Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Military warns EMP attack could wipe out America, 'democracy, world order'
Washington Examiner ^ | 11/30/2018 | Paul Bedard

Posted on 11/30/2018 12:51:24 PM PST by BenLurkin

The report, titled, “Electromagnetic Defense Task Force,” and the product of a mostly classified summit of officials from 40 agencies just outside of Washington earlier this year, is a forceful call for a new focus on preparing for either an enemy EMP attack or a natural hit such as a solar storm.

While it is focused on the devastating impact an EMP hit would have on the military, it appears to support a congressional warning that up to 90 percent of the population on the East Coast would die in a year of an attack that would dismantle or interfere with electricity, transportation, food processing, and healthcare.

Consider just some of the warnings in the report from the United States Air Force Air University and the Curtis E. LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education.

Figuring out just which country launched an attack would be difficult since certain weapons could be delivered in a satellite.

It also noted the development of the 5G mobile network and how it will run communications and why it must be protected, especially since China is the biggest investor in its development.

“Because control of 5G is roughly equivalent to control of the Internet, open 5G is critical to freedom and free-market economics. Meanwhile, access to the 5G-millimeter wave bandwidth will be critical to operations in all war-fighting domains, in particular, space command & control,” said the white paper.

Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, the commander of Air Education and Training Command, said, “As electromagnetic technologies fuse in new and often dangerous ways, it’s critical that the military and industry make honest evaluations of present and future conflict states to ensure we’re proactive rather than reactive.”

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


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: antidefense; emp; fakenews; fakescientists; leftyucs
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-204 next last
To: Freedom56v2
"Doesn’t the military use our electric grid?

I will answer, yes they do...
"

They don't need it, though.


121 posted on 11/30/2018 5:25:42 PM PST by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]

To: Freedom56v2
"...so why wouldn’t you want to harden the grid when you say “One more thing. The more we shy away from building up our defense forces, the sooner we’ll see a nuclear exchange??"

Oh, I'm all for it. Convince your regional power company to make plans for rebuilding, if the local investors aren't too corrupt for that. Some writers have misled us, when they said that the whole U.S. has one monolithic power supply. Even the components are different from one area and another.

The greatest improvement for power companies would be to have plans, materials and components to build new power plants in some of the smaller cities. That's a possibility, where local business and government leaders are not too selfish and lazy to bother. Finding employees for power plants in big, temporarily toxic cities might be difficult.

Each of us should have our own plans and supplies to get by, though, to lighten the load for everyone else. That dreaded solar energy can power the right kind of freezer (Sundanzer, etc.). Gardening and home canning would work well too, for non-Malthusian folks.


122 posted on 11/30/2018 5:57:16 PM PST by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]

To: antidemoncrat; All
Worked with collegues who worked on measuring EMP effects. Studied it a fair amount.

Lots we *do not know*.

One of the principle reasons people do not attack with EMP is *no one* really knows what will happen and how much of what technolgies will go down.

Worst case is critical components of most electrical and electronic gear is destroyed. That is a very unlikely scenario. In my friends work, only about a third of running vehicles were completely disabled, for example.

Best case is a significant fraction.

For an attacker, anything less than the entire grid being down for months is pretty bad, because of counterstrikes.

If it is worse case, yes, 90% of people on the coasts die.

The percentage of deaths drop dramatically as the damage decreases.

Leave 10% of the Country mostly intact, and the death rate plummets.

An attacker hates that much uncertainty.

Also, President Trump ran, in part, on hardening the electrical grid. I believe that work is proceeding. A little protection goes a long way, both in preserving the grid and making an attackers life much more uncertain.

123 posted on 11/30/2018 5:59:00 PM PST by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: antidemoncrat
"Designed military hardware to withstand EMP. Studied its effect quite a bit to do that."

There's quite an abundance of licensed EE PEs who use the Internet.    ;-)    I've used and driven such hardware and am aware of the tech approaches. The old low tech is more surely reliable than the new.

"People can believe it or not but if it happens it will be too late for most people to survive."

Civilians are a whole other topic. Civilians in some areas will do much better than others. Civilians in blast areas and near the few upwind ground bursts...well, won't do so well. And we'd be more usefully productive without these computers. ;-)


124 posted on 11/30/2018 6:09:45 PM PST by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: marktwain; antidemoncrat

Counterstrikes would be completely independent from the power grid and would certainly happen. If it weren’t for that, we’d have already been nuked.


125 posted on 11/30/2018 6:12:52 PM PST by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies]

To: familyop

“...so why wouldn’t you want to harden the grid when you say “One more thing. The more we shy away from building up our defense forces, the sooner we’ll see a nuclear exchange??”

Oh, I’m all for it. Convince your regional power company to make plans for rebuilding, if the local investors aren’t too corrupt for that. Some writers have misled us, when they said that the whole U.S. has one monolithic power supply. Even the components are different from one area and another.

I don’t think convincing some regional power companies to rebuild is going to harden the grid. This is a national security issue that should be addressed nationally...It is just as important as the border wall, and yet we are not asking the border states to build their walls... The grids, tho regional, are dependent on each other...If one goes down...cascading will occur.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The greatest improvement for power companies would be to have plans, materials and components to build new power plants in some of the smaller cities. That’s a possibility, where local business and government leaders are not too selfish and lazy to bother. Finding employees for power plants in big, temporarily toxic cities might be difficult.

Don’t think anyone is opposed to that, but that is not hardening the grid except that might take some of the nuclear plants off line, and if they lose power, that would be a huge problem for the regions around them...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each of us should have our own plans and supplies to get by, though, to lighten the load for everyone else. That dreaded solar energy can power the right kind of freezer (Sundanzer, etc.). Gardening and home canning would work well too, for non-Malthusian folks.

Gardening, canning, solar/wind etc, great. Actually, I suspect I am more prepared than most people on this board in terms of off grid living...Believe me, I get it, but I don’t want to spend the last 25 years of my life defending off grid property and practicing off grid living because the government did not protect the citizenry—one of its main functions.

Trump is for hardening the grid; I suspect if he did not have so much da*ned resistance from the Dems, GOPe backstabbers, and media, he would have addressed it already.


126 posted on 11/30/2018 7:07:24 PM PST by Freedom56v2 (#KATE'SWALL Build it Now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: familyop

“Doesn’t the military use our electric grid?

I will answer, yes they do...”

They don’t need it, though.


Sure about that?
That is not what I have been told/read.


127 posted on 11/30/2018 7:11:58 PM PST by Freedom56v2 (#KATE'SWALL Build it Now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: joegoeny

Actually, we need to tell them, the Russians and the Chinese that if any country does this to us, they ALL get a full scale response that destroys them as viable nations. Very much like the unannounced Russian doomsday plan in Dr. Strangelove, except we announce it. That, plus we harden up our infrastructure and put away reserves of food, etc., and also indicate our eagerness (not willingness) to work together to avoid this happening to any nation. Big carrot, big stick - and the incentive will work to reduce the likelihood of this in particular, and tensions in general. A strong and firm, but not aggressive, US is a force for great stability.


128 posted on 11/30/2018 8:01:58 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: joegoeny

Actually, we need to tell them, the Russians and the Chinese that if any country does this to us, they ALL get a full scale response that destroys them as viable nations. Very much like the unannounced Russian doomsday plan in Dr. Strangelove, except we announce it. That, plus we harden up our infrastructure and put away reserves of food, etc., and also indicate our eagerness (not willingness) to work together to avoid this happening to any nation. Big carrot, big stick - and the incentive will work to reduce the likelihood of this in particular, and tensions in general. A strong and firm, but not aggressive, US is a force for great stability.


129 posted on 11/30/2018 8:01:58 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: Destroyer Sailor

The Carrington Event to which you are undoubtedly referring occurred in 1859.

We would, unlike in a nuclear EMP attack, have enough warning to shut down critical infrastructure and prevent many problems. People would have to do without electricity for a few days at most, and that would be bad but not catastrophic.

A wild card would be the nuclear reactors, both here and abroad - I don’t know if they can just be shut down, especially the cooling aspect. If not then we need hardened reserve generators in place at every nuke plant, with fuel for a minimum of a month. That, for every single plant worldwide, is orders of magnitude cheaper than a single meltdown anywhere.


130 posted on 11/30/2018 8:12:42 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 106 | View Replies]

To: Freedom56v2

“What about the elderly and preemies?”


VERY high mortality for all preemies and elderly requiring power for dialysis and oxygen. Everyone on life support dies. Everyone requiring insulin dies not long after their supply dries up or becomes ineffective due to lack of refrigeration.

Read “One Second After.”


131 posted on 11/30/2018 8:17:11 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: antidemoncrat

“People can believe it or not but if it happens it will be too late for most people to survive.”


Most won’t - this is normalcy bias. A thing “simply cannot happen” ... until it does.


132 posted on 11/30/2018 8:21:29 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: MarchonDC09122009

As to your question, more than enough

There are numerous threats we face but this one pales in comparison when you consider the infetesimal chances of it actually working and doing the damage described


133 posted on 11/30/2018 8:29:30 PM PST by Manuel OKelley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies]

To: Ancesthntr

Forgive me for getting the date wrong. I knew it took place somewhere in the mid 1800’s. We can only guess what this would do as our technology has become vulnerable to events like that. What I am saying that we have more to worry about than man made EMP. Never underestimate the power of nature.


134 posted on 11/30/2018 8:53:52 PM PST by Destroyer Sailor (Revenge is a dish best served cold.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: Mears

Define “modern”


135 posted on 11/30/2018 10:03:44 PM PST by Oil Object Insp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: PIF

GE and others have the ability to build and or repair turbines in the United states, in many different regions, in fact.....


136 posted on 11/30/2018 10:08:50 PM PST by Oil Object Insp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Ancesthntr

“What about the elderly and preemies?”
VERY high mortality for all preemies and elderly requiring power for dialysis and oxygen. Everyone on life support dies. Everyone requiring insulin dies not long after their supply dries up or becomes ineffective due to lack of refrigeration.

Read “One Second After.”


Yes, sadly, you are correct.

It won’t just affect “snowflakes” as some here believe.

If/When SHTF, it will affect everyone to some degree :(

I read the first several chapters. I just could not finish the book because it was so sobering, depressing and frustrating :(

Frustrating because just like the border wall, relatively speaking, hardening the grid would not cost that much yet it would provide priceless dividends!


137 posted on 11/30/2018 10:31:38 PM PST by Freedom56v2 (#KATE'SWALL Build it Now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies]

To: hardspunned
If you want to scare yourself read William Forstchen’s One Second After.

Thanks, I did. And I just picked up One Year After, and The Final Day. The 2nd and 3rd books of the trilogy for this weekend.

The yucksters on this thread would do well to do the same.

138 posted on 12/01/2018 2:20:01 AM PST by onona (It is often wise to allow a person a graceful path.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Oil Object Insp

Not on the scale needed after a large or staggered EMP over Central US. Most of the power plants nationwide would be fried. (And we are talking about turbines which generate electrical power - not turbines that run jet engines to be clear here?)

I was not able to find out exactly how long it takes to make a single turbine generator, but I did learn that most of the market is currently dominated by China ...

In any event, we would need hundreds if not thousands of these devices each taking month to a year to produce - then there is the shipping, the installation, and the testing before they would come on line.

Start stocking up on bituminous coal now, it will be a very long winter and, coupled with the Super Grand Solar Minimum, very cold for the next 350 years ...


139 posted on 12/01/2018 4:06:13 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 136 | View Replies]

To: 2banana

So the power goes out for a year... and nothing works... and most Americans starve to death...


140 posted on 12/01/2018 4:16:51 AM PST by GOPJ (The enemy of the United States pays for drum circles at 'protests'. Watch for them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-204 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson