Read Online Electromagnetic Pulse by Bobby Akart - Free Book Online Page B

military and civilian electronics. The U.S. missile defense system is capable of defending against a nuclear missile from the north. If such an attack were to come from the south, we would be unprepared, according to experts. Iran is regarded as already having nuclear missiles capable of making an EMP attack against the U.S. North Korea is rapidly developing orbiting satellites that could potentially launch an EMP attack from space. Recently, critical NORAD operations have been moving back into Cheyenne Mountain, which is EMP hardened.
    While this is considered prudent, the American people are largely unprotected from the ramifications. It’s estimated that in the event of a yearlong nationwide blackout, ninety percent of Americans would perish from starvation, disease, and societal chaos, according to members of the Congressional EMP Commission, which published its last unclassified report in 2008, the executive summary of which is found in Appendix C.
    Experts claim that the Obama Administration has not acted on the EMP Commission’s proposed executive order to protect national infrastructure considered essential, to provide for defense against an EMP attack. Hardening the national electric grid would cost several billion dollars, an insignificant amount when compared to the potential loss of life following an EMP attack. Congress has also failed to act on the recommendations of its own EMP commission, to protect the electric grid and other civilian infrastructure that depend on a viable electric grid—such as communications, transportation, and banking—that are essential to the economy. Several bills have gained bipartisan support in the House but died in the Senate. Fortunately, states are not waiting for the federal government, with Texas being among the states that have an initiative underway to deal with an EMP attack.
    As is often the case, legislation gets caught up in the politics, and lack of action on the EMP Commission’s recommendations is no exception. Over the past decade, there has been an ongoing debate over whether the threat posed by an EMP is real. This debate heated up in 2015 when bipartisan support arose for a national commitment to address the EMP threat, by hardening the national infrastructure.
    There is little doubt that efforts by the United States to harden its utilities against EMP — and its ability to manage critical infrastructure manually in the event of an EMP attack — have been eroded in recent decades, as the Cold War ended and the threat of nuclear conflict with Russia lessened. This is also true of the U.S. military, which has spent little time contemplating such scenarios in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union. The cost of remedying the situation, especially retrofitting older systems, is immense. As with any issue involving massive amounts of money, the debate over guarding against an EMP attack has become quite politicized in recent years.
    Gauging the Threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse Attack
    To determine whether the threat is real, we must discuss the tactical elements involved in an EMP attack and which nation-states are capable of launching such an attack. The following is our assessment of the likelihood of an EMP attack against the United States.
    The effects of an EMP have the potential to be quite significant, but they are also quite uncertain. Despite the meaningful amount of testing undertaken in the late 1950’s into the early 60’s, test data from high-altitude nuclear explosions is extremely limited. The U.S. and the Soviet Union conducted less than twenty atmospheric nuclear tests above twelve miles. The widespread effects of a high-altitude nuclear detonation above this height are unknown.
    In 1963, after the Partial Test Ban Treaty went into effect, prohibiting its signatories from conducting aboveground test detonations and ending atmospheric tests — scientists still questioned the effects of a high-altitude EMP. The Starfish Prime test of 1962