 transport jet.

"Jet?" Well, that'll be a big surprise for the pilots...