US Defenseless Against North Korean EMP Threat

[Drinkthekoolaid]

Serious question here.

I'm not fully versed on EMP attacks, however I've been made aware that electronics are completely at risk barring a Faraday cage for protection. Since our newer automobiles are so heavily computer reliant they would become lawn ornaments in an EMP attack. Wouldn't the same hold true for all our Air Force and Naval arsenals? Including all the armaments and ordinances they carry? How would the sophisticated missiles hit their mark, if they could even be launched?

It's a good question and I don't have the answers.
I do know there are very specifically designed niche command and control aircraft engineered to survive an EMP pulse, so there's that...

Boeing E-4 - Wikipedia

Boeing E-6 Mercury - Wikipedia

 

[C3D]

Serious question here.

I'm not fully versed on EMP attacks, however I've been made aware that electronics are completely at risk barring a Faraday cage for protection. Since our newer automobiles are so heavily computer reliant they would become lawn ornaments in an EMP attack. Wouldn't the same hold true for all our Air Force and Naval arsenals? Including all the armaments and ordinances they carry? How would the sophisticated missiles hit their mark, if they could even be launched?

Although I am always assured by some here that an EMP poses no risk to our hardware, Dr. Pry's book makes it very clear that an EMP can take down the electric grid by knocking out key bits and causing cascading failures. For every hour the grid is down it becomes harder and harder to restart it and after 7-10 days it will likely be impossible to recover. Without the grid up all other aspects of US critical infrastructure fail quickly leading to widespread catastrophe. Even scarier would be an EMP attack coupled with a massive cyberattack against critical infrastructure with kinetic attacks on key equipment.

Dr. Pry's book

One Second After, a pretty good fictional work about that event

Kinetic attack against infrastructure - far from fiction because it has happened

 

[Marine Cpl]

An EMP attack is the end of life as we know it even if it only hit half the country.

Farming machines wouldn't work if they require computer chips. Refineries wouldn't work to refine oil. There would be no fuel for the trucks to make deliveries. Supermarkets would be empty.

After hunger sets in, crime will escalate followed by martial law. Even if you live in area not directly affected by the blast, you'd still have empty supermarkets and an overpopulation problem.

 

[Cooolone]

Not many have the delivery agent available for the technological interruption of satellite systems. EMP's even more so that would have any effect, notwithstanding a nuclear blast. Worrying about their capabilities 20 years forward while discounting our own is counter-intuitive.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

Although I am always assured by some here that an EMP poses no risk to our hardware, Dr. Pry's book makes it very clear that an EMP can take down the electric grid by knocking out key bits and causing cascading failures. For every hour the grid is down it becomes harder and harder to restart it and after 7-10 days it will likely be impossible to recover. Without the grid up all other aspects of US critical infrastructure fail quickly leading to widespread catastrophe. Even scarier would be an EMP attack coupled with a massive cyberattack against critical infrastructure with kinetic attacks on key equipment.

Dr. Pry's book

One Second After, a pretty good fictional work about that event

Kinetic attack against infrastructure - far from fiction because it has happened

Ted Koppel (a big government left leaning guy) who used to be an investigative journalist actually started interviewing high ranking people and experts and became quite alarmed at what he found. Even a guy like him realized the danger of being too reliant on a weak and vulnerable electrical grid. And the government's plan to fix a major grid down, well it sucks. Badly. His book goes into cyber attack, weather, emp attack, physical kinetic attack, human error etc.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0553...lights+out&dpPl=1&dpID=51uwoSdV+nL&ref=plSrch


I like sharing this video as well. Its from national geographic. If this topic of EMP and grid down interests you one way or the other it's well worth the 45 minutes to watch.

 

[spat]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the danger from North Korean nukes is not in a high tech delivery system. It is in a very high yield salted device the size of a shipping container detonated on a ship at sea before customs ever even looks at it.

 

[ArmedCorgi]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the danger from North Korean nukes is not in a high tech delivery system. It is in a very high yield salted device the size of a shipping container detonated on a ship at sea before customs ever even looks at it.

First strike?

 

[spat]

First strike?

Or some sleeper agents acting like a dead man switch.

I'm not sure how far up the Potomac you can get before customs stops you, but this is what our first attempt at an H bomb would have done.

NUKEMAP

Now picture that with someone adding a bunch of colbalt just sitting next to the bomb to make the fallout 100x worse....

Look at all the major cities that would be uninhabitable. The refugees alone would destroy our economy.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

Or some sleeper agents acting like a dead man switch.

I'm not sure how far up the Potomac you can get before customs stops you, but this is what our first attempt at an H bomb would have done.

NUKEMAP

Now picture that with someone adding a bunch of colbalt just sitting next to the bomb to make the fallout 100x worse....

Look at all the major cities that would be uninhabitable. The refugees alone would destroy our economy.

And to think, technically the Korean war isn't formally over....

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

Just keep in mind that NK and Iran share technology. it's reasonable to assume pretty much any technology NK has or is developing Iran either has it, or now has the wherewithal and development to complete their own versions.