EMP Weapons: America's Achilles Heel

A study was recently released that suggests that the U.S. is extremely vulnerable to the effects of an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP). It has been long feared that a nuclear weapon exploding high above the United States could black out the entire country and send the U.S. back into the Stone Age for years.

For this post, here is the definition of an electromagnetic pulse from the EMP Commission:

In addition to the ability to kill thousands of people instantly, nuclear weapons have another, equally crippling capability to destroy or disrupt power grids, electronic systems, and communications in an entire country, while sparing the lives of its people--at least initially.

Specifically, a nuclear bomb detonated above the earth's atmosphere would create a split-second electromagnetic pulse, similar to an extremely high-energy radio wave.

For example, a single nuclear weapon detonated at an altitude of 500 kilometers could produce an EMP that would blanket the entire continental United States, potentially damaging or destroying military forces and civilian communications, power, transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure essential to modern society.


EMP can also be created artificially. Some police departments were testing a new EMP device that causes a car’s alternator to shut down if it is hit by a focused pulse. Police have hopes that the EMP field will enable them to stop pursuits that often turn into high-speed chases that lead to fatalities. Unfortunately, it destroys the alternator and could cause someone with a battery-powered pacemaker to die as well as it would destroy the battery powering the pacemaker. See the hit movie “The Core” for an illustration of what happens when a pulse hits people with pacemakers.

Back to the subject at hand, some nuclear weapons are designed to produce huge electromagnetic pulses. Others have EMP effects that are not as severe.

It would be a good idea to expand EMP shielding to include critical military systems as well as critical areas in the civilian sector as well. Here’s the commission’s recommendations:

Develop a clear policy about how it will respond to an EMP attack;

Assess which assets of the nation's power grid and telecommunications infrastructure are most critical to the overall system;

Harden those critical assets against EMP;

Retrofit at least a portion of U.S. military assets to protect against EMP;

Engineer EMP protections into a greater percentage of future military capabilities; and

Deploy an effective ballistic missile defense.

The EMP Commissionpoints out that this is an old threat, but now we are dealing with terrorists who are crazy enough to use weapons like this against us.

An ounce of prevention....you get the idea. If they turn the United States into a sub-Third World country, will our American civilization survive long enough to rebuild?

The link below leads to the full article. It's pretty scary.

(http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/bg1784.cfm)