Will EMP Weapons Cause An Existential Threat?
Weapons Developed To Deliver The Damaging Effects Of High-Energy EMP.
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also sometimes called a transient electromagnetic disturbance, is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Such a pulse’s origin may be a natural occurrence or man-made and can occur as a radiated, electric, or magnetic field depending on the source.
An electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, is an intense burst of energy that can be released by a nuclear weapon detonated high in the atmosphere, portable devices like high power microwave weapons (HPMWs), or by a geomagnetic disturbance caused by natural phenomena such as solar flares.
An EMP or Electro Magnetic Pulse is a wave of electromagnetic radiation. An EMP does not directly hurt people, but an EMP interacts with power lines, metal, conductive materials and electronics and causes power spikes. In very large events an EMP can cause electronic systems failures. An energetic EMP can temporarily upset or permanently damage electronic equipment by generating high voltage and high current surges; semiconductor components are particularly at risk. An EMP itself is not harmful to people, but its aftermath would cause devastating, long-lasting effects that could ultimately kill majority of the target population and it could lead to deaths by shutting down medical, transportation, communication, banking, finance, food and water systems. In the worst possible scenario, a large-scale EMP could have effects like devastating storm but on a national scale.
An electromagnetic pulse is a strong burst of energy that interacts with the earth’s magnetic field. There are two kinds of EMP: natural and manmade. There are natural EMPs that can be caused in small form due to lightning or in large form due to geomagnetic storms. Man-made EMPs are generally created through nuclear explosions.
An EMP just like the 1859 Carrington EMP was natural; it came from the sun. Every so often, the sun experiences a solar flare and it flings charged particles (violent mass) into space. The vast majority of the time, this is harmless. However, every 100 or 200 years, we get a Carrington-level solar flare that hits the earth. On our planet, there’s so much electrical technology scattered across the earth’s surface that a solar flare could cause serious trouble. In addition, at higher energy levels a powerful EMP event such as a lightning strike( Natural EMP ) can damage physical objects such as buildings and aircraft structures.
An adversary with nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities can cause incredible damage and loss of life, but ultimately, the vast majority of people would be unaffected by any single explosion. However, a well-placed nuclear bomb 25 to 200 miles above the earth’s surface can interact with the magnetic field and create an unnaturally powerful EMP. The blast radius for such an EMP is not just a few miles like it is for a nuclear explosion. Instead, a nuclear bomb detonated in the atmosphere can cause an EMP that covers thousands of square miles of territory. And the strength of such a manmade EMP would be far above the usual EMPs created by the sun. A manmade nuclear EMP could utterly destroy electronic and electrical equipment such as computers, cell phones, transformers and transmission lines, as well as critical communications infrastructure across a whole country. Whether natural or manmade, a strong enough EMP could take society back to 100 years in terms of technology.
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse( NEMP ) is the abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation resulting from a nuclear explosion. NEMP weapons are designed to maximize such EMP effects as the primary damage mechanism, and Man-made nuclear EMPs are impressive weapons of war that are sparingly used due to their highly destructive nature.
EMPs are pulses of energy that can be emitted from the blast of a portable devices like high power microwave weapons (HPMWs) and these are Non-Nuclear EMP. A non-nuclear portable EMP devices that can still pose a threat to targeted objects , although the effects would be more localized. A well-placed EMP would bring planes, trains and automobiles to a halt, and render domestic military capabilities inoperable.
Man-made EMP capabilities were first discovered as the world’s superpowers started nuclear tests. Notably, the Starfish Prime test in 1962, where a 1.4 megaton bomb was detonated above the Pacific, resulted in damage to electrical equipment more than 1,400 kilometers away. During the height of the Cold War, EMPs were investigated as weapons of mass destruction by the US and the USSR. During this investigation, multiple low earth orbit satellites failed, which caused both countries to realize just how damaging the EMP weapon was. In warfare, the use of a nuclear EMP weapon have the potential of destroying an entire region’s electronics, which, in the modern information age, would practically be the end of life as we know it.
Aside from nuclear EMPs, military engineers and researchers have been exploring ways to create non-nuclear EMPs. Non-nuclear EMPs are now a reality for militaries around the world, but these weapons are much more localized than their nuclear counterparts. Focusing in on NNEMPs, these weapons are much less powerful, ranging from hundreds of meters of effectiveness up to several kilometers. These much more targeted ranges and make NNEMPs highly effective non-life-threatening military weapons. The way that NNEMPs are traditionally delivered to a target is rather unique. It’s not through a vehicle carrying a NNEMP device, but rather there are NNEMP missiles and bombs that are mounted to aircraft and drones. The NNEMPs are implemented in bombs or missiles, and notably, the US used NNEMP in the form of an e-bomb in 2003 in an effort to knock out Saddam Hussein’s information network.
Due to their non-physically destructive nature, NNEMPs can be used against a variety of targets. Society and military structure are built heavily upon the use of electronics, meaning that the effectiveness of EMPs as weapons are essentially endless. In war-fighting situations, they could knock out naval ships, disable communications networks, jam tanks, kill radar network, etc. If it’s electronically based, it can probably be knocked offline by an EMP device.
While all of that may sound a little scary, and militaries have the ability to protect against EMP attacks, though due to the restrictivity of the protection, it’s not widely used unless absolutely necessary. Covering electronics in a faraday caging material keeps the electromagnetic pulses from overloading the circuitry in the systems. Faraday cages are the most effective means of protection for electronics, but unfortunately, they also keep signals from exiting the cage, not just entering. Due to this, it would only work on network local to the inside of the faraday caging. Considering how damaging an EMP can be, an EMP shield is actually beneficial and just wrapping an electrical system in 5 layers of heavy-duty tin foil is enough to foil a powerful EMP strike. Some government and military technology are protected with this kind of shielding, but most of the electrical grid is not. You can protect your own devices with foil, but if there’s no power coming in, that’s of limited help. Other approach involves just modifications of radar, which bounces pulses of energy off aircraft in flight, vehicles on the ground, and other objects. ATLAS-I was the largest NNEMP (Non-Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse) generator in the world, designed to test the radiation hardening of strategic aircraft systems against EMP pulses from nuclear warfare.
There are different kinds of EMPs with different levels of danger . They are a dangerous phenomenon that could potentially lead to the deaths of millions of people. EMPs affect electrical wiring of all kinds. In 1859, the Carrington EMP knocked out telegraph machines around the world. But aside from damaging the telegraphs and causing a few fires, nothing much happened at that time. With no electrical technology except for a few telegraph machines, an EMP couldn’t do much of anything. But imagine an EMP striking today’s society. Our modern system is utterly dependent on electrical technology in every way and at every level. Everything from the water we drink to the way we get around requires functioning electrical systems to work. An EMP just like the 1859 Carrington EMP could strike again, but this time, the effects could be unimaginable.
At one time, it was nuclear weapons which were a strong edge against enemy and adversaries fear deterrence capabilities of a country which has the nuclear power. However, countries which are perfecting strategic EMP weapon along with nuclear and missile technology will have upper hand in future warfare as they can destroy entire modern military equipment. If done from space, it will have damaging effects on population as well in the long term. It is estimated that a massive EMP event could cause over $2 trillion in damages. At its core, an EMP event, whether by a hostile nation or natural solar disturbance, is a national security threat and countries must address potential threat from high-altitude EMP (HEMP) attack.
