The idea is that if a nuclear weapon, lofted by a missile, were detonated in outer space high above the U.S. heartland, it would set off a huge and crippling shock wave of electricity. Gingrich warns that it would fry electrical circuits from coast to coast, knocking out computers, electrical power and cellphones. Everything from cars to hospitals would go kaput.
It can be done to a city but to do it to the whole of the U.S. you would need many missiles delivering muti-megaton warheads detonated at the same time.
Although a large solar flare could do it.
The most powerful flare ever observed was the first one to be observed, on September 1, 1859, and was reported by British astronomer Richard Carrington and independently by an observer named Richard Hodgson. The event is named the Solar storm of 1859, or the "Carrington event". The flare was visible to a naked-eye (in white light), and produced stunning auroras down to tropical latitudes such as Cuba or Hawaii, and set telegraph systems on fire.[11] The flare left a trace in Greenland ice in the form of nitrates and beryllium-10, which allow its strength to be measured today (New Scientist, 2005). Cliver & Salvgaard (2004) reconstructed the effects of this flare and compared with other events of the last 150 years. In their words: While the 1859 event has close rivals or superiors in each of the above categories of space weather activity, it is the only documented event of the last ∼150 years that appears at or near the top of all of the lists.
Luckily it happened in 1859 and the only wiring was for telegraph, if power lines were up at that time it would have been devastating.
Of course there is nothing to say it can't or won't happen again.
Hush wrote:It can be done to a city but to do it to the whole of the U.S. you would need many missiles delivering muti-megaton warheads detonated at the same time.
It can be done with three small (is that an oxymoron?) nukes. Google "Compton affect" for an explaination. The cliff's notes version is that there is a "sweet spot" in orbit that has a huge magnification affect across the whole EM spectrem in the event of a nuclear detonation.
Hush wrote:It can be done to a city but to do it to the whole of the U.S. you would need many missiles delivering muti-megaton warheads detonated at the same time.
It can be done with three small (is that an oxymoron?) nukes. Google "Compton affect" for an explaination. The cliff's notes version is that there is a "sweet spot" in orbit that has a huge magnification affect across the whole EM spectrem in the event of a nuclear detonation.
Hm, interesting, I just checked it on wiki, I now see I have some reading to do tomorrow.
I don't keep up with things like I should.
Demand stringent background and mental health checks on your politicians.
There is a good book called One Second After. It is about an EMP attack on the US and what happens during the following year. Very good read. Gingrich wrote the forward for the book.
The bomb does not have to have a big yield to produce an effective EMP. Height is what you need. I believe they think 3 key launches could disable the whole US. One from the Gulf, one in the south east and one for the north east all fired from container ships.
