An Illustrated Guide to EMP

North Korea has a nascent EMP weapons capability that should trouble anyone concerned with national security. Please consider ABC News' North Korea Nears Completion of Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb.

Since March 4, Pyongyang has been trying to disrupt GPS receivers critical to South Korean military communications... Strong jamming signals were sent intermittently every five to 10 minutes... The scope of the damage has been minimal, putting some mobile phones and certain military equipment that use GPS signals on the fritz.

...The jamming, however, has raised questions about whether the Korean peninsula is bracing for new electronic warfare.

The North is believed to be nearing completion of an electromagnetic pulse bomb that, if exploded 25 miles above ground would cause irreversible damage to electrical and electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers, radio and radar, experts say.

What is an EMP?

Brian T. Kennedy, president of the Claremont Institute, offered an ominous warning in a in 2008 Journal op-ed. Entitled "What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do", it described exactly why the U.S. needs a space-based missile defense system to protect the country against a particularly deadly form of attack called EMP.

On July 9, 1962, a high-altitude nuclear test named Starfish Prime was conducted by the United States military above Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. Its unexpected electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects caused disruptions in electrical systems and equipment in Honolulu 700 miles away.

The EMP shut down long-distance telephone calls and disabled three satellites in low earth orbit. Radiation resulting from the test destroyed a total of seven satellites by knocking out their solar arrays or electronics.

A massive current of EMP could be unleashed with catastrophic effect on the United States if a nuclear weapon were detonated high above the center of the country. The energy of this pulse would disable and possibly destroy any unshielded electronic device and power grid in line-of-sight of the detonation.

Cars.

Buses.

Trucks.

Planes.

Trains.

Any vehicle with an electronic ignition or engine control system could be rendered useless.

The lifeblood of America -- food, energy, goods and services -- would be gridlocked.

The power grid: knocked out.

The phone system: gone.

All computer-based systems wiped away in the blink of an eye.

The United States -- dispatched back to the 19th century?

Several years ago, an Iranian military journal publicly considered the idea of launching an electromagnetic pulse attack as the key to defeating the world's lone superpower.

Yet, Copperhead Democrats call the threat of Iran "hype" and "fear".

Frank Gaffney, author of Warfooting, states "If [an EMP weapon] hits the electrical grids of the United States... if it hits electronic devices, computers, chips of various kinds--the things, in other words, that power our society--they're likely to be severely damaged, if not destroyed."

This would wreak havoc on the country's electronic systems, and plunge much--if not all--of the continental U.S. into a pre-industrial state. A blue-ribbon commission created by Congress confirmed this danger in a report submitted in August 2004.

At a height of 300 miles, the entire continental United States would be exposed to EMP attack, along with parts of Canada and Mexico. Congress was warned of Iran's plans by Peter Pry, a senior staffer with the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack in a hearing of the subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security.

Pry pointed out the Iranians have been testing mid-air detonations of their Shahab-3 medium-range missile over the Caspian Sea. The missiles were fired from ships.

"A nuclear missile concealed in the hold of a freighter would give Iran or terrorists the capability to perform an EMP attack against the United States homeland without developing an ICBM and with some prospect of remaining anonymous," said Pry. "Iran's Shahab-3 medium range missile mentioned earlier is a mobile missile and small enough to be transported in the hold of a freighter. We cannot rule out that Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism might provide terrorists with the means to execute an EMP attack against the United States."

It is worth pointing out that North Korea and Iran have been collaborating on missile and nuclear technologies for years despite "sanctions" and harshly worded memos.

Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the Congressional commission, noted in 2008 that such an attack – by Iran, North Korea, or a terrorist entity acting on their behalf – could cripple the U.S. by knocking out electrical power, computers, circuit boards controlling most automobiles and trucks, banking systems, communications and food and water supplies.

"No one can say just how long systems would be down," he said. "It could be weeks, months or even years." Wood said he could think of no other reason Iran would be experimenting with high-altitude detonations of missiles besides planning for an EMP attack. The same goes for North Korea.

One nuclear weapon. One missile. One motivated maniac.

Those are today's realities, immutable facts, no matter how the Copperhead Democrats try to delay, demoralize and dismantle our missile defense efforts.


Sources: WSJ: What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do, Warfooting: Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the US from EMP Attack and Joseph Farah.