September 02,
2009
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/artic...sp?aid=2909545
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.
South Korean military's C4I, or command, control,
communications, computers and intelligence, system,
could be paralyzed and the nation's air force bases,
K-9 self-propelled artillery and other support systems
put out of action. For instance, if an air force base
loses its control functions after an EMP explosion,
fighter jets may not be able to land.
The Agency for Defense Development, an institute under
the Ministry of National Defense, announced in July
that the South Korean military plans to invest 100
billion won ($80.6 million) in a system that defends
against EMP attacks. The agency said it is targeting
2014 for the advent of an EMP bomb that can paralyze
objects within a 1-kilometer radius. The agency
currently has technology for an EMP weapon with a
100-meter radial range.
Warning from North Korea of what to expect
from NK in a confrontation between them and
us.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KF12Dg01.html
Four types of hydrogen bomb raids
The game plan for nuclear war specifies four types of
thermonuclear assault: (1) the bombing of operating
nuclear power stations; (2) detonations of a hydrogen
bombs in seas off the US, Japan and South Korea; (3)
detonations of H-bombs in space far above their
heartlands; and (4) thermonuclear attacks on their
urban centers.
(snip)
The third possible attack, a high-altitude detonation
of hydrogen bombs that would create a powerful
electromagnetic pulse (EMP), would disrupt the
communications and electrical infrastructure of the US,
the whole of Japan, and South Korea.
Many of the essential systems needed to survive war
would be knocked out, as computers are instantly
rendered malfunctioning or unusable. Military and
communications systems such as radars, antennas, and
missiles, government offices, would be put out of use,
as would energy sources such as nuclear power stations
and transport and communications systems including
airports, airplanes, railways, cars and cell
phones.
Ironically the ubiquity of high-tech computing gadgets
in the US, Japan and South Korea has made them most
vulnerable to EMP attacks.
Researchers
developing portable E-Bomb
By Paul Evans
http://www.gizmag.com/portable-e-bomb/11522/
23:24 April 22, 2009 PDT
High-power microwave (HPM) bombs that use an enormous
electromagnetic radio pulse to disable computers,
electronics, vehicles, guided missiles and
communications while leaving people and structures
unharmed have been under investigation in research labs
for a number of years. Until recently these weapons
have been impractically large at over 3.5 meters long,
but researchers at Texas Tech University have now built
a self powered device with U. S. Army funding that
measures 15 cm in diameter and only 1.5 meters long,
making it small enough to be considered portable.
The device being tested at an arsenal in Huntsville,
Alabama should produce a peak power of 35 MW with a
pulse length of 100 to 150 nanoseconds, emitting a
microwave beam in the 2- to 6-GHz range.
You may be wondering how so much energy can be
generated with such a small portable device. Firstly it
is due to the apparent power generated by compressing a
lot of energy into a very short period of time. Where
electrical power is normally measured in kilowatt hours
on your utility bill, the peak pulse of this E-bomb
lasts just 36 billionths of an hour. Secondly, an
E-Bomb is a device that can convert the output of high
explosives into radio waves. The 1.5 meter long Texas
Tech HPM contains three main components: a power
generator in the form of a flux compression generator
(FCG), a microwave source called a vircator (for
virtual cathode oscillator), and an antenna that
radiates the resultant high-power microwave
radiation.
The source of all this power is the Flux Compression
Generator (FCG). In an FCG, the energy is primarily
stored as chemical energy in an explosive like plastic
C4. It consists of a metal pipe with a helical stator
coil wound inside it like a solenoid and a second
smaller diameter armature tube which contains the C4
explosive, with an insulating layer between the two in
a coaxial arrangement. The process is started with a
12-volt lead acid battery one end of the coil which
provides a field current. Once detonated the explosive
front propagates through the explosive in the armature
pressing the inner pipe against the outer, rapidly
compressing the magnetic field and generating a pulse
of electromagnetic energy. An FCG is a one use device
as it is destroyed by the explosive and although they
are relatively cheap, they become less efficient as
they get smaller.
In the second part of the process, the FCG's energy
pulse is fed through an inductor producing a voltage of
about 100 kilovolts. This voltage powers the vircator,
which converts the energy into microwaves. The same
vircator can also be driven by power sources other than
a FCG such as explosive or propellant driven
Magneto-Hydrodynamic (MHD) generators or by a
nonexplosive power generator that don't self-destruct
such as a Marx generator, although these tend to be
much larger than a simple FCG.
Texas Tech is working on a Marx generator in the hopes
of making a portable directed energy weapon called a
microwave cannon. The first application may be to stop
vehicles by using a HPM to destroy the electronics and
shut the engine down.
The amount of damage an E-bomb can do depends on its
ability to couple the energy into the target. There are
several ways for the microwave power to enter a system.
Front door coupling happens when the pulse weapon
couples with an antenna associated with radar or
communications equipment. Back door coupling occurs
through fixed electrical wiring and cables that connect
equipment like mains power or telephone wires. Lower
frequencies work better on standing wiring while higher
frequencies can work better through antennas. In both
cases a high voltage standing wave enters the equipment
and these spikes cause damage to electric power
supplies and electronic components. For example a
typical semiconductor such as a microprocessor is
designed to operate at 3.3 - 5 volts. A large voltage
spike can do extensive damage often requiring the
replacement of most semiconductors in the
equipment.
Lab testing on the portable HPM has begun, but the
technology is not expected to reach the field any time
soon.
Paul Evans
Via: IEEE Spectrum (Image: http://blog.puppetgov.com/).
