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.
Such an attack would not require state-of-the-art missiles. Neither high accuracy nor a long range would be necessary. On the contrary, the report notes, terrorists or state actors could deliver an EMP attack with a “relatively unsophisticated missile.” And yet today, we remain defenseless against even an “unsophisticated” missile attack. It is worth noting that although the EMP threat from “terrorism” and “non-state actors” figure prominently in the report, Reuters’ reporting mentions neither, and notes only that North Korea and Iran could be seeking such a capability.
Such an attack could of course be more sophisticated, and come from either Russia or China. Russia has previously included EMP explosions in their nuclear plans, and conducted extensive EMP tests in the 1960s. A Pentagon report released in June outlined China’s own exploration of EMP warfare, and some of China’s missiles are already believed capable of delivering such a weapon.
The EMP report considers the sorts of things which can be done to shield military forces and transportation, financial, and power networks in advance, as well as repair them after such an attack might occur,
But any electromagnetic pulse, created by the detonation of a nuclear weapon at high altitude, would almost certainly require a ballistic missile to deliver it. And so such considerations necessarily point back to the more fundamental requirement of missile defense. (Article)
» Full text of Commission report
» Janes Defense Weekly on EMP report
» More stories on: Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Weapons, Terrorism
