Woooo .... Electro Magnetic Pulse Weapons .... ooooOOOOoooo

[Stinky The Clown]

Just how stupid do the remaining right wing nutters think we are..... or are they?

Electro

Magnetic

Pulse

Weapons

Where do they GET this shit? Comic books???

[hobbit709]

1. They exist in two varieties

1. Very limited range and power-can disable a car at about 10 feet.
2. Large EMP from nuclear blast.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Vintage Flash Gordon and the Moon Princess

[notesdev]

3. Can't read German

but EMP as a weapon is real. One good EMP over the continental US would put us back in the Colonial Era.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Can I bother you for a cite that will support that notion?

[hobbit709]

6. About a 10 megaton blast in the upper stratosphere would fry most solid state electronics.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm

[hendo]

7. as much as I hate citing wikipedia

it is the easiest thing to find for you to read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

edit: here is a more reputable source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/e-bomb.htm

[NNN0LHI]

9. I tried finding the part about ...

... "One good EMP over the continental US would put us back in the Colonial Era."

But I couldn't find it at the links you provided. Perhaps you could just cut and paste that part here?

Thanks in advance.

Don

[hobbit709]

10. Try thinking life without electricity.

Power plant generators fried, electric motors fried, most electronics fried. Ignition systems on your car fried. Back to muscle power until everything fixed.

[NNN0LHI]

11. But I will need to take your word on that all happening nation wide?

I don't know?

Don

[Statistical]

15. Only w/ a high altitude burst

EMP is much more powerful when detonated in stratosphere.

EMP from nuke near surface is much more powerful however range is < blast radius of nuke so
bad news = all your electronics die
good news = in about 1/4 of second you won't care anymore.

After cold war it was declassified that the Soviets initial strike included ICBM programmed to detonate in the stratosphere. 4 5MT warheads was considered sufficent to wipe out US powergrid and unprotected electronics.

[RC]

13. Solid state electronics, yes, generators and motors, not so much.

Generators and motors operate on magnetism. And as short as the pulse is, they would not be much affected. Oh, and diesel engines would not be affected either.

I heard that the USSR had at one time fighter jets with vacuum tube electronics for that very reason.

[hendo]

12. oh, I thought you meant the part about EMPs being viable weapons

It would take far more than one EMP to knock us back to the stone age.

[Statistical]

14. From the FAS article

The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400–500 km over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.

....

To be sure, the size of the signal from this process is not large, but systems connected to long lines (e.g., power lines, telephone wires, and tracking wire antennas) are at risk because of the large size of the induced current. The additive effects of the MHD-EMP can cause damage to unprotected civilian and military systems that depend on or use long-line cables. Small, isolated, systems tend to be unaffected.

------
END QUOTE

Key point is an EMP is normally smaller than blast radius of a nuke. Anything damaged by EMP is ripped apart by the blast.

A HEMP High Altitude EMP spreads the EMP blast across thousands of miles.

Every telephone, broadband, powerline acts as a gianst antenna for EMP wave. Anything connected to the grid will burn out. Anything w/ an antenna w/ burn out. Even worse the back pulse will destroy both the power grid and powerplants.

Recovery is not impossible but it would make US a third world country overnight.

If you want to be a tin foil nut put all your electronics in a faradays cage. They will be protected and you will be rich.

[thelordofhell]

5. I guess they never watched the newer version of "Ocean's Eleven"

They used an EMP weapon to help rob the big safe in Vegas.

[hendo]

8. yup, creating an EMP isn't all that hard to do.

Weaponing it though, that takes a little more skill. (well, assuming you don't want to nuke the people you are using an EMP on.)

[Cynical Guy]

16. EMPs are real.

Why don't you think so? Who is saying they're out there, or not?

There's a reason that the gov't funds labs to design radiation hardened processors for computing equipment used in weapons and communications systems. One nuclear blast in space and we see a lot of satellites go bye-bye. Think what would happen if we lost several of the GPS satellites we've launched, or the satellite communication systems. These things cost millions, and take time to build, launch, position and then test.

(There's kind of no context in your post) :-)

[BeFree]

17. Welcome to Du

Newt Get'nRich, a high (R) insider said we should take out the N. Korean Missile with an EMP weapon.....

Lets go with that. Two questions:
Does the US gov have an EMP weapon?
If the US had an EMP weapon would Newt know about it?

My answer: Yes to both.

Next question: Have we used it as a weapon yet?

[Cynical Guy]

18. Thank you. :-)

Newt's a jackass.

We don't need to waste an EMP on North Korea. They did something really dumb by testing the launch over Japan.

As a sovereign nation, they really don't need to ask anybody's permission to do stuff. However, their reputation is such that if they were seriously trying to launch a satellite, they needed to go way out of their way to prove it.

Has an EMP been deployed by us as a weapon? Hard to say. We really haven't run into anybody that it would affect. Iraq and Afghanistan are low-tech enough that it wouldn't have helped. Nobody is dumb enough to try a nuclear EMP anywhere. The risks are too high.

So at this point, as usual, I think Newt's talking out of his butt.

[Mugu]

19. EMP as a weapon is a well known concept that's been around for decades.

A friend of mine is an engineer for a large military contractor. His sole job is designing and testing counter measures for EMP whether generated by our weapons or an enemy's. I'm sure he's going to get quite a chuckle from your post.

[Mugu]

20. Kick. n/t

[Norquist Nemesis]

21. Wasn't there a fictional best-seller not long ago based on an EMP?

I'm not the avid book reader like hubby so my mind's foggy about it, but I seem to recall him reading a book about an EMP being set off. (Hubby loves reading those spy/CIA/government/international security types of books.)

Maybe Newt was confusing fiction with reality--or worse, he was counting on numerous people who read the book and was purposefully conflating fiction with reality.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Yes there was a novel - by Nelson DeMille

[empyreanisles]

22. It was on season 4 of "24".

A defense contractor who had developed an "EMP Bomb" set it off intentionally so they could wreak havoc and destroy some damning evidence in the process.

Jack and a colleague were caught in the middle of it and had to fight their way out of a section of the city that was completely devoid of power.

One of the best moments of season 4.