Posted on 12/27/2006 7:40:27 AM PST by pabianice
December 27, 2006: Iran continues to predict the imminent destruction of Israel, and promises to do what it can to help make that happen. Israel responds with dark threats of countermeasures that will prevent Iranian plans from working. Most people think that the most likely Israeli response is air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. But Israel has another weapon available, but one with serious side effects. Israel has a satellite launch capability that could put a nuclear weapon in low orbit (about 200 kilometers up). Once over Iran, the nuclear bomb could be detonated, and create an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse), which would destroy most of the military and civilian electronics in Iran. That would be a major setback to the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and the Iranian economy. There would be ugly side effects. The nuclear blast would also create a temporary belt of intense radiation, which would destroy or damage many of the low earth orbit satellites up there. There would be $100 billion, or more, in damage to these satellites, and several years of disrupted communications, GPS and weather prediction service until all the damaged satellites could be replaced. It's this collateral damage, more than anything else, that protects Iran from this kind of attack.
Then again, what's to prevent Iran or North Korea from setting off a nuke in low orbit, just to mess up everyone's satellites? Sounds like a great extortion opportunity. This is one reason more and more satellites are being hardened to resist the kind of radiation surge high altitude EMP would produce. But most of the stuff in low orbit is not hardened, and even the birds that are so protected, are not invulnerable to EMP, just less vulnerable.
--b--
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Get 'er done!
> This is just one of the dangers in dropping all other nav aids in favor of GPS, a system than can be shut-down by an enemy, leaving the U.S. with little upon which to fall back. <
Does anybody in our Navy or Air Force remember how to do celestial navigation? If not, we're probably doomed as a military power.
There are also non nuclear means of generating EMP, though the effects are not as wide spread as with a sub orbital nuke.
Bump!
GPS isn't in low earth orbit, they are 12,000 miles up. There are 24 of them so it would be hard to knock out more than one or two at a time, and since they only last 10 years there are almost always 3 or 4 ready to be launched each year, so replacing one or two that get taken out by an enemy could happen in a matter of weeks.
My former Congressman, Curt Weldon, has been warning about the threat of EMP for many years. It's a #$%@ shame that he will not be in COngress next term to keep up the fight. To my fellow Pennsylvanians who were stupid enough to vote the Dem ticket, good effing luck getting the same support from a Clinton/Berger tool like Sestak.
small neutron burns over the parliament while in session and their military bases would be better......along with a few bunker-busters for the underground stuff, of course
Does anyone know how, in basic terms, one would "harden" a satellite in orbit against an EMP? I suppose there's no place up there to ground it.
Actually, yes. Several ships I was on (former USN) the navigator always had a sextant handy in case the on-board navigation equipment failed. During daylight hours, shooting a "sun line" gave a pretty good indication of where we were - and at night there are several stars to pick for the same purpose. Always have a backup!
Grounding of a satellite is rather simple. You attach the grounding strap to the sky hook (thingy that keeps the satellite from falling). Don't hesitate to ask more questions.
Both Navy and Air Force navigators are trained in celestial navigation. There is a section of the pentagon that is charged with devising methods to complete missions when everything goes wrong.
Our military has never ever put all its eggs in one basket. It is nearly always several steps ahead of its worst critics.
LOL!
Most people can't even find the north star these days. If you ask most kids these days they immediately point the the brightest thing in the sky at the moment.
"Grounding of a satellite is rather simple."
I grounded mine last night... "No TV for a week!"
What navigational aids would function in the event of a nuclear exchange sufficient to knock out big chunks of the GPS constellation? The only other one I know is Loran, and I'm pretty sure that would get fried, too.
Betcha 10 to one somebody has bent back the grounding prong on the cord to make it fit...
It's worse than you think: back in the 1980s, the purely opto-mechanical averagers on airborne sextants were replaced with electronic averagers. Yes, it was faster. . .but fry the chips, and you're SOL. And the mechanical averagers didn't need aircraft power either...
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