- The next Pearl Harbor will not announce itself with a
searing flash of nuclear light or with the plaintive wails of those dying
of Ebola or its genetically engineered twin. You will hear a sharp crack
in the distance. By the time you mistakenly identify this sound as an innocent
clap of thunder, the civilized world will have become unhinged. Fluorescent
lights and television sets will glow eerily bright, despite being turned
off. The aroma of ozone mixed with smoldering plastic will seep from outlet
covers as electric wires arc and telephone lines melt. Your Palm Pilot
and MP3 player will feel warm to the touch, their batteries overloaded.
Your computer, and every bit of data on it, will be toast. And then you
will notice that the world sounds different too. The background music of
civilization, the whirl of internal-combustion engines, will have stopped.
Save a few diesels, engines will never start again. You, however, will
remain unharmed, as you find yourself thrust backward 200 years, to a time
when electricity meant a lightning bolt fracturing the night sky. This
is not a hypothetical, son-of-Y2K scenario. It is a realistic assessment
of the damage the Pentagon believes could be inflicted by a new generation
of weapons--E-bombs.
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- The first major test of an American electromagnetic bomb
is scheduled for next year. Ultimately, the Army hopes to use E-bomb technology
to explode artillery shells in midflight. The Navy wants to use the E-bomb's
high-power microwave pulses to neutralize antiship missiles. And, the Air
Force plans to equip its bombers, strike fighters, cruise missiles and
unmanned aerial vehicles with E-bomb capabilities. When fielded, these
will be among the most technologically sophisticated weapons the U.S. military
establishment has ever built.
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- There is, however, another part to the E-bomb story,
one that military planners are reluctant to discuss. While American versions
of these weapons are based on advanced technologies, terrorists could use
a less expensive, low-tech approach to create the same destructive power.
"Any nation with even a 1940s technology base could make them,"
says Carlo Kopp, an Australian-based expert on high-tech warfare. "The
threat of E-bomb proliferation is very real." POPULAR MECHANICS estimates
a basic weapon could be built for $400.
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- An Old Idea Made New
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- The theory behind the E-bomb was proposed in 1925 by
physicist Arthur H. Compton--not to build weapons, but to study atoms.
Compton demonstrated that firing a stream of highly energetic photons into
atoms that have a low atomic number causes them to eject a stream of electrons.
Physics students know this phenomenon as the Compton Effect. It became
a key tool in unlocking the secrets of the atom.
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- Ironically, this nuclear research led to an unexpected
demonstration of the power of the Compton Effect, and spawned a new type
of weapon. In 1958, nuclear weapons designers ignited hydrogen bombs high
over the Pacific Ocean. The detonations created bursts of gamma rays that,
upon striking the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, released a tsunami
of electrons that spread for hundreds of miles. Street lights were blown
out in Hawaii and radio navigation was disrupted for 18 hours, as far away
as Australia. The United States set out to learn how to "harden"
electronics against this electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and develop EMP weapons.
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- America has remained at the forefront of EMP weapons
development. Although much of this work is classified, it's believed that
current efforts are based on using high-temperature superconductors to
create intense magnetic fields. What worries terrorism experts is an idea
the United States studied but discarded--the Flux Compression Generator
(FCG).
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- A Poor Man's E-Bomb
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- An FCG is an astoundingly simple weapon. It consists
of an explosives-packed tube placed inside a slightly larger copper coil,
as shown below. The instant before the chemical explosive is detonated,
the coil is energized by a bank of capacitors, creating a magnetic field.
The explosive charge detonates from the rear forward. As the tube flares
outward it touches the edge of the coil, thereby creating a moving short
circuit. "The propagating short has the effect of compressing the
magnetic field while reducing the inductance of the stator [coil],"
says Kopp. "The result is that FCGs will produce a ramping current
pulse, which breaks before the final disintegration of the device. Published
results suggest ramp times of tens of hundreds of microseconds and peak
currents of tens of millions of amps." The pulse that emerges makes
a lightning bolt seem like a flashbulb by comparison.
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- An Air Force spokesman, who describes this effect as
similar to a lightning strike, points out that electronics systems can
be protected by placing them in metal enclosures called Faraday Cages that
divert any impinging electromagnetic energy directly to the ground. Foreign
military analysts say this reassuring explanation is incomplete.
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- The India Connection
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- The Indian military has studied FCG devices in detail
because it fears that Pakistan, with which it has ongoing conflicts, might
use E-bombs against the city of Bangalore, a sort of Indian Silicon Valley.
An Indian Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis study of E-bombs points
to two problems that have been largely overlooked by the West. The first
is that very-high-frequency pulses, in the microwave range, can worm their
way around vents in Faraday Cages. The second concern is known as the "late-time
EMP effect," and may be the most worrisome aspect of FCG devices.
It occurs in the 15 minutes after detonation. During this period, the EMP
that surged through electrical systems creates localized magnetic fields.
When these magnetic fields collapse, they cause electric surges to travel
through the power and telecommunication infrastructure. This string-of-firecrackers
effect means that terrorists would not have to drop their homemade E-bombs
directly on the targets they wish to destroy. Heavily guarded sites, such
as telephone switching centers and electronic funds-transfer exchanges,
could be attacked through their electric and telecommunication connections.
Knock out electric power, computers and telecommunication and you've destroyed
the foundation of modern society. In the age of Third World-sponsored terrorism,
the E-bomb is the great equalizer. In the 1980s, the Air Force tested E-bombs
that used cruise-missile delivery systems.
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- To ignite an E-bomb, a starter current energizes the
stator coil, creating a magnetic field. The explosion (A) expands the tube,
short-circuiting the coil and compressing the magnetic field forward (B).
The pulse is emitted (C) at high frequencies that defeat protective devices
like Faraday Cages.
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- http://popularmechanics.com/science/military/2001/9/e-bomb/print.phtml
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