Military Source Warns of North Korea's EMP Bomb

September 02, 2009
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/artic...sp?aid=2909545

North Korea is developing a bomb that emits an electromagnetic field upon explosion and damages nearby electronic devices, a South Korean military source has revealed to the JoongAng Ilbo.

The source said North Korea has been working on the electromagnetic pulse bomb, or EMP bomb, since the mid-1990s, with help from Russian scientists, adding that the weapon may be near completion.

The EMP bomb produces a short but strong electromagnetic pulse that, if exploded 40 kilometers (25 miles) above ground, would affect equipment within a 700-kilometer radius, including exposed electrical conductors, such as wires.

According to Australia-based defense analyst Carlo Kopp and his paper at the GlobalSecurity. org Web site, the EMP effect can cause irreversible damage to electrical and electronic devices, such as computers, radio and radar. He noted that EMP devices can render many modern military platforms useless because they are packed with electronic equipment. He argued that the damaged inflicted by such a bomb is akin to the harm caused by powerful bolts of lightning. The EMP bomb is not known to cause casualties. The U. S. forces used them at the onset of the war on Iraq in 2003.

The South Korean source said he expects the North to develop EMP bombs as warheads for aircraft bombs and for Scud-B missiles, warning that the North could use the weapons early and often if war broke out on the peninsula. South Korean and U. S. forces are vulnerable to EMP attacks since they rely on a great number of computer systems and their weapons are heavily equipped with electronic devices, the source explained.

South Korean military's C4I, or command, control, communications, computers and intelligence, system, could be paralyzed and the nation's air force bases, K-9 self-propelled artillery and other support systems put out of action. For instance, if an air force base loses its control functions after an EMP explosion, fighter jets may not be able to land.

The Agency for Defense Development, an institute under the Ministry of National Defense, announced in July that the South Korean military plans to invest 100 billion won ($80.6 million) in a system that defends against EMP attacks. The agency said it is targeting 2014 for the advent of an EMP bomb that can paralyze objects within a 1-kilometer radius. The agency currently has technology for an EMP weapon with a 100-meter radial range.

Warning from North Korea of what to expect from NK in a confrontation between them and us.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KF12Dg01.html

Four types of hydrogen bomb raids

The game plan for nuclear war specifies four types of thermonuclear assault: (1) the bombing of operating nuclear power stations; (2) detonations of a hydrogen bombs in seas off the US, Japan and South Korea; (3) detonations of H-bombs in space far above their heartlands; and (4) thermonuclear attacks on their urban centers.
(snip)

The third possible attack, a high-altitude detonation of hydrogen bombs that would create a powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP), would disrupt the communications and electrical infrastructure of the US, the whole of Japan, and South Korea.

Many of the essential systems needed to survive war would be knocked out, as computers are instantly rendered malfunctioning or unusable. Military and communications systems such as radars, antennas, and missiles, government offices, would be put out of use, as would energy sources such as nuclear power stations and transport and communications systems including airports, airplanes, railways, cars and cell phones.

Ironically the ubiquity of high-tech computing gadgets in the US, Japan and South Korea has made them most vulnerable to EMP attacks.

Researchers developing portable E-Bomb

By Paul Evans
http://www.gizmag.com/portable-e-bomb/11522/
23:24 April 22, 2009 PDT

High-power microwave (HPM) bombs that use an enormous electromagnetic radio pulse to disable computers, electronics, vehicles, guided missiles and communications while leaving people and structures unharmed have been under investigation in research labs for a number of years. Until recently these weapons have been impractically large at over 3.5 meters long, but researchers at Texas Tech University have now built a self powered device with U. S. Army funding that measures 15 cm in diameter and only 1.5 meters long, making it small enough to be considered portable.

The device being tested at an arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama should produce a peak power of 35 MW with a pulse length of 100 to 150 nanoseconds, emitting a microwave beam in the 2- to 6-GHz range.

You may be wondering how so much energy can be generated with such a small portable device. Firstly it is due to the apparent power generated by compressing a lot of energy into a very short period of time. Where electrical power is normally measured in kilowatt hours on your utility bill, the peak pulse of this E-bomb lasts just 36 billionths of an hour. Secondly, an E-Bomb is a device that can convert the output of high explosives into radio waves. The 1.5 meter long Texas Tech HPM contains three main components: a power generator in the form of a flux compression generator (FCG), a microwave source called a vircator (for virtual cathode oscillator), and an antenna that radiates the resultant high-power microwave radiation.

The source of all this power is the Flux Compression Generator (FCG). In an FCG, the energy is primarily stored as chemical energy in an explosive like plastic C4. It consists of a metal pipe with a helical stator coil wound inside it like a solenoid and a second smaller diameter armature tube which contains the C4 explosive, with an insulating layer between the two in a coaxial arrangement. The process is started with a 12-volt lead acid battery one end of the coil which provides a field current. Once detonated the explosive front propagates through the explosive in the armature pressing the inner pipe against the outer, rapidly compressing the magnetic field and generating a pulse of electromagnetic energy. An FCG is a one use device as it is destroyed by the explosive and although they are relatively cheap, they become less efficient as they get smaller.

In the second part of the process, the FCG's energy pulse is fed through an inductor producing a voltage of about 100 kilovolts. This voltage powers the vircator, which converts the energy into microwaves. The same vircator can also be driven by power sources other than a FCG such as explosive or propellant driven Magneto-Hydrodynamic (MHD) generators or by a nonexplosive power generator that don't self-destruct such as a Marx generator, although these tend to be much larger than a simple FCG.

Texas Tech is working on a Marx generator in the hopes of making a portable directed energy weapon called a microwave cannon. The first application may be to stop vehicles by using a HPM to destroy the electronics and shut the engine down.

The amount of damage an E-bomb can do depends on its ability to couple the energy into the target. There are several ways for the microwave power to enter a system. Front door coupling happens when the pulse weapon couples with an antenna associated with radar or communications equipment. Back door coupling occurs through fixed electrical wiring and cables that connect equipment like mains power or telephone wires. Lower frequencies work better on standing wiring while higher frequencies can work better through antennas. In both cases a high voltage standing wave enters the equipment and these spikes cause damage to electric power supplies and electronic components. For example a typical semiconductor such as a microprocessor is designed to operate at 3.3 - 5 volts. A large voltage spike can do extensive damage often requiring the replacement of most semiconductors in the equipment.

Lab testing on the portable HPM has begun, but the technology is not expected to reach the field any time soon.

Paul Evans

Via: IEEE Spectrum (Image: http://blog.puppetgov.com/).