China, North Korea and others developing Super-EMP and other Electromagnetic Weapons, posing serious threat to civil society

The electromagnetic pulse commonly abbreviated as EMP, is a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic energy caused by the rapid acceleration of charged particles, can be produced by intense solar storms or by a nuclear weapon detonated high in the atmosphere. For example, solar geomagnetic storms (geomagnetic disturbances or GMD) create immediate and intense current surges that may disrupt electrical and electronic systems, potentially on a continental scale.

 

Russian and Chinese military scientists in open source writings describe the basic principles of nuclear weapons designed specifically to generate an enhanced-EMP effect, that they term “Super-EMP” weapons. A Super-EMP warhead would have a low-yield, because it is not designed to create a big explosion, but to produce gamma rays, that generate the EMP effect. One design of a Super-EMP warhead would be a modified neutron bomb, more accurately an Enhanced Radiation Warhead (ERW) because it produces not only large amounts of neutrons but large amounts of gamma rays that cause the EMP effect

 

“Super-EMP” weapons, according to these foreign open source writings, can destroy even the best protected U.S. military and civilian electronic systems. In 2012, a military commentator for the People’s Republic of China told a Hong Kong journal that North Korea has Super-EMP nuclear warheads.

 

Satellite imagery has revealed a secret anti-satellite weapons base in China, as well as electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons testing facilities. The discovery was made by retired Indian Army Col. Vinayak Bhat, who specializes in satellite image analysis focused on China. He noted in India’s The Print news website that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) now has several of these facilities, including in Tibet and Xinjiang. The EMP weapons facilities, meanwhile, appear to be for testing. They include some simulated electrical infrastructure and nearby facilities housing the weapons.

The US Analysts believe that EMP threat is as real as nuclear threats from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. “Nuclear EMP attack is part of the military doctrines, plans, and exercises of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran for a revolutionary new way of warfare against military forces and civilian critical infrastructures by cyber, sabotage, and EMP,” reads the report from the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack.  These potential adversaries in their military doctrines include as part of cyber warfare a wide spectrum of operations beyond computer viruses, including sabotage and kinetic attacks, up to and including nuclear EMP attack.

 

On the other hand many foreign analysts–particularly in Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia–view the United States as a potential aggressor and perceive the United States as having contingency plans to make a nuclear EMP attack, and as being willing to execute those plans under a broad range of circumstances.

 

New weapons that can produce EMP like effects are also being developed by militaries. Focused high-power electromagnetic weapons soon will be able to disable an aircraft carrier battle group in seconds; destroy the electronics of land-based aircraft before they can launch their weapons; knock out vital communications, surveillance, weather, and command and control spacecraft without warning; and leave ground forces as blind and cutoff from each other as those during the American Revolution. Meanwhile, the enemy would retain cutting-edge military capabilities.

 

US is itself developing emp kind weapons. Boeing has announced that it successfully tested an electromagnetic pulse missile capable of disabling electronics without affecting structures. The Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) was tested by a Boeing Phantom Works/U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate team on October 2015 at the Utah Test and Training Range.

 

The advances in technologies are making high-power electromagnetic weapons miniaturized hence stealthy, lethal  and economical hence becoming perfect weapon for terrorists and saboteurs because they can strike silently, invisibly, and with total devastation. The delivery systems have also become accessible, today anyone able to buy space on a cheap space launch vehicle, acquire fleets of commercial drones, or transport high-power electromagnetic weapons inside a van or small truck has the potential to launch an EMP attack.

 

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on “Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses” in March 2019 after he recognized the growing threat EMPs pose to the nation. “An electromagnetic pulse has the potential to disrupt, degrade, and damage technology and critical infrastructure systems,” the order stated. “Human-made or naturally occurring EMPs can affect large geographic areas, disrupting elements critical to the nation’s security and economic prosperity and could adversely affect global commerce and stability. The federal government must foster sustainable, efficient and cost-effective approaches to improving the nation’s resilience to the effects of EMPs.

 

The latest defense authorization bill signed into law by President Trump on Dec. 2020 contains new measures requiring the federal government to protect the nation from the danger of nuclear-blast-produced electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks and similar solar-produced electronic disruptions.