Humint Events Online: Interesting Piece on EMPs and EMP Weapons

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Interesting Piece on EMPs and EMP Weapons

The electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a product of a nuclear explosion. It puts out of action even those electronic control systems that have withstood the shockwave and reduces expensive smart weapons to scrap metal. There are different ways of generating electromagnetic pulses - for example, it can be produced by explosion-induced pressure on a magnetic field.

Physicist Andrei Sakharov was the first to propose using this principle in a bomb in the 1950s. Today, records in the size of an induced magnetic field, maximum current and properties of such "radiators" belong to Russian scientists. They surpass foreign counterparts by 10 times. Depending on what facilities the EMP is directed at, the damage radius can be from several hundred meters to kilometers. Without creating a shock wave and inflicting visible damage, it destroys all enemy electronic equipment. Moreover, unlike electronic countermeasures, electromagnetic weapons are capable of damaging radio electronic components even if they are switched off.

At present, the infrastructure and troops of many countries are stuffed with electronic equipment. It will be the main target for electromagnetic weapons. The destructive effect is produced by the high acceleration of the magnetic and electrical components of the EMP. They induce voltage changes ranging from 100 volts to 10,000 volts in circuit networks and terminals of radio electronic equipment. The ensuing massive sparking of cable jackets, their contact to frame and the ground, and breakdowns in connectors put the equipment out of action and lead to fires and explosions. To understand this effect better, it is enough to imagine what will happen to your TV-set if there is a power surge - it will simply melt.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow all the terrorists have to do is send out a giant EMP pulse from the heart of L.A. and N.Y.C. and denver etc, all at the same time and the country would be crippled with deadlock!
hospitals wouldn't work - grocery stores wouldn't work - gasoline pumps wouldn't work -
things that make you go hmmm...

2:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sure, if u detonated a nuke at high altitude the emp effect could knockout all the electronics in a large city, easily. When detonated at ground level the EMP range is heavily reduced but still present. When they were testing nukes for the first time they couldn't work out why their instruments kept failing until they discovered the EMP!

Remember the power outage at on 9/11 in lower manhattan and the chaotic communication troubles? That was likely due to EMP rather than the collapse knocking out powerlines and the loss of the aerial on the north tower. It affected quite a wide area.

5:42 PM  

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