Free Electromagnetic Pulse by Bobby Akart

was not designed to study HEMP, and the effect on Hawaii, which was so far from ground zero, startled U.S. scientists. High-altitude nuclear testing effectively ended before the parameters and effects of HEMP were well understood. The limited body of knowledge that was gained from these tests remains highly classified in both the U.S. and Russia.
    Despite these uncertainties, the importance of the EMP threat should not be understated. There is no doubt that the impact of a HEMP attack would be significant. But any nation-state plotting such an attack would be dealing with immense uncertainties — not only about the ideal altitude at which to detonate the device, based on its design and yield to maximize its effect, but also about the nature of those effects and just how devastating they would be.
    Non-nuclear devices that create an EMP-like effect, such as high-power microwave devices, and radio frequency weapons, are now available to several countries, including the U.S. The most capable of these devices are portable and have significant tactical utility. The technology is still developing, and more powerful variants may be able to achieve greater effects on specific targets.
    But at present, non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapons do not appear to be able to create an EMP effect large enough to affect an entire city, much less a country. Because of this, we will confine our discussion of the EMP threat caused by a high-altitude nuclear detonation, which also happens to be the most prevalent scenario causing concern in Washington.
    Components of a Credible HEMP Threat
    For there to be a credible HEMP threat, five things are needed:
·          The delivery mechanism to reach the required altitude
·          A sophisticated nuclear warhead for the missile to deliver
·          A motive for conducting an EMP attack
·          A suitable target for maximum desired effect
·          The absence of a deterrent or responsive counter-attack
    The question then becomes: Who is capable of carrying out the threat?
    Plausible HEMP Attack Scenarios
    To have the best chance of causing the type of widespread EMP damage to the continental U.S., a nuclear weapon carrying a one megaton payload would need to be detonated approximately twenty miles above the Earth’s surface, somewhere over the central part of the country. Modern commercial aircraft normally cruise at a third of this altitude. To achieve the desired height, a nation-state would require both the requisite warhead design and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability, to conduct such an attack from their territory. The UK, France, Russia and China have all possessed this ability for decades. Although shorter range missiles can achieve this altitude, the center of the U.S. is still a thousand miles from the east or west coast. One of the biggest concerns of the Pentagon, is the use of a shorter range missile fired from a freighter that enters the Gulf of Mexico. In recent years, North Korea has passed several large commercial vessels, through the Panama Canal towards Cuba, virtually undetected with nuclear missiles in their hold. It is less than eight hundred miles from the Gulf of Mexico to St. Louis, Missouri—the heartland of America.
    The HEMP threat has existed since the early 1960s, when nuclear weapons were first paired with ballistic missiles, and necessarily grew to be an important component of the U.S. nuclear strategy. The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction has prevented the use of HEMP in modern warfare.
    Despite the limited understanding of its effects, undoubtedly the U.S., China, and Russia, almost certainly included the use of weapons to create HEMPs in both defensive, and especially offensive scenarios.
    However, nuclear weapons have not been employed in an attack anywhere, since 1945. Some pundits believe that a HEMP attack might be considered less destructive, and therefore, less likely to provoke a