Electromagnetic pulse

[sapan soni]

Can we use Electromagnetic Pulse as a weapon????Is it also harmful for Electronics devices???

[InigoMontoya]

Yes to both. The first being due to the second.

[sapan soni]

can u please explain me how???

[Airbrush]

can u please explain me how???

 

OK, but promise to not try one over my city. All you need to do is explode a nuke miles high. It will destroy all the electronics in a wide area under the blast. In fact a modest nuclear explosion, e.g. one megaton, can destroy electronic circuits to a radius of hundreds of miles! Whereas exploding it on the ground would not affect such a large area.

Edited August 16, 2011 by Airbrush

[John Cuthber]

Don't worry airbursh, if he can't access wiki he probably can't nuke a city.

[InigoMontoya]

can u please explain me how???

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

[Airbrush]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

 

Thanks for the link. To summarize Starfish, it was a 1.45 megaton nuclear device exploded at 250 miles high and it had an EM pulse larger than expected. 900 miles away in Hawaii, 300 streetlights were knocked out and it damaged their phone system, and set off burglar alarms. The Earth's magnetic field channels the pulse certain directions and proper placement of the nuke can result in worse damage. A few well-placed nukes over the USA could cripple all our unprotected commercial electronics.

[Enthalpy]

Nuclear bombs in the upper atmosphere were just the first historical means to produce an EMP. Unlikely to be used in a limited conflict or during peace.

 

Present weapons produce a more local EMP, very strong. Those operated for decades use a chemical explosive to deform some metal foil or tube within a magnetic field, whose induction surges as its area is squeezed by the smashed conductor. They can be a warhead in a bomb, as the one used by the USAF against Al Jazeera in Bagdad.

 

More recent but probably operational weapons use electric circuits that aren't destroyed each time. A Marx generator is just a low-tech possibility; fast power MOS switches (combined) can even produce the necessary power and rise time. These generators have an antenna, often separated from the electronics. It is easy enough that an enlightened hobbyist can build one.

 

Depending on the field produced, only sensitive components (electronics) connected to a long line (antenna, power mains, phone line...) are destroyed, or sensitive components without a line (even within a silicon chip) or insensitive components (transformers) connected to a line.

 

These weapons are so real that warfare equipment is designed since 2+ decades to survive it. And it takes heavy methods.

 

Because an EMP generator using electronic components is small and banal (a suitcase) it's a first-choice weapon for spooks, so civilian targets like airliners would better be hardened against them. Very few years ago, a company wanted to equip the police with such weapons to stop cars, but the risk of accident and collateral damage was probably too high. And two Italian towns witnessed destructions of electric equipment that are very strong hints to the use of EMP weapons.

[sapan soni]

I didnt know that.thanx.

[TonyMcC]

You may be surprised to know that when a Russian MIG plane defected to the West in 1976 and was examined it was found to use old fashioned thermionic valve (tube) technology. There was some debate at the time concerning this. Was Russian technology well behind our technology or was this choice made as it was less likely to be affected by an EM pulse ? http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/mig25.html

Edited August 19, 2011 by TonyMcC

[Enthalpy]

France is said to have developed in Saint-Louis such a miniature EMP weapon that uses controlled switches and fits in a suitcase. It was described in a "Quarks &Co" emission by the WDR channel - or was it "Nano" on 3Sat channel?

 

Such a weapon would have ~100m range, so for military use it should be brought near the target by some drone. But for use by spooks, it's a perfect range.

 

The Italian towns that seem to have been targeted are Aoste on 20th January 2005, and Canneto some months before. What they observed there, with all electronic devices connected to wires being destroyed, strongly suggests an EMP weapon.

Edited August 12, 2012 by Enthalpy