An Electromagnetic Bomb

7/29/2019 An Electromagnetic Bomb

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An electromagnetic bomb, or e-bomb, is a weapon designed to take advantage of this dependency. But instead of simply cutting off power in an area, an e-bombwould actually destroy most machines that use electricity. Generators would beuseless, cars wouldn't run, and there would be no chance of making a phone call. In

a matter of seconds, a big enough e-bomb could thrust an entire city back 200years or cripple a military unit.The Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) effect was firstobserved during the early testing of high altitude airburst nuclear weapons. Theeffect is characterised by the production of a very short (hundreds of nanoseconds)

but intense electromagnetic pulse, which propagates away from its source withever diminishing intensity, governed by the theory of electromagnetism. TheElectromagnetic Pulse is in effect an electromagnetic shock wave. This pulse of energy produces a powerful electromagnetic field, particularly within the vicinity

of the weapon burst. The field can be sufficiently strong to produce short livedtransient voltages of thousands of Volts (i.e. kilovolts) on exposed electricalconductors, such as wires, or conductive tracks on printed circuit boards, whereexposed. It is this aspect of the EMP effect which is of military significance, as itcan result in irreversible damage to a wide range of electrical and electronicequipment, particularly computers and radio or radar receivers. Subject to theelectromagnetic hardness of the electronics, a measure of the equipment'sresilience to this effect, and the intensity of the field produced by the weapon, theequipment can be irreversibly damaged or in effect electrically destroyed. Thedamage inflicted is not unlike that experienced through exposure to close

proximity lightning strikes, and may require complete replacement of theequipment, or at least substantial portions thereof. - See more at:


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Anyone who's been through a prolonged power outage knows that it's an extremelytrying experience. Within an hour of losing electricity, you develop a healthyappreciation of all the electrical devices you rely on in life. A couple hours later,you start pacing around your house. After a few days without lights, electric heator TV, your stress level shoots through the roof.

But in the grand scheme of things, that's nothing. If an outage hits an entire city,and there aren't adequate emergency resources, people may die from exposure,companies may suffer huge productivity losses and millions of dollars of food mayspoil. If a power outage hit on a much larger scale, it could shut down theelectronic networks that keep governments and militaries running. We are utterlydependent on power, and when it's gone, things get very bad, very fast.

An electromagnetic bomb , or e-bomb, is a weapon designed to take advantage of this dependency. But instead of simply cutting off power in an area, an e-bombwould actually destroy most machines that use electricity. Generators would beuseless, cars wouldn't run, and there would be no chance of making a phone call. Ina matter of seconds, a big enough e-bomb could thrust an entire city back 200years or cripple a military unit.

The U.S. military has been pursuing the idea of an e-bomb for decades, and many believe it now has such a weapon in its arsenal. On the other end of the scale,terrorist groups could be building low-tech e-bombs to inflict massive damage onthe United States.

The basic idea of an e-bomb -- or more broadly, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon -- is pretty simple. Thesesorts of weapons are designed to overwhelm electrical circuitry with an intense electromagnetic field .

If you've read How Radio Works or How Electromagnets Work , then you know an electromagnetic field in itself isnothing special. The radio signals that transmit AM, FM, television and cell phone calls are all electromagneticenergy, as is ordinary light, microwaves and x-rays .

For our purposes, the most important thing to understand about electromagnetism is that electric current generates

magnetic fields and changing magnetic fields can induce electric current. This page from How Radio Works explainsthat a simple radio transmitter generates a magnetic field by fluctuating electrical current in a circuit. This magneticfield, in turn, can induce an electrical current in another conductor, such as a radio receiver antenna. If the fluctuatingelectrical signal represents particular information, the receiver can decode it.

A low intensity radio transmission only induces sufficient electrical current to pass on a signal to a receiver. But if yougreatly increased the intensity of the signal (the magnetic field), it would induce a much larger electrical current. A bigenough current would fry the semiconductor components in the radio, disintegrating it beyond repair.
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Non-nuclear EMP Weapons

The United States most likely has EMP weapons in its arsenal, but it's not clear in what form. Much of the UnitedStates' EMP research has involved high power microwaves (HPMs). Reporters have widely speculated that they do

exist and that such weapons could be used in a war with Iraq.

Most likely, the United States' HPM e-bombs aren't really bombs at all. They're probably more like super powerful microwave ovens that can generate a concentrated beam of microwave energy. One possibility is the HPMdevice would be mounted to a cruise missile, disrupting ground targets from above.

This technology is advanced and expensive and so would be inaccessible to military forces without considerableresources. But that's only one piece of the e-bomb story. Using inexpensive supplies and rudimentary engineeringknowledge, a terrorist organization could easily construct a dangerous e -bomb device.

In late September 2001, Popular Mechanics published an article outlining this possibility. The article focused on fluxcompression generator bombs (FCGs), which date back to the 1950s. This sort of e-bomb has a fairly simple,potentially inexpensive design, illustrated below. (This conceptual bomb design comes from this report writtenby Carlo Kopp , a defense analyst. The design concept has been widely available to the public for some time. Nobodywould be able to construct a functioning e-bomb from this description alone).

The bomb consists of a metal cylinder (called the armature ), which is surrounded by a coil of wire (the stator winding ). The armature cylinder is filled with high explosive, and a sturdy jacket surrounds the entire device. The

stator winding and the armature cylinder are separated by empty space. The bomb also has a power source, such asa bank of capacitors , which can be connected to the stator.

Here's the sequence of events when the bomb goes off:

A switch connects the capacitors to the stator, sending an electrical current through the wires. This generates anintense magnetic field.

A fuze mechanism ignites the explosive material. The explosion travels as a wave through the middle of the armaturecylinder.

As the explosion makes its way through the cylinder, the cylinder comes in contact with the stator winding. Thiscreates a short circuit, cutting the stator off from its power supply.

The moving short circuit compresses the magnetic field, generating an intense electromagnetic burst.
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Most likely, this type of weapon would affect a relatively small area -- nothing on the order of a nuclear EMP attack --but it could do some serious damage.

In the next section, we'll look at some possible effects of an EMP attack.

E-Bomb Effects

The United States is drawn to EMP technology because it is potentially non-lethal , but is still highly destructive. An

E-bomb attack would leave buildings standing and spare lives, but it could destroy a sizeable military.

There is a range of possible attack scenarios. Low-level electromagnetic pulses would temporarily jam electronicssystems, more intense pulses would corrupt important computer data and very powerful bursts would completely fry

electric and electronic equipment.

In modern warfare, the various levels of attack could accomplish a number of important combat missions withoutracking up many casualties. For example, an e-bomb could effectively neutralize:

vehicle control systems

targeting systems, on the ground and on missiles and bombs

communications systems


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navigation systems

long and short-range sensor systems

EMP weapons could be especially useful in an invasion of Iraq, because a pulse might effectively neutralizeunderground bunkers. Most of Iraq's underground bunkers are hard to reach with conventional bombs and missiles. A

nuclear blast could effectively demolish many of these bunkers, but this would take a devastating toll on surroundingareas. An electromagnetic pulse could pass through the ground, knocking out the bunker's lights, ventilation systems,communications -- even electric doors. The bunker would be completely uninhabitable.

U.S. forces are also highly vulnerable to EMP attack, however. In recent years, the U.S. military has addedsophisticated electronics to the full range of its arsenal. This electronic technology is largely built around consumer-grade semiconductor devices, which are highly sensitive to any power surge. More rudimentary vacuum tubetechnology would actually stand a better chance of surviving an e-bomb attack.

A widespread EMP attack in any country would compromise a military's ability to organize itself. Ground troops mighthave perfectly functioning non-electric weapons (like machine guns ), but they wouldn't have the equipment to plan anattack or locate the enemy. Effectively, an EMP attack could reduce any military unit into a guerilla-type army.

While EMP weapons are generally considered non-lethal, they could easily kill people if they were directed towardsparticular targets. If an EMP knocked out a hospital's electricity, for example, any patient on life support would dieimmediately. An EMP weapon could also neutralize vehicles, including aircraft, causing catastrophic accidents.

In the end, the most far-reaching effect of an e-bomb could be psychological. A full-scale EMP attack in a developedcountry would instantly bring modern life to a screeching halt. There would be plenty of survivors, but they would findthemselves in a very different world.

War fever drives the ebullient American media to wax enthusiastically on miraculous inventions that could lay waste

to Iraq . And the most miraculous of all is the electromagnetic pulse bomb.

Although not yet glimpsed, the e-bomb is thought to be a cruise missile, or possibly a dropped munition, fitted with a

special warhead that not only explodes with a bang but also emits a burst of radio waves aimed at shorting out

unshielded electronics. The Directed Energy Directorate is probably the culprit behind its development, although the

organization won't cop to it directly.

Talk of the secret electromagnetic pulse bomb approaches mythology, taking on a uniquely American demented

quality. Bubbling over with excitement at something they've never seen, Beltway amateur generals muse openly on a

wondrous capacity to destroy Iraqi civilization without harming people, or of an ability to neutralize stockpiles of

chemical or biological weapons. Just exactly how a missile emitting a burst of radio waves neutralizes caches of

mustard gas or dried anthrax spores is left to the imagination of nitpickers. How the bomb will stop soldiers with old-

fashioned artillery, automatic weapons, or tanks is also given short shrift.

What is certain is that the Pentagon has been interested in electromagnetic pulses since it noticed at the Johnston

Island test range in the late 1960s that high atmospheric nuclear explosions short-circuited electronics far from actual

test blasts.
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Harnessing the phenomenon without producing a multi-megaton explosion has proven more elusive, but some still

think this is a legitimate option. "It is widely known that we Americans contemplated, briefly and in a non-pervasive

fashion, a nuclear . . . laydown on Iraq as an exceptionally high-effectiveness commencement to Operation Desert

Storm ," a mad scientist from a U.S. nuclear weapons lab nattered to Congress in 1999. The menacing comments were

part of an unusual hearing convened to persuade American small businesses to harden themselves before nations likeIraq or North Korea attacked us with electromagnetic bombs.

While manic boasts regarding the munition are easy to find, not so easily heard are insider doubts that it functions as

advertised. And since the damage of electronic equipment would be difficult to see in the fog of all-out war, its value

as a practical weapon remains suspect.

In any case, if the electromagnetic pulse bomb exists and if it works two big ifs the Iraqi people probably won't

notice it amid the hundreds of other cruise missiles. But if the electricity should go out in a hospital due to an

accidental "hit" from one of them, they could always just complain to George Bush , or to Pentagon war

correspondents.
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An Electromagnetic Bomb