Total Blackout-USAF tests defences against EMP attacks amid fears that ONE weapon could wipe out entire power grid

[iamwhatiseem]

1. the US will die from within long before any foreign attack
2. who's capable of delivering those weapons? you would need long bombers, yes? so the initial defense would be the Navy, USAF, EWS, AWACS, etc

No you certainly would not. One could be launched from any medium sized ship like a freighter. Freight ships arrive to the U.S. obviously multiple a day. It could super easily be disguised as a freight ship and launched within a few miles if they wanted.

OMG. you are hilarious! You think that it would not be detected?

And BTW - EMP attacks were largely ignored by the last three Presidents besides Trump.
And it will certainly be ignored by Biden.

That is because only two other countries are real threats and both are nuclear powers already.

That is simply not true.
What IS true is getting nuclear material to build a small detonator is very, very, very hard to do. And would be excruciatingly expensive.
But can be done. Iran and N. Korea both have such materials. And both hate use equally. I doubt NK has the ability to pull such a thing off, but they have the materials to supply someone else.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

1. the US will die from within long before any foreign attack
2. who's capable of delivering those weapons? you would need long bombers, yes? so the initial defense would be the Navy, USAF, EWS, AWACS, etc

No you certainly would not. One could be launched from any medium sized ship like a freighter. Freight ships arrive to the U.S. obviously multiple a day. It could super easily be disguised as a freight ship and launched within a few miles if they wanted.

OMG. you are hilarious! You think that it would not be detected?

And BTW - EMP attacks were largely ignored by the last three Presidents besides Trump.
And it will certainly be ignored by Biden.

That is because only two other countries are real threats and both are nuclear powers already.

That is simply not true.
What IS true is getting nuclear material to build a small detonator is very, very, very hard to do. And would be excruciatingly expensive.
But can be done. Iran and N. Korea both have such materials. And both hate use equally. I doubt NK has the ability to pull such a thing off, but they have the materials to supply someone else.

Here we have another nuclear physicist wannabe talking out of their ass.

 

[fncceo]

you could bring an entire city down to it's knees...

And what would they be doing down there?

 

[Likkmee]

But but BUT . The Ketchup !!!

 

[Mushroom]

I don't get it. Protection against EMP is amazingly simple, and literally no tech.

 

[Dayton3]

I don't get it. Protection against EMP is amazingly simple, and literally no tech.

try putting the national power grid in one of those.

 

[Mushroom]

I don't get it. Protection against EMP is amazingly simple, and literally no tech.

try putting the national power grid in one of those.

Is not hard, we have known how to do it for over 100 years.

You just have to get the companies and government to actually spend the money to harden those facilities.

There is a big difference between "capability" and "need".

I have worked in entire buildings that were huge Faraday Cages. For two reasons. First, they were R&D centers for designing and testing communication and RADAR systems for the military. They not only wanted to stop any leaks outside of it to other facilities (Los Angeles International Airport was a mile away), it was also so that espionage could not be done from the outside to determine what they were working on.

I knew of 2 entire buildings protected in that way. And inside some of the facilities they had smaller ones set up. Even a giant vacuum chamber that incorporated such so they could test things like lightning strikes on satellites during the launch phase.

But the US does not "own" the power grid, and who is going to pay for this upgrade?

 

[toobfreak]

Any electronic equipment that is turned on and unshielded at the time of the EMP is destroyed.

ONE CORRECTION, DOC: An EMP only affects LV SS-based technology. Equipment operating on higher voltages like tube equipment are relatively robust and immune. Tubes typically run on 100-300-450 VDC and more. Transistors operate on 5VDC usually and less. If they see even 10 volts across their supply rails, they are fried.

When the EMP comes, I'll fire up the NG generator, turn on the stereo and fire up an LP.

 

[toobfreak]

2. who's capable of delivering those weapons? you would need long bombers, yes?

Any nuke can be designed to explode mid air about 10-100 miles above the ground to emit an EMP.

You create an EMP (a tiny one) every time you plug or unplug something from the wall and make a little spark. All an EMP is is a transient voltage spike that radiates outward in all directions as a moving electromagnetic wave that induces currents in any conductors it crosses.

 

[Ringo]

"The US NSA accuses Russia of organizing hundreds of cyber attacks around the world"

This is the NSA, which, according to Snowden, who worked there, installs spy devices in software and hardware at the "factory" stage?