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E-bombs - New EMP Weapon Worries Counter-Terrorism Experts

Posted: 09 Apr 2009 01:04 AM PDT

Weapons experts and techno-thriller fans are familiar with the concept of

an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) — a supermassive blast of electricity,

usually from a nuclear blast high above ground, that fries electronic circuits

for miles around, crippling computers, cars and most other modern gadgets.

Now comes word that a much smaller EMP device, or “e-bomb,” could be

carried in a car, or even on someone’s person — and be used to take down an

airliner.

“Once it is known that aircraft are vulnerable to particular types of disruption,

it isn’t too much of a leap to build a device that can produce that sort of
disruption,” Israeli counter-terrorism expert Yael Shahar tells New Scientist

magazine. “And much of this could be built from off-the-shelf components or

dual-use technologies.

Shahar says she’s especially worried about two devices — one called a Marx

generator, which beams an EMP at a target, and the other with the “Back to the
Future”-like name of flux-compression generator.

The latter was developed by the Soviets during the 1950s when Marx

generators proved too expensive.

Basically, an explosive charge is set off at one end of a cylinder of charged

copper coils, and the resulting shock wave sends out a powerful electric

pulse as it travels down the tube.

Source

From NewScientist

Electromagnetic pulse weapons capable of frying the electronics in civil airliners

can be built using information and components available on the net, warn counterterrorism analysts.

All it would take to bring a plane down would be a single but highly energetic

microwave radio pulse blasted from a device inside a plane, or on the ground and
trained at an aircraft coming in to land.

Yael Shahar, director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in

Herzliya, Israel, and her colleagues have analyzed electromagnetic weapons in
development or used by military forces worldwide, and have discovered that

there is low-cost equipment available online that can act in similar ways.

“These will become more of a threat as the electromagnetic weapons

technology matures,” she says.

For instance, the US and Russian military have developed electromagnetic

pulse (EMP) warheads that create a radio-frequency shockwave. The radio pulse
creates an electric field of many hundreds of thousands of volts per metre,

which induces currents that burn out nearby electrical systems, such as

microchips and car electronics.

Speculation persists that such “e-bombs” have been used in the Persian Gulf, and

in Kosovo and Afghanistan - but this remains unconfirmed. But much of what
the military is doing can be duplicated by others, Shahar says. “Once it is

known that aircraft are vulnerable to particular types of disruption, it isn’t too

much of a leap to build a device that can produce that sort of disruption.

And much of this could be built from off-the-shelf components or

dual-use technologies.”

Source

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