The Most Dangerous National Security Threat No One's Talking About

Townhall.com ^ | October 27, 2017 | Congressman Trent Frank

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

So no more selfies?

[marktwain]

Some unfortunate errors in this article.

Detonating the bomb in the atmosphere would be sub-optimal. Best would be about 200-400 miles up.

The congressman is overstating the case, but he uses the term “could” so he is correct.

It is unlikely that it would destroy all such electronic devices.

We simply do not know what percentage would be destroyed.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Congress must act now to allocate the appropriate funds

Spoken like a true mindless bureaucrat. People have been aware of the "EMP threat" since an atmospheric nuclear bomb test in the 50s blew out a few street light fuses in Hawaii. The congresscritter thinks no one has done anything about it ever since. Does he really think that since then all electric utilities have risked complete destruction of their entire investments in order to avoid a "3 percent increase in capital investment", and that he can completely prevent this by passing g law"?

[upchuck]

One Second After. Realistic fiction.

[xzins]

Do it to them first

[xzins]

Do it to them first

[Flick Lives]

A hydrogen bomb, exploded within Earth’s atmosphere over a central location like Kansas could potentially mean ‘lights out’ for the entire contiguous U.S.A.

—�

I’m tired of hearing this oft repeated B.S. Yes, a nuke does produce an EMP. No, it’s effects would not blanket the U.S. a nuke blast effect is limited to a few miles in diameter.

[alloysteel]

If this is a plan by the North Korean fatboi, it is rife with a number of places where it could possibly go wrong.

First, the launch of such a long-range attack would be a leap of faith, and perhaps could fail on the launch pad, or very early in its arc through sub-orbital space. Secondly, the warhead could fail to detonate, making it essentially a ballistic rock flung up to plunge to earth with minimal real effect or even much real property damage. Thirdly, North Korea would have no second-strike capability.

While much local damage may be done to South Korea or even Japan, it would be a moment of desperation, as a great deal of noise, broken things, and dead people all happen in very short order. Annihilation would be the order of the day.

More in sorrow than in anger.

[Jim Noble]

Au contraire, mon frere, people talk about this overhyped nonsense incessantly.

[Krosan]

Are you sure it is true? I am not strong in physics, but I recently had to brush up helping my son with his homework and from the little I know it sounds like a scaremongering lie.

[COBOL2Java]

"One extra cheese, one triple pepperoni, one 2 liter coke, and one 2 liter Mountain Dew. And get a small cheese for you four. OK, you got it written down?"

[central_va]

You people read too many novels.

[Kaslin]

Whatchameanyoupeoplereadtomanynovels?

[Kaslin]

Bwahahaha, good one

[Travis McGee]

What an instantaneous “grid down” might look like.

We’ll probably never know what hit us: EMP, solar flare, cyber attack....there will be nobody on our dead TVs or smart phones to tell us.

“Alas, Brave New Babylon.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3058882/posts

[central_va]

EMP is a joke. Just read up on it. It is a big nothing burger.

[Travis McGee]

God can belch out a solar flare next week that turns out the lights. Or a thousand years from now. We think we have become the masters of our universe, but that is false pride.

[Travis McGee]

It would be an unimaginable risk for Fatboy to take, launching a first strike EMP weapon.

Imagine a Nork dud that lands in a Kansas field as a smoking dirty bomb.

We have a contaminated county or three, he gets his entire regime craterized.

[central_va]

Automobiles were subjected to EMP environments under both engine turned off and engine turned on conditions. No effects were subsequently observed in those automobiles that were not turned on during EMP exposure. The most serious effect observed on running automobiles was that the motors in three cars stopped at field strengths of approximately 30 kV/m or above. In an actual EMP exposure, these vehicles would glide to a stop and require the driver to restart them. Electronics in the dashboard of one automobile were damaged and required repair. Other effects were relatively minor. Twenty-five automobiles exhibited malfunctions that could be considered only a nuisance (e.g., blinking dashboard lights) and did not require driver intervention to correct. Eight of the 37 cars tested did not exhibit any anomalous response.

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