Electromagnetic Pulse (6 page)

Intelligence received from the 1961 Soviet tests raised alarms within U.S. military agencies. Following an analysis of the results, the U.S. became concerned that a Soviet nuclear bomb detonated in space could possibly damage or destroy our advanced weaponry. Consequently, American scientists ratcheted up their nuclear testing program. Although there was some data from the previous high-altitude nuclear tests, the results were inconclusive, in part, due to the surprising results. The newly formed scientific team was determined to be thorough. The result was the implementation of
Operation Fishbowl
.

The
Starfish Prime
test was one of five high-altitude nuclear detonations, conducted as part of
Operation Fishbowl
, a series of tests in 1962 that had begun in direct response to the Soviet announcement on August 30, 1961, that the Soviet Union would end a three-year moratorium on testing. The Starfish Prime test was originally planned as the second in the Operation Fishbowl series, but the first launch, known as
Bluegill
, was lost by the radar-tracking equipment and had to be destroyed in flight.

On July 8, 1962, Honolulu time, at nine seconds after 11 p.m., the Starfish Prime test was successfully detonated at an altitude of two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth's surface. The actual weapon yield came very close to the design yield, approximately 1.4 megatons—equivalent to 1.4 million tons of TNT. The nuclear warhead detonated 13 minutes and 41 seconds after liftoff of the Thor missile from Johnston Island, in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

Reports described the explosion as spherical in shape. The resulting shock wave expanded in all directions and created an incredible aurora that was seen as far away as Honolulu, about a thousand miles away from the detonation point. The observing scientists noted that the electrons traveled away from the explosion at incredible speeds, following the Earth’s magnetic field, and then dropped into the upper atmosphere. As they collided with the atoms and molecules comprising the Earth’s atmosphere, the electrons were absorbed—generating the man-made aurora.

However, the scientists were not there for the light show. When the bomb detonated, the electrons underwent an incredible acceleration, creating a brief, but extremely powerful magnetic field. This was what they were looking for—an electromagnetic pulse. Starfish Prime caused an EMP far greater than expected. The shock wave drove much of the instrumentation off the scale, causing great difficulty in compiling accurate measurements. The Starfish Prime electromagnetic pulse also made those effects known to the unaware public, by causing electrical damage in Hawaii. The strength of the EMP affected the flow of electricity for a thousand miles, knocking out about 300 streetlights, setting off numerous burglar alarms, and damaging a telephone company microwave link. The EMP damage to the microwave link shut down telephone service throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

While the EMP had been predicted by scientists, there was another effect that had not been anticipated. The electrons from the blast didn’t descend into the Earth’s atmosphere, but instead lingered in space for months. They became trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field, creating an artificial radiation belt high above the surface.

The scientists discovered when a high-speed electron collides with a satellite, it could generate a miniature electromagnetic pulse. The net effect was that these electrons could strike satellites and disrupt their electronics. The pulse of electrons from the Starfish Prime detonation damaged at least six satellites, all of which eventually failed due to the blast.

Nuclear scientists around the world were astonished. The size of the pulse generated was not anticipated by anyone. As a result, future tests by the U.S. were conducted with a much lower yield. In a report issued by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in 2010, the results of the Starfish Prime test were cited as the primary evidence of the threat that an EMP would pose to satellites and other space assets.

PART THREE
PRESENT DAY USE OF EMP TECHNOLOGY

Chapter Five
Recent Events in the Use of EMP

Critical infrastructure such as communications, the power grid, economic centers, and transportation routes have always been a primary target in a time of war—both to erode military capabilities and to bring political pressure to bear. The United States is somewhat transparent about the locations of some of the major military and intelligence facilities and key economic nodes are very easy to pinpoint, as well. After all, the 9/11 attackers went after a military target, the Pentagon, and an economic one, the World Trade Center. Also, most U.S. military bases are connected to civilian electricity grids, as are any economic targets, an interdependency that is well known. In this age of electricity, the grid is what the military calls a
center of gravity
. Simply put, a
center of gravity
is a nation’s source of power—both politically, and with respect to their critical infrastructure. As a result, EMP weapons have begun to find more practical applications in the top militaries around the world as a tool to breach a nation’s vulnerabilities.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. carried, and used EMP weapons on its E-8 Joint Stars aircraft, to disrupt electronic command systems, which international analysts believe was one of the main advantages that our military enjoyed. The U.S. Navy used EMP weapons on the first day of the Persian Gulf War to destroy electronic defense and communications systems in Iraq. Military and industry sources that were familiar with the military's plan, described a top secret
black program
for the development of the EMP weapon. EMP warheads were carried on a few of the Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missiles, which were the ideal delivery system to reach Baghdad.

In March 1999, the U.S. military used microwave weapons during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, causing communication in certain areas to be disrupted for more than three hours. This event brought a nuclear dimension to the Balkan War. At the time, Russia was hesitant to ratify the START II treaty. There was the usual political posturing between the U.S. and Russia. After the bombings occurred, reportedly utilizing U.S. B-2 Stealth aircraft, one Russian treaty negotiator quipped, “today Serbia, tomorrow Moscow.” Most political observers opined that the use of an EMP-style weapon brought the Russians to the table because of their concerns of future use against their country.

In March 2003, at the start of the Iraq War, EMP weapons were used to sever Iraqi state television broadcast signals. CBS News reported it this way:

“The U.S. Air Force has hit Iraqi TV with an experimental electromagnetic pulse device called the ‘E-Bomb’ in an attempt to knock it off the air and shut down Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine. The highly classified bomb creates a brief pulse of microwaves powerful enough to fry computers, blind radar, silence radios, trigger crippling power outages and disable the electronic ignitions in vehicles and aircraft.

Iraqi satellite TV, which broadcasts 24 hours a day outside Iraq, went off the air around 4:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday). Officially, the Pentagon does not acknowledge the weapon's existence. Asked about it at a March 5 news conference at the Pentagon, Gen. Tommy Franks said: "I can't talk to you about that because I don't know anything about it."

Chapter Six
Technological Advances; Non-Military Uses

Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy
(PEMFT), also called pulsed magnetic therapy or pulse magneto therapy, is a technique most commonly used in the area of orthopedics for the treatment of bone fractures, failed bone fusions, and congenital bone fractures. In the case of bone healing, PEMFT uses directed pulsed electromagnetic fields through injured tissue. This electromagnetic pulse stimulates cellular repair. The FDA has approved several such stimulation devices as a solution that may assist in bone repair.

Although electromagnetic therapy became widely adopted in Western Europe, its use was restricted to animals in North America. Veterinarians became the first health professionals to use PEMF therapy, usually to heal broken legs in racehorses. Professional sports doctors then decided to experiment with veterinarian devices on professional athletes that ultimately led to legally licensed devices for human use in the United States – but under strict stipulations that it was only to be used for non-union bone fractures, under a medical prescription from a licensed doctor.

In 1979, the FDA approved non-invasive devices using pulsed electromagnetic fields designed to stimulate bone growth.

In 2004, a pulsed electromagnetic field system was approved by the FDA, as a supplement to cervical fusion surgery in patients at a high risk for non-fusion.

Electromagnetic fields as cutting tools

The bodywork on motor vehicles must be sufficiently stable, but processing the high-strength steels involved -- for example, punching holes in them -- can prove to be something of a challenge. A new steel-cutting process, using electromagnetic fields, has been hailed as a way for automobile manufacturers to save time, energy and money in the future.

Squealing tires and the crunch of impact – when an accident occurs, the steel sheets that form a motor vehicle’s bodywork must provide adequate impact protection and shield its passengers to the greatest extent possible. But the strength of the steel creates its own set of challenges; such as when automobile manufacturers have to punch holes in the automobile’s body for cable routing. Mechanical cutting tools, struggling to pierce the hard steel, rapidly wear out. Traditional automated tools also leave some waste material on the underside of the steel known as
burr
. Therefore, additional time has to be spent on the finishing process. One possible alternative is to use lasers as cutters, but they require a great deal of energy, which makes the entire process time-consuming and costly.

Working together with several partners, including Volkswagen, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have come up with another way to make holes in press-hardened steel bodywork. Dr. Verena Kräusel, one department head at Fraunhofer explained:

“The new method is based on electromagnetic pulse technology that was previously used primarily to expand aluminum tubes. We’ve modified it to cut even hard steels. Whereas a laser takes around 1.4 seconds to cut a hole, an EMP can do the job in approximately 200 milliseconds – up to seven times faster. Another advantage is that it produces no burr, thus doing away with the need for a finishing process. Stamping presses become superfluous, and no costs arise from the need to replace worn-out parts.”

The electromagnetic pulse generators contain a coil, a capacitor battery, a charging device, and high-current switches. When the switch closes, the capacitors discharge via the coil within a matter of microseconds, producing a high pulsed current. The coil converts the energy stored in the capacitors into magnetic energy. To be able to use this process to cut steel, the researchers simply had to modify the coil to ensure the resulting electromagnetic field was strong enough. The pressure with which the field hit the steel needed to be so high that it forcibly expelled the material from the sheet. Dr. Kräusel likened the impact pressure on the steel to the weight of three small cars on a finger nail.

Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon

For years, law enforcement sought a method to stop an elusive, speeding car without killing its driver and passengers using traditional means, such as bullets. Even if a skilled sniper can fire a disabling shot into a car's engine block, loss of life is probable. But Eureka Aerospace, a Canadian company, announced in 2014 the development of an electromagnetic pulse cannon capable of destroying an automobile's electronic ignition and computer system.

The EMP cannon utilizes a suitcase-sized antenna that weighs roughly fifty pounds and is designed to stop cars in their tracks up to seven hundred feet away. According to scientists at Eureka, the disabling power would only work for post-1970 vehicles that rely upon microprocessors and various electronics for their operation.

Electromagnetic Propulsion

The principles discovered in nuclear EMP testing resulted in the development of electromagnetic propulsion, which is the principle of accelerating an object by the utilization of a flowing electrical current and magnetic fields. The electrical current is used to either create an opposing magnetic field or to charge a fluid, which can then be repelled. When a current is discharged through a conductor in a magnetic field, an electromagnetic influence known as a Lorentz force pushes the conductor in a direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. This repulsing force is what causes propulsion in a system that is designed to take advantage of the phenomenon. One key difference between EMP and propulsion achieved by electric motors, is that the electrical energy used for EMP is not used to produce rotational energy for motion; though both use magnetic fields and a flowing electrical current.