Electro-magnet threats

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SoftWar by Charles Smith Feb 16th, 2000 Link China has accelerated the development of a new class of energy weapons against which the United States has no defense. The new weapons are designed to disable or destroy advanced U.S. military electronic systems such as military radars with a single blast. According to official Chinese army statements published by the Chinese news agency Jiefang Ribao, the Internet version of the daily newspaper of the Shanghai Municipal Communist Committee, the new energy weapons are specifically designed to attack American aircraft carriers. "As an aircraft carrier fleet is apt to come under saturation attacks by satellite-guided missiles, its entire combat effectiveness can be paralyzed by paralyzing its electronic equipment, which is its central nervous system," states the Feb. 12 article by Chinese military analyst Ye Jian entitled, "Armchair Strategy: Using a Bomb to Deal With Aircraft Carrier." "If the central nervous system of an aircraft carrier is paralyzed, even a comparatively backward naval vessel or aircraft (like a Jian-6) will be able to aim at the aircraft carrier as a conventional target, thereby thoroughly changing the balance between the strong and the weak," noted the Chinese military analyst. "The strong magnetic field and electromagnetic pulse caused by an explosion can destroy all important integrated circuits and IC chips of the electronic equipment within the demolition scope, thus paralyzing the radar and telecommunication system of the aircraft carrier and vessels around it as well as the ship-mounted missiles and aircraft." The new Chinese "pulse" energy weapons are based on a Russian design that uses explosives to generate huge magnetic shock waves that can destroy delicate electronics. The new weapon system, called an "EMG" or Explosive Magnetocumulative Generator, uses advanced conventional explosives to compress an electrically charged coil. The result is a short but very intense blast of magnetic energy that can short out computers and radar systems. Ironically, the Clinton administration allowed top U.S. and Russian scientists to engage in a joint energy research program that helped to improve the new energy bombs. In 1996, scientists from the U.S. Los Alamos laboratories and the Russian Arazamas-16 nuclear research facility conducted joint experiments using multicoil EMG systems to simulate the powerful magnetic fields produced by stars. EMG systems use a conventional explosive to form an implosion to create a high magnetic field on a target. The process of creating the magnetic field in these generators involves making a charged coil that is wrapped in a high explosive. Before detonation, a current is sent through the coil that creates a high magnetic field. When the warhead is detonated the resulting implosion then squeezes the coil rapidly to create an extremely intense magnetic field for a fraction of a second. In military form, the EMG is a conventional warhead that produces a magnetic pulsed field equal to a small nuclear bomb. EMGs can knock out computers, radios, radars and fry a wide variety of electronic devices. The U.S. version, an EMG warhead-equipped Tomahawk cruise missile, was used by the Clinton administration for "non-lethal" strikes against Serbian radar and command posts during the 1999 war in Kosovo. Several other new Chinese Electro-Magnetic Pulse warheads are also reported to be in the stages of final development. One such Chinese EMP warhead is said to use a capacitor made with explosive materials as the insulator between the charged plates. The plates are charged with a heavy static electric field just prior to setting off the explosive. When the explosive is detonated, the electric field is disrupted by the violent blast and an EMP wave results. In 1999, Russia introduced a series of similar powerful energy weapons designed to knock out computers, radars and other electronic devices. Russia has already deployed an energy warhead, called the High Powered Microwave system or HPM. The HPM system is reported to include hand grenade sized bombs effective against unprotected computers up to large-scale missile warheads designed to attack U.S. command units. Aviation Week and Space Technology reported that the Russian SS-21 tactical missile system is now carrying an energy warhead capable of knocking out Patriot and Aegis radar systems. In addition, the Russians recently published materials on how an energy warhead could be used in an anti-shipping role. Chinese military forces also noted that they want to deploy the new class of energy weapons against U.S. warships. "An electromagnetic pulse bomb has a good anti-interception function. It does not have to hit the aircraft carrier but only needs to explode within dozens of kilometers around the aircraft carrier," states the Chinese military article. "The success rate of its saturation attacks is high. It will perform better if mounted on a Moskit ship-to-ship or air-to-ship missile. As long as an electromagnetic pulse bomb can successfully explode, an aircraft carrier will be paralyzed." The White House spin is that there is no threat of war. The Chinese are our friends. Bill Clinton says we have nothing to fear. Al Gore shook hands and sipped wine with the Chinese generals and communist leaders. The White House spin is that China will never attack the powerful American U.S. Navy nor dare to cross the short waters between China and Taiwan. Yet, the People's Liberation Army clearly states that their number one target is American sea power. Only the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier force can foil the Chinese Army plans to dominate Asia, starting with a blitzkrieg lighting strike at free Taiwan. According to the Chinese military, their new energy weapons are designed to bring "complete victory" in a war between the United States and China. "Aircraft carrier threats are one of the obstacles to the reunification of the motherland," concludes the Chinese military article. "We need to seek a way to complete victory in destroying aircraft carrier fleets." ) 2000 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), February 17, 2000

Answers

Anyone have any more info on the Russian High Powered Microwave system (HPM)?

Hand grenade size means terrorist size.

This technology is the "level playing field" tool of third world forces.

Our high tech battle toys will be sitting ducks if this gets used.

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), February 17, 2000.

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a242571.htm

-- Casper (c@no.yr), February 17, 2000.

It's hard to believe that miltary electronics could not be "hardened" to be invulnerable to this type of attack. Civilian electronics are another matter.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), February 17, 2000.

Thanks Casper.

How about the new fuel-cell cars? They have ~150KW of electric power to use for whatever you want. The regenerative braking uses monster capacitors to store energy. Sounds like trouble if you take it apart and reassemble as a power source for these "toys".

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), February 17, 2000.

PI,

Can guarantee that most combat ships and a/c are at least somewhat hardened. For example, the Navy has a bird they call the Queer -- it's a mini-AWACs, and it's canopies are supposedly inlaid with very thin gold sheeting.

From what I remember, EMP from high-altitude nuclear explosions was such a threat because it blanketed all of the electromagnetic spectrum.

One result was that, even if your a/c or ship was still functioning, all commo was absolutely, totally hosed, especially to anyone not on board, and probably all radar was also hosed. And the blast of energy takes awhile to dissipate. Probably varied with the blast, but perhaps many, many minutes.

So, even if your vessel rides it out, as far as the outside world is concerned, your vessel is deaf, dumb and at least partially blind. If this is correct, we are talking really, really major pucker-factor!

There was a post on this board just a few days back about the Navy announcing that it was going to be experimenting with these sorts of energy weapons. Presuming the intel troops have known about this development for awhile, now we know why. And if not, are we so arrogant as to presume that the Chinese could never develop such a thing -- especially when we helped with the basic engineering? Top brass, maybe -- the lower-level folks closer to the pointy end of the stick, not likely.

This topic certainly interests me, as does wondering about what the various haarp installions around the world are capable of. Ditto GWEN here in the U.S. Heck, the Sov's had their well-known Woodpecker running back in he seventies, and they are probably still ahead of us in high-energy theoretical physics.

-- redeye in ohio (not@work.com), February 18, 2000.

Take this a bit further Redeye. Consider that civilian electronics targets can be obliterated by a non-nuclear blast. COnsider a few of these things placed near major critical systems for the internet, teleco systems and market trading. Result = a fouled up country, but no nuclear provocation...and not very tracable either.

:-(

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), February 18, 2000.

-- ..- (dash,dash,dot,dot,dash),
Exactly. Almost any infrastructure with electronics can be disrupted. (Electric powerplants, chem plants, nuke reactors, airports, etc...)

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000.