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America's new e-bomb.
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This sounds good. Here's my debate, what if it falls into the terrorist's hands in the future.
Also known as the "E-bomb," the HPM is designed to zap electronics, scramble computer programs and fry communications links.
The program is so secret, the Pentagon has not released pictures involving it, nor explained precisely how it will work.
Defense experts say the weapon can either be placed aboard a Tomahawk cruise missile or fired from a special radar gun mounted on a C-130 transport jet.
The idea is to send a single powerful magnetic pulse - 2 billion watts or more moving at the speed of light - at an underground command bunker or at a suspected weapons-of-mass-destruction facility.
The article in on online on the NY Post.
Also known as the "E-bomb," the HPM is designed to zap electronics, scramble computer programs and fry communications links.
The program is so secret, the Pentagon has not released pictures involving it, nor explained precisely how it will work.
Defense experts say the weapon can either be placed aboard a Tomahawk cruise missile or fired from a special radar gun mounted on a C-130 transport jet.
The idea is to send a single powerful magnetic pulse - 2 billion watts or more moving at the speed of light - at an underground command bunker or at a suspected weapons-of-mass-destruction facility.
The article in on online on the NY Post.
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I would not be too worried about terrorists getting hold of one of these devices though.
Can I ask what you mean by that?
Iraqi equipment isn't hardened against EMP.
Poison gas detector developed for drones
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (AP) -- Federal researchers have developed an early warning device small enough to mount on a drone aircraft to detect deadly airborne gas -- a weapon officials fear Iraq may use against U.S. forces.
Once the SnifferSTAR -- which not yet been tested on an airborne drone -- is mounted, it can sample the air for various contaminants, Sandia National Laboratories spokesman Neil Singer said Sunday.
"It's a gas detector. It would fit in with a grouping of sensors that have been developed at Sandia and other places. Presumably, it could monitor those gases we suspect that (Iraqis) have," Singer said.
The flow of air past the moving aircraft would channel the gases through the device. Contaminants stick to quartz surfaces that vibrate at pre-set frequencies. The weight of the contaminants alter the frequencies and reveal their chemical signature.
"We have very few false positives," said researcher Doug Adkins.
Adkins says other gas monitors exist but are not this small -- tiny sensors sitting on a mini-platform about the size of a pat of butter, which in turn rests on a microprocessor board smaller than a credit card. It requires little power to operate and offers rapid analysis, he said.
The bulk of Iraqi equipment is of Russian or Chinese manufacture and is either not susceptible to EMP or is hardened. There are exceptions, but they generally don't make much of a difference in militaries that train in the Soviet model. The biggest effect EMP would have in a war in Iraq is the disruption of communications between the Iraqi high command and lower echelon units. That is unlikely to have a significant effect on their regular fighting ability (the Iraqi Army is not renowned for its ability to communicate or to rapidly adjust to battlefield situations), however it would have a significant effect on the communication of orders to fire Scuds or use WMD.