China rehearses an EMP attack. Biden approves it

Flopping Aces ^ | 02-03-23 | DrJohn

[higgmeister]

Engines do not cause EMP’s. Excuse me, how do you know what kind of devise is inside the balloon?

Your comment was:

The Chinese prefer an EMP attack over Nukes...

If the Chinese had another kind of device other than a nuke, it couldn't generate an useful EMP.   If the Chinese balloon had a a Nuke to create the EMP they would not have been making a choice between "an EMP attack over Nukes."

My point was nothing but a Nuke could create an effective EMP that would energize electronic inductors enough to burn them out.   I was taught basic electronics in the USAF on the way to becoming a Tech Controller.   That included knowledge of EMPs which could be a threat to our global communications.   I worked with hardened Mil-Spec equipment cabinets for years and with that I needed to know what the cabinets were hardened against.   Of course they are basically steel cabinets with Faraday cages inside and the door seals of woven wire to shunt any outside signal or pulse to ground.

I believe that the balloon's payload could have included a nuke from the size alone, but that would mean the Chinese preferred Nukes.

Non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP)

Non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP) is a weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse without use of nuclear technology. Devices that can achieve this objective include a large low-inductance capacitor bank discharged into a single-loop antenna, a microwave generator, and an explosively pumped flux compression generator. To achieve the frequency characteristics of the pulse needed for optimal coupling into the target, wave-shaping circuits or microwave generators are added between the pulse source and the antenna. Vircators are vacuum tubes that are particularly suitable for microwave conversion of high-energy pulses.[9]

NNEMP generators can be carried as a payload of bombs, cruise missiles (such as the CHAMP missile) and drones, with diminished mechanical, thermal and ionizing radiation effects, but without the consequences of deploying nuclear weapons.

The range of NNEMP weapons is much less than nuclear EMP. Nearly all NNEMP devices used as weapons require chemical explosives as their initial energy source, producing only 10−6 (one millionth) the energy of nuclear explosives of similar weight.[10] The electromagnetic pulse from NNEMP weapons must come from within the weapon, while nuclear weapons generate EMP as a secondary effect.[11] These facts limit the range of NNEMP weapons, but allow finer target discrimination. The effect of small e-bombs has proven to be sufficient for certain terrorist or military operations.[citation needed] Examples of such operations include the destruction of electronic control systems critical to the operation of many ground vehicles and aircraft.[12][additional citation(s) needed]

The concept of the explosively pumped flux compression generator for generating a non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse was conceived as early as 1951 by Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union,[13] but nations kept work on non-nuclear EMP classified until similar ideas emerged in other nations.

[laplata]

Thanks for all the info. I’ll go over it.