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Was an EMP Attack Just Tested on the United States?
American Thinker ^ | 05/08/2014 | Jason Kissner

Posted on 05/08/2014 6:56:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

An unsettling series of events arguably bearing on national security transpired last week that the MSM hastened to paper over.  On April 30, the FAA, as a consequence of “computer glitches”, halted outgoing flights at LAX as well as other airports including PHX, SFO, SJC, SLC, LAS, and SAN.

An NBC  report May 2 remarked:

A relic from the Cold War appears to have triggered a software glitch at a major air traffic control center in California Wednesday that led to delays and cancellations of hundreds of flights across the country, sources familiar with the incident told NBC News.

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago, passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas.

On May 6, Mac Slavo, writing at SHTFplan (linked at Drudge), followed NBC’s reporting with:

The Air Force officially denied that it was a U-2 spy plane, claiming they found the glitch but provided no reason for what caused it:

It’s still not clear why the U-2 flew into the L.A. Center’s airspace, or why it didn’t give advance warning of the flight, as per usual. According to NBC News, the nearby Edwards Air Force Base and NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (located at Edwards) “have been known to host U-2s.”


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: attack; emp
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To: Kartographer

Do your own homework, don’t rely on others. We have our own share of crackpots here.


41 posted on 05/08/2014 9:02:17 AM PDT by pfflier
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To: pfflier

“Hey Bob I told you to watch out for that cord now plug it back in!”
“I picked a bad day to quit amphetamines!”


42 posted on 05/08/2014 9:15:40 AM PDT by DocJhn
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To: Resolute Conservative
Sorry... WRONG! Gosh people, do NONE of you remember high school physics?

An EMP device has a SHERICAL area of impact, not directional!

Also, this was NOT caused by a U-2 it was caused by SOFTWARE ERRORS in logic in the FAAs new system. The logic faults have been found and fixed already.

Yes, the U-2 was the initiator of the event, but it could have just as easily been a business jet for crimany’s sake!

SOFTWARE ERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

43 posted on 05/08/2014 9:23:43 AM PDT by Freeport (The proper application of high explosives will remove all obstacles.)
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To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


44 posted on 05/08/2014 9:26:25 AM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: USCG SimTech

The authors would like us to believe there is some intent or capacity for Feds to EMP large areas of the country.

Whatever that U-2 may have done to affect FAA systems, I doubt it would be categorized as an EMP.


45 posted on 05/08/2014 9:34:38 AM PDT by G Larry (Which of Obama's policies do you think I'd support if he were white?)
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To: SeekAndFind; null and void; Jet Jaguar; rockinqsranch; Velveeta; Rushmore Rocks; Oorang; Myrddin; ..
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Was an EMP Attack Just Tested on the United States?

46 posted on 05/08/2014 9:38:47 AM PDT by LucyT (Where is the $2,500 in health insurance savings 0bama & the Dems Promised Everyone?)
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To: CodeToad; pfflier

The military pays attention to it, it is one reason our field radios weighed so much.


47 posted on 05/08/2014 10:11:33 AM PDT by ansel12 ((Libertarianism offers the transitory concepts and dialogue to move from conservatism, to liberalism)
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To: SeekAndFind

No emp. We went over this in another thread.

Older computers would reasonably been programmed for altitudes up to 65535 feet, absurdly high for commercial aircraft. The U2 was higher, causing a “roll over”, subtracting that value until the result fit in range, placing the apparent altitude around 5-15,000 ft, right where other planes were operating. Result was the U2, flying high over other traffic, appeared about to collide.

Classic computer error, right up there with the Ariane 5 explosion (launched from a negative latitude, it computed impossible ballistic vectors, got confused, and blew itself up as a safety precaution) and Mars lander (confusing meters with feet, it followed a perfect landing trajectory and and shut off the retro rockets at the correct point - several miles up, subsequently crashing).


48 posted on 05/08/2014 10:19:06 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ("If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" - Obama, setting RoE with his opposition)
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To: ansel12

I think the weight had a lot more to do with being sturdy enough to handle field ops versus EMP. EMP protection wouldn’t require much at all. The military protected its devices much more against TEMPEST rather than EMP. EMP is too weak a pulse to bother individual devices.


49 posted on 05/08/2014 10:45:53 AM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Are!)
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To: ctdonath2

I HIGHLY doubt a 16-bit computer glitch caused this as many military aircraft have been tracked above 65535 feet for more than 5 decades. That, and many of the tracking computers are 21-bit.


50 posted on 05/08/2014 10:47:35 AM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Are!)
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To: CodeToad

In the 1980s we had quite a few discussions about the weight of our PRC-70 versus a couple of our NATO counterparts who were using non-protected radios, even of their own design, all of the discussions were based on the EMP protection that our military insisted on.


51 posted on 05/08/2014 10:55:19 AM PDT by ansel12 ((Libertarianism offers the transitory concepts and dialogue to move from conservatism, to liberalism)
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To: bigbob

Hard to believe there could be a controlled ‘emp’ attack... how would that be done?


52 posted on 05/08/2014 10:56:13 AM PDT by GOPJ ( Are we finally going to get a smidgen of truth? - - Freeper Veto!)
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To: bigbob

Hard to believe there could be a controlled ‘emp’ attack... how would that be done?

Or maybe it’s the very weird drone in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muQdqtg_reE


53 posted on 05/08/2014 10:56:48 AM PDT by GOPJ ( Are we finally going to get a smidgen of truth? - - Freeper Veto!)
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To: ansel12

I participate in several EMP hardness programs while in the USAF. Additional emphasis was also placed on programs to reduce succeptability to EMI.


54 posted on 05/08/2014 10:56:50 AM PDT by pfflier
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To: Kartographer
"I have it on good authority from several FReepers that there is NO such thing as EMP it just something that was made up to scare us."

I just left my good friends' business...he's over there building another faraday cage (for himself) as I type.

Also, I remember more than 20 years ago seeing a documentary about the military experimenting with an EMP gun. I've seen nothing about the 'gun' since.

55 posted on 05/08/2014 11:03:09 AM PDT by blam
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To: IMR 4350

Maybe this is something freeepers need to start sharing... I’ll start writing them down when they happen.


56 posted on 05/08/2014 11:07:26 AM PDT by GOPJ ( Are we finally going to get a smidgen of truth? - - Freeper Veto!)
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To: LucyT

Speaking of tin foil - have you seen this one? This one’s spooky....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muQdqtg_reE


57 posted on 05/08/2014 11:08:14 AM PDT by GOPJ ( Are we finally going to get a smidgen of truth? - - Freeper Veto!)
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To: MeshugeMikey
will they work on the golf course??

I want one in my car's trunk pointing backwards.

58 posted on 05/08/2014 11:10:46 AM PDT by zeugma (Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened - Dr. Seuss (I'll see you again someday Hope))
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Comment #59 Removed by Moderator

To: pfflier

What are some of the smaller systems that they harden?


60 posted on 05/08/2014 11:19:22 AM PDT by ansel12 ((Libertarianism offers the transitory concepts and dialogue to move from conservatism, to liberalism)
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