EMP Attack Would Send America into a Dark Age

In a matter of seconds, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack or a geomagnetic storm would send America back to the Dark Ages. It’s something few want to think about and something fewer still are doing anything about. Gale Nordling, president and CEO of Minneapolis-based Emprimus speaks to Ronald Kessler in this article from Newsmax.

An EMP attack occurs when a nuclear bomb explodes in the atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse generated by the blast fries all electronics in line of sight. EMP was first detected after the detonation of the Starfish Prime nuclear test on July 9, 1962. While the explosion occurred near Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean and was not designed to be an EMP blast, it blew out street lamps, television sets, and telephone communications in Hawaii nearly 1,000 miles away.

A single nuclear bomb exploded over the Midwest would generate an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy the chips that are at the heart of every electronic device. While military and intelligence networks may be shielded against EMP, the rest of the country�s technological infrastructure is not.

Geomagnetic storms emanating from the sun could cause a similar catastrophe. Such a storm occurred in 1859, but because a system for distributing electric power had not yet been invented, it did not do any appreciable damage. On March 13, 1989, a minor geomagnetic storm left six million people without power in eastern Canada and the U.S. for 12 hours.

�If a nuclear device designed to emit EMP were exploded 250 to 300 miles up over the middle of the country, it would disable the electronics in the entire United States,� says Nordling, president and CEO of Minneapolis-based Emprimus. �That would disable the entire electric grid. It would disable communications, it would disable fuel manufacturing and production, it would disable hospitals and medicines, it would disable 911 call centers.�

Everything else would be shut down, Nordling says.

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Airborne Laser Could Save Us From Terrorist EMP Scenario

Perhaps one of the most frightening terrorist-attack scenarios is one wherein a nuclear-tipped missile is launched by terrorists from a seemingly harmless cargo ship somewhere off the coast of the United States.

In such an attack, the missile could be hurtling skyward almost before our current missile-defense system had time to blink. The missile’s warhead could then be remotely detonated somewhere 20 to 60-plus miles above the visual horizon, and — in addition to killing everyone in the blast and radiation radius — trigger an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), which would basically fry every single electrical circuit in the blast’s line-of-sight for hundreds of miles in every direction. An EMP would effectively knock out all electrical grids, aircraft, trains, ships, automobiles, computers, medical equipment, ATM machines, cooling and heating systems, TVs, radios, telephones, blackberries, flashlights, electric toothbrushes, and children’s toys in an instant.

In less time than that required to take a breath, a huge section of North America would be catapulted back to the 18th century. Yet because we are so completely dependent upon 21st century technology, the ensuing chaos, crime, starvation, and disease would be something unimaginable.

A single enemy missile could do this to us.

The U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, however, have an answer to this threat in the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, essentially a high-energy laser-beam system housed in a Boeing 747-400 aircraft. (Boeing is the primary ABL contractor. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are partners developing the laser-weapon system.)

The ABL system is designed to kill enemy ballistic-missiles — short, medium, and long-range — during the boost-phase portion of the missile’s flight, shortly after the missile has been launched. And being that the system is airborne, ABL is capable of patrolling the U.S. coastline as well as near-and-above “potential enemy ballistic-missile hotspots,” worldwide.

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Electric Grid, Emergency Communications Vulnerable To EMP Weapons

Gale Nordling, president and CEO of Emprimus, recently testified before the Congressional Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology about how electromagnetic devices can be used against public infrastructure, specifically the electric grid. Such devices can disable systems controlled by computers and significantly disrupt emergency-response operations from fire protection to homeland security, Nordling said.

“When terrorists intentionally use electromagnetic interference they are able to interfere with security systems, communication systems and operation systems,” Nordling said in an interview with Urgent Communications.

Every year, U.S. infrastructure becomes increasingly dependent on integrated, circuit-based electronic control systems, computers and electronically stored data. As a result, Nordling said a growing use of non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse/intentional electromagnetic interference (EMP/IEMI), including radio-frequency weapons, poses a danger to the national electric grid, manufacturing control and distribution systems, corporate data and emergency-response operations. In addition, communication between first responders would be negligible because the cell and repeater towers would go down because they rely on the energy from the grid.

“It would depend on the kind of facility that would be hooked to the power grid that would determine the degree of harm that would occur, such as if it was a hospital or a 911 communication call center,” he said.

Source

EMP Attack Could Wipe Out U.S.

The federal government is doing “nothing” to protect against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack that could wipe out American civilization, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a leading expert on the subject, tells Newsmax.

For only $200 million to $400 million, the government could protect a key element of the power grid to keep electrical power from being wiped out for years, according to Dr. Pry, a former staff member of the congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack.

Yet neither Republicans nor Democrats have been willing to spend that small sum, says Pry, who is president EMPACT America, which is meeting in Niagara Falls, N.Y. this week to spotlight the scandal.

A single nuclear bomb exploded over the Midwest would generate an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy the chips that are at the heart of every electronic device. While military and intelligence networks may be shielded against EMP, most of the rest of the country’s technological infrastructure is not.

An EMP attack would wipe out personal computers and the internet. Cars would not start, gasoline pumps would not work, and airplanes could not take off.

Heat and air conditioning would shut down, supermarkets would have to close, telephones would go dead, water would go out, and radio and television sets would not turn on.

Banks and ATMs would shut down, credit cards would become useless, and emergency services and hospital operating rooms would close.

In the ensuing chaos, most Americans would die from starvation.

“We have a 60-day food supply in big regional warehouses,” Pry says. “Typically when hurricanes take out the electric power grid locally, that food spoils, because it needs temperature control systems and refrigerators to keep it preserved. And if you lose the electric grid across the whole country, you’re going to lose all that food that is the best hope for feeding the American people.”

The 2008 report of the congressional commission found that the country is shockingly unprepared for an EMP attack. Terrorists or countries like Iran or North Korea could launch an EMP attack and “possibly end us as a civilization, and take us out as an actor on the world stage,” Pry says.

At the least, Pry says, 100 to 200 large transformers used in electrical transmission should be protected against EMP attack.

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EMP A Weapon That Could Create A New Dark Age

With hurricane season upon us once again, the recent anniversary of one of the most deadly and destructive in our nation’s history — the mega-storm called Katrina — was an occasion for remembering what can happen if we are unprepared.

Unfortunately, what was arguably the most important lesson of that hurricane has still not been addressed: the truly catastrophic vulnerability of all of the infrastructures upon which our society critically depends to interruptions of the electrical grid.

Worse yet, there are both looming man-induced and far more devastating natural means of precipitating such interruptions that we have not begun to address. Should these eventuate, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will look like, well, a day at the beach.

It is no exaggeration to say that the effect of one or the other of these assaults on our electrical grid could be to engender what Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called “a world without America.”

As Katrina demonstrated, if the electricity goes off for any protracted period, a cascading ripple-effect takes down the means by which we communicate, get food and water, access financial resources, receive medical services, dispose of sewage and move from one location to another. The longer the time without electricity, the more difficult it is to bring such other infrastructures back on line.

If some of the roughly 300 transformers that are the backbone of our electrical grid are damaged or destroyed, the interruption to the electrical grid will not be brief. Today, we have few backups in place. These large and complex pieces of equipment are all produced overseas and it takes at least a year to take delivery of even one, let alone many.

William R. Graham, President Reagan’s science adviser, estimates that, if the electricity is off in large sections of America (far more than the relatively small area afflicted by Katrina) for as long as a year, the effect will not simply be on the quality of life here. He says as many as 9 in 10 of our men, women and children will die from starvation, disease and/or exposure.

via Source – Frank J. Gaffney Jr. – Washington Times.

Military Source Warns of North Korea’s EMP Bomb

North Korea is developing a bomb that emits an electromagnetic field upon explosion and damages nearby electronic devices, a South Korean military source has revealed to the JoongAng Ilbo. The source said North Korea has been working on the electromagnetic pulse bomb, or EMP bomb, since the mid-1990s, with help from Russian scientists, adding that the weapon may be near completion.

The EMP bomb produces a short but strong electromagnetic pulse that, if exploded 40 kilometers (25 miles) above ground, would affect equipment within a 700-kilometer radius, including exposed electrical conductors, such as wires.

According to Australia-based defense analyst Carlo Kopp and his paper at the GlobalSecurity.org Web site, the EMP effect can cause irreversible damage to electrical and electronic devices, such as computers, radio and radar. He noted that EMP devices can render many modern military platforms useless because they are packed with electronic equipment. He argued that the damaged inflicted by such a bomb is akin to the harm caused by powerful bolts of lightning. The EMP bomb is not known to cause casualties. The U.S. forces used them at the onset of the war on Iraq in 2003.

The South Korean source said he expects the North to develop EMP bombs as warheads for aircraft bombs and for Scud-B missiles, warning that the North could use the weapons early and often if war broke out on the peninsula. South Korean and U.S. forces are vulnerable to EMP attacks since they rely on a great number of computer systems and their weapons are heavily equipped with electronic devices, the source explained.

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Concerns Over Iranian Nuclear EMP Threat

Concerns about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and their potential devastating impact on America are mounting, a special report from Newsmax.TV reveals. The Islamic republic has test-fired missiles capable of reaching Israel, southeastern Europe and U.S. bases in the Mideast, and published reports say Iran is within a year of developing its own nuclear bomb.

And security experts warn that even one nuclear device in the hands of a rogue nation could be used against the United States in a devastating electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.

So why isn’t the Obama administration doing more to prevent a nuclear nightmare?

I get very, very nervous about it,Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told Newsmax.TV’s Kathleen Walter.I think Iran will have a nuclear weapon. I think now it’s only a question of when.

The United States is caught in the middle of a Mideast faceoff between one of its strongest allies, Israel, and Iran. Iran has threatened to wipe Israel off the world map, and Israel refuses to rule out a pre-emptive strike on its adversary while insisting that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

If the United States tries to prevent Iran from making nuclear weapons, its president, Mahmoud Amedinejad, has vowed a campaign of bloody revenge.

Iran’s hatred of Israel is rooted in ideology,said Walid Phares of Foundation for Defense of Democracies.The Iranian regime is jihadist, and they do not acknowledge nor accept the idea that a non-Islamic, non-jihadist state could exist in the region.

Although Iran is thousands of miles from America’s shores, its belligerent actions could have far-reaching repercussions. A regional war or nuclear attack could cause an already shaky U.S. economy to collapse.

Even scarier, say policy analysts, is the growing threat of an EMP, an intense burst of energy from an exploding nuclear warhead high above the Earth. Experts believe such an attack could destroy all electronic devices over a massive area, from cell phones to computers to America’s electrical grid.

Within a year of that attack nine out of 10 Americans would be dead, because we can’t support a population of the present size in urban centers and the like without electricity, said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy. That would be a world without America, as a practical matter. And that is exactly what I believe the Iranians are working towards.

President Barack Obama has committed the U.S. government to a diplomatic approach for resolving the high-stakes nuclear dispute, but Iran has so far rebuffed Obama’s overtures. Meanwhile, Congress is working on legislation to grant Obama the power to impose crippling sanctions on Iran if the talk-first approach doesn’t work.

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Congressman Pushes Bill To Prepare For EMP Threat

America’s electric grid is vulnerable to attack from electromagnetic weaponry, and building a smart grid might make it worse, says Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD). Bartlett, a former research scientist and engineer, offers his solution for securing U.S. electronics from attack.

“The more sophisticated we become, the more vulnerable we are,” said Bartlett. “There’s a huge concern about cyber-attacks on the grid. Well a really robust nuclear EMP lay-down means microelectronics across the country would be shut down and you have no power…there’s one event that we will not avoid, and that is a solar electromagnetic interference, solar storm. If we have a big one like the one that occurred back in 1859, that would shut down the whole grid for quite a long while. It would cost about $100 million to protect much of the grid, but if the grid went down, it would cost us between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in damages, and the loss of life could be horrendous if in fact you were without electricity for months at a time. There’s a bill in the House, and it’s got to go through the Energy and Commerce Committee.”

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Listen To NPR Interview With Congressman Bartlett

Smart Grid Can be Wiped Out by Electromagnetic Weapons

There’s been plenty of evidence recently that the Smart Grid could become a serious security risk for IT and households. Now comes something potentially just as troubling: A U.S. Congressman warns that the grid can be taken down by an electromagnetic weapon.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (Rep.-Md.) issued that warning recently. He’s not your typical “the-sky-is-falling” Congressman  he’s a former research scientist and engineer and has previously has worked on projects for NASA and the military. Bartlett issued his warning yesterday at a House Science subcommittee hearing about how to roll out the Smart Grid.

At the hearing, he warned that a weapon that fired an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could wipe out significant sections of the Smart Grid. According to a Science News account of the hearings:

EMP is a powerful and potentially devastating form of electromagnetic “fallout.” It’s usually associated with nuclear weapons, although it can be triggered by any major explosive bursts. Unlike radioactive fallout, this rain won’t directly harm living things. It will just catastrophically fry all electronics and modern electrical systems by inducing staggeringly large and rapid current or voltage surges.

The magazine goes on to report that Bartlett warns small nations could use the weapon against the Smart Grid, when it is developed:

All one needs to wreak some serious EMP damage, he charges, is a sea-worthy steamer, $100,000 to buy a scud-missile launcher, and a crude nuclear weapon. Then fling the device high into the air and detonate its warhead.

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EMP – Electromagnetic Pulse Conference Sept. 8th – 10th

North American Conference on the Threat Posed by Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) to U.S. and Canada to be Held in Niagara Falls Sept. 8-10
EMPACT America today announced plans for an international conference “Protecting America Against Electromagnetic Pulse,” to be held at the Niagara Falls Conference Center, Sept. 8-10.

The conference, which will feature opening remarks from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich via video and in-person speakers including experts on EMP representing Congress, the military, academia and the private sector. The conference will focus on the nation’s vulnerability to an electromagnetic pulse attack, as well as response, preparedness and recovery strategies.

“Government and industry must devote coordinated energy and funding to protect our nation’s electric-power, telecommunications, food, healthcare, financial and other infrastructures from the devastating potential of major natural disasters, conventional terrorist threats, cyber attacks and an EMP attack,” said Henry Schwartz, founder of the not-for-profit EMPACT America.

“Congressional commissions and committees have tried to call attention to the immediate EMP threat from rogue states or terrorist groups using a [primitive] missile to detonate a [crude] nuclear warhead miles above the United States or Canada, knocking out all digital and electronic devices, our electrical grid, communications, and other infrastructures for months, or even years,” added Schwartz, whose companies Steuben Foods in Elma and Elmhurst Dairy in New York City are among the region’s largest suppliers of milk and dairy products.

Erie County Executive Chris Collins joined with Schwartz in calling for local and national EMP preparedness efforts.

“EMP is an issue that was not previously on our readiness list, but now has our attention,” Collins said. “Given the potentially grave consequences to both public and private assets, we will take steps at the county level to make it part of our disaster preparedness efforts.”

EMP is a burst of electromagnetic energy which occurs naturally (solar flares) and from manmade sources (nuclear detonations). The non-radioactive pulses of magnetic energy adversely affect a wide range of electronic devices, ranging from cell phones, personal computers and vehicle ignitions, to power grids and satellites and air traffic control systems.

The absence of vital power and communications equipment poses major difficulties for disaster recovery officials, health care providers, utilities, and the business community in serving the public in the aftermath of such an incident.

Reports from the Congressional EMP Commission and the National Academy of Sciences characterize electromagnetic pulse as a potentially catastrophic threat.

In a July 21 hearing before a House Homeland Security subcommittee, Commission Chairman Dr. William R. Graham testified that EMP “. . .is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences.”

“It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus the very fabric of U.S. society,” Graham told the panel.

A likely scenario for an EMP attack involves a nuclear missile launch by a rogue state or terrorist group. In recent months, efforts by North Korea to develop nuclear technology and launch missiles have raised fears of a near-term EMP attack.

In June, the Obama administration took steps to beef-up anti-ballistic missile defenses to protect Hawaii from any North Korean launch.

Schwartz is also urging federal lawmakers to reactivate the EMP commission in the upcoming legislative session. The commission, which was established in 2001, saw its term expire in Dec. 2008.

In addition to Gingrich, Schwartz has assembled a global stable of experts to discuss the growing EMP threat and ways to minimize the impact. The speakers will also include current and former military, national security and disaster preparedness officials to lead workshops on dealing with the EMP threat.

More information on EMP, EMPACT America and its upcoming conference can be found at www.empactamerica.org. Additional information on attending the conference is available by calling 716-805-3366.

EMPACT America works with a coalition of national grassroots organizations, corporations, and local and national government representatives to ensure public safety by expanding awareness and developing a management plan for the EMP threat.

Founder Henry Schwartz is the owner of Steuben Foods, a high-tech manufacturer of food and beverage products for global and regional brand name food companies. Steuben employs more than 475 workers at its Elma, N.Y. plant. Schwartz also owns Elmhurst Dairy, Metropolitan New York’s largest milk processor.

Empact America

An EMP Attack, Thinking The Unthinkable – James Carafano

When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, it complained that federal agencies had a colossal “failure of imagination.” Nobody could accuse Newt Gingrich from suffering that shortfall.

When he delivered a major address on national security last week, the former Speaker of the House went after Defense Secretary Robert Gates for planning for the future the Pentagon wants, rather than dealing with the many serious problems it may actually face. Gingrich mentioned one challenge that many find too terrible to contemplate — which is why our government should spend a lot more time doing exactly that.

I’m referring to the Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP). This method of attack is usually associated with a nuclear blast. In addition to thermal, radiation, heat and concussive force, an atomic detonation throws off an incredible amount of electro-magnetic energy.

Picture a massive tsunami, but with lightning instead of water. And, like the surge produced by lightning, electrical systems act like antennas sucking down a rush of electrons that fry circuits and burn out micro-chips.

EMP is not normally addressed when talking about nuclear attack, because most nuclear strikes are planned as low-air bursts where most of the energy, EMP included, go straight into the ground (and flattening the city in-between). In such scenarios, electrical systems would be disabled by EMP, though few would notice, because most people would have been crushed or melted in the firestorm following the detonation.

A deliberate EMP attack, however, would be different. If, for example, an enemy detonated a nuclear weapon carried on a ballistic missile 200 miles or so above the earth, people on the ground might never know an attack occurred. But if the explosion happened high enough over North America, the blossom of EMP might cover the entire United States.

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House Panel Examines EMP, Cyber Terror Threats to Electric Grid

Legislation must allow fast action in case of physical attacks, like an EMP pulse, or cyber attacks against the electric grid, experts say

Although some have considered an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) on the nation’s electric grid unlikely, experts told a panel of the House Homeland Security Committee Tuesday that if the US completely ignores the possibility of such an attack, the possibility of an attack gets much higher.

“Some in government have taken the position that EMP attack and geomagnetic storm disruption are low-probability events…” said William Graham, chairman for the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse, a congressionally mandated commission to study the risk of EMP pulses. “By ignoring large scale, catastrophic EMP vulnerability, we invite such attack on our infrastructure by adversaries looking to attack us where we are weak, not where we are strong.”

A high-altitude EMP is the result of the detonation of a nuclear warhead at altitudes between 40-400 km above the Earth’s surface, Graham told the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology.

“The immediate effects of EMP are disruption of, and damage to, electronic systems and electrical infrastructure,” Graham said. “EMP is not reported in the scientific literature to have direct effects on people.”

Subcommittee chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) said the risk of an EMP attack or cyber attack is a significant threat to homeland security.

“Many nation states, like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, have offensive cyber attack capabilities, while terrorist groups like Hezbollah and al Qaeda continue to work to develop capabilities to attack and destroy critical infrastructure like the electric grid through cyber means,” Clarke said.

Homeland Security Today – preparedness and security news – House Panel Examines Threats to US Electric Grid

The Danger of EMP, Electro Magnetic Pulse Attack

EMP is shorthand for Electro Magnetic Pulse. It is a rather unusual and frightening by – product when a nuclear bomb is detonated above the earth’s atmosphere. We all know that our atmosphere and the magnetic field which surrounds our planet is a thin layer which not only keeps us alive, but also protects us from dangerous radiation from the sun. On a fairly regular basis there are huge solar storms on the sun’s surface which emit powerful jets of deadly radiation. If not for the protective layer of our atmosphere and magnetic field, those storms would fry us. At times though, the storm is so power that enough disruptive energy reaches the earth’s surface that it drowns out radio waves and even shorts electrical power grids…this happened several years back in Canada.

View the detonation of a nuclear bomb, two hundred miles straight up as the same thing, but infinitely more powerful since it is so close by.

As the bomb explodes it emits a powerful wave of gamma rays. As this energy release hits the upper atmosphere it creates a electrical disturbance know as the Compton Effect. The intensity is magnified. View it as a small pebble rolling down a slope, hitting a larger one, setting that in motion, until finally you have an avalanche.

At the speed of light this disturbance races to the earth surface. It is not something you can see or hear, in the same way you don’t feel the electrical disturbance in the atmosphere during20a large solar storm.

For all electrical systems though, it is deadly.

William R. Forstchen is the author of this report and the book, “One Second After“. If you have not read it, we highly recommend it. More information is available at Amazon.com.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THIS “PULSE” HITS THE SURFACE?

Those who might remember ham radio operators, or even the old CB radios of the 1970s can recall that if you ran out a wire as an antenna you could send and receive a better signal. The wire not only transmitted the very faint power of a few watts of electricity from your radio, it could receive even fainted signals in return. As the Pulse strikes the earths surface, with a power that could range up to hundreds of amps per square yard, it will not affect you directly, at most you’ll feel a slight tingling, the s ame as when lightning is about to strike close by, and nearly all the energy will just be absorbed into the ground and dissipate. The bad news, however, is wherever it strikes wires, metal surfaces, antennas, power lines it will now travel along those metal surfaces (in the same way a lightning bolt will always follow the metal of a lightning rod, or the power line into your house.) The longer the wire, the more energy is absorbed, a high tension wire miles long will absorb tens of thousands of amps, and here is where the destruction begins as it slams into any delicate electronic circuits, meaning computer chips, relays, etc. In that instant, they are overloaded by the massive energy surge, short circuit, and fry. Your house via electric, phone and cable wires is connected, like all the rest of us into the power and communications grids. This energy surge will destroy all delicate electronics in your home, even as it destroys all the major components all the way back to the power company’s generators and the phone company’s main relays. In far less than a millisecond the entire power grid of the United States, and all that it supports will be destroyed.

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