Iran Tests Suggest Possible EMP Trials
April 27, 2005 :: Jane's Information Group :: News
The May edition of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets reports that recent missile tests by Iran may have been part of the development of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) warhead. Jane’s cites testimony from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security from March 8, 2005, by Peter Pry and Lowell Wood. Wood is a member of the Congressional EMP Commission, which released its important report on the EMP threat in July 2004.
Some of Iran’s tests of its Shahab-3 had been terminated before the completion of their ballistic trajectories, that is, exploding in mid-flight by what appeared to be a self-destruct mechanism. Iran has nevertheless described the tests as fully “successful.” Pry noted that the apparent contradiction would make sense “if Iran were practicing the execution of an EMP attack.” Lowell Wood is quoted as having testified to the subcommittee that such an attack upon the United States could keep off most electrical functions for a time period of a few hours or decades, depending on how it was executed. Wood also warned the subcommittee that such an EMP warhead could be delivered against the United States by “a Scud missile launched from a freighter off the Atlantic coast.”
Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, wrote about the EMP threat in the April 15 edition of the Washington Post.
Joseph Farah from World Net Daily carries a related story today, available online. (Link)
» July 22, 2004: EMP Commission releases report
» April 15, 2005: Washington Post, Sen. Jon Kyl on the EMP threat
» April 27, 2005: World Net Daily on possible Iran EMP preparations
» Full text of The Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
» More stories on: Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Weapons, Iran, Ship-Launched Threat, Terrorism
» Missile details: Shahab 6, Small ICBM
EMP Commission Report Points to Need for Missile Defense
July 22, 2004 :: Reuters :: News
Although overshadowed by the 9-11 report, another report was also today delivered to Congress. The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack delivered the executive summary of their report to a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. An electromagnetic pulse results from a nuclear explosion high in the atmosphere, and involves the disruption of nearly every form of electrical system, upon which the United States is so heavily dependent.
Mandated by law, the Commission was asked to assess the threat from “all potentially hostile states or non-state actors that have or could acquire nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles enabling them to perform a high-altitude EMP attack against the United States within the next 15 years.” They concluded that such an attack “has the potential to hold our society at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces.”
Of course, to assess an EMP threat from a “potentially hostile state or non state actor” implicitly admits that both rogue states and terrorists could well acquire a ballistic missile and a nuclear warhead and deliver them to the continental United States. The question of whether the nuclear armed missile would result in a low or high (EMP producing) altitude nuclear explosion—is quite secondary to whether the United States will remain vulnerable to terrorists or a rogue state’s ability to deliver the warhead by missile in the first place. (More »»»)
» Full text of Commission report
» Janes Defense Weekly on EMP report
» More stories on: Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Weapons, Terrorism
Pentagon Report: China’s Space Power Increasing
June 1, 2004 :: Department of Defense :: Analysis
The Department of Defense released its annual report to Congress, The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China, which details China’s continued expansion of their ballistic missile capabilities, and ambitions of military superiority in the region, as well as significant ambitions in space.
The report also notes that China is devoting significant electronic warfare systems which could be used to jam the US GPS constellation, as well as “robust” research and development program for laser weapons. In addition, “Beijing may have acquired high-energy laser equipment that could be used in the development of ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons.”
Space, too, is essential to the future of modern warfare, and China is pursuing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons, and “microsatellites.” All of this continues, despite China’s salutary denials of the militarization of space, and criticism of any American attempts to defend space assets: “Publicly, China opposes the militarization of space and seeks to prevent or slow the development of U.S. anti-satellite (ASAT) systems and space-based missile defenses,” the report notes; “Privately, however, China’s leaders probably view ASAT systems—and offensive counterspace systems, in general—as well as space-based missile defenses as inevitabilities.” China is said to be pursuing foreign technologies to develop its own domestic satellite-killing capability; “Given China’s current level of interest in laser technology, Beijing probably could develop a weapon that could destroy satellites in the future,” the report notes.
China also continues to modernize and accelerate its ballistic missile arsenal. China officially has only 20 ICBMs capable of striking the United States, but the report notes that it could have 30 by 2005, and as many as 60 by the end of the decade. Beijing is also expected to replace its 20 CSS-4 Mod 1 ICBMs with a still longer-range version, and to deploy the DF-31 ICBM by the end of the decade—if they have not done so already. (More »»»)
» Annual report, The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China (.pdf)
» More stories on: China, Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Weapons, Proliferation, Space-Based Systems
» Missile details: CSS-9 (DF-31/DF-31A)
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