EMP attack 2009

Well all in all this doesn't seem likely to get off the ground then :p I'm not really going for a nuclear attack, just something that could cripple commerce and cause power shortages.
 
If a terrorist group could do this (as noted above, them having the capability is borderline ASB at best), the only reasonable attack would include a number of 'normal' nuclear attacks on cities.


If they have only a few warheads in the 20-100 kiloton range, they cause greater economical devastation with direct EMP than with attack on cities, except if these are on strategic points like the White House, Pentagon or Wall Street.
 
I never enjoy this board more then when a huge Reality Sandwich(tm) gets crammed down the collective gullets of the Usual Suspects. It gives me hope that maybe our species isn't doomed to star in the live action version of Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons"

My many thanks to the chefs and you all know who you are.
 
If they have only a few warheads in the 20-100 kiloton range, they cause greater economical devastation with direct EMP than with attack on cities, except if these are on strategic points like the White House, Pentagon or Wall Street.

If they have the ability to detonate a nuke 50-100 miles over Kansas they have the ability to detonate one in downtown New York or DC. Q.E.D.

Even a 20kt warhead is going to do a LOT more damage hitting a city than an EMP burst. Remember, a large warhead is needed to create a significant EMP.

Fun toy for mass death and destruction:
http://www.nucleardarkness.org/nuclear/nuclearexplosionsimulator/

Edit to add: here's another one, with more detail:
http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16

2nd Edit: and I finally find the one I was looking for! This one shows overpressure and fallout (based on selected wind direction)
http://www.carloslabs.com/node/20
 
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Well, he was right about one thing:

This is going to be a short TL detailing an EMP attack on the US by detonating two nuclear missiles in the upper atmosphere by an unknown terrorist group.

It was a short TL. :D

Torqumada
 
If they have the ability to detonate a nuke 50-100 miles over Kansas they have the ability to detonate one in downtown New York or DC. Q.E.D. http://www.carloslabs.com/node/20


What I mean by strategic targets, centers of major cities.

That is assuming they have a reliable guidance system for their missiles. It is much easier to detonate a missile circa 200 kilometers somwhere above the eastern US than 2000 meters above 5th Avenue.

Also direct attack means the United States might go on a full out nuking spree against states it doesn´t like. If there are no direct US casualties from the attacks, 37 millions incinerated Iranians will look kinda worst in world opinion.
 

Hyperion

Banned
Well all in all this doesn't seem likely to get off the ground then :p I'm not really going for a nuclear attack, just something that could cripple commerce and cause power shortages.

If you want to cause a major localized or regional power outage with no real casualties, but a few days or more of economic damage and whatnot, all you really nead is a chainsaw, the cover of darkness, and a full tank of gas.
 
You got that right :D

You know, while we Plausibility Nazis(TM) here at AHdotCom may not buy it, this still really works as Summer Blockbuster Disaster Film material, where it's surface-realistic enough to scare the piss out of the average uninformed viewer. Don't shelve the idea...just turn it into a screenplay instead. Seriously, Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer would wet themselves over such a thing.

I honestly think you can sell this, and I say "go for it"! :D
 
Precise altitude to work, eh? Apparently not. :D

EMP_areas.JPG


Wíth two 120 "miles" altitude detonations, continental US and A can be knocked out.


You folks remember how the economy was affected by 9/11? So banks have back up yes but the US and probably much of the world is going to massively loose confidence, tens of millions will flee the cities.

Then, the US governement might retaliate against North Korea, Iran, Pakistan. That alone would have economical effects.

Oh, of course, two large, exceedingly heavy, rare high-yield nukes double detonated 120 miles (= 633,600 feet = Thermosphere = over 7x the service ceiling of the SR-71 Blackbird) up and timed right in order to meet the theoretical right conditions for the large-area EMP*. That shouldn't be a problem for a few blokes in South Waziristan or Chechnya to pull off with parts from Radio Shack, eh? :p

On the ensuing "war" costs...good point there and a likely outcome of ANY nuclear attack on the US.

Frankly, if I were Crazy Ahmed and I had two large yield nukes I'd drive one of them into an underground parking garage in Seatle, detonate it in an ugly ground burst, and not only obliterate a major defense sector city but blow all that yucky fallout right up into the Jet Stream and f-up the whole continent on the cheap for a century to come...and still have a nuke to spare.



* = or as precise as electromagnetic theory can ever get. EM is so thouroghly unpredictable that Electrical Engineers call it "black magic". Temperature, solar radiation, slight changes in the position of metal objects, and any number of slight changes to the EM background environment can have drastic effects on how EM potential develops in the practical environment. EMP is still a very much theoretical area of study (no one's tried a continental-scale EMP yet), and if a decade and a half of electromagnetic education and experience has taught me anything about EM it's that you still end up having to "fiddle with the rabbit ears" in the end to get the results you wanted.
 
You know, while we Plausibility Nazis(TM) here at AHdotCom may not buy it, this still really works as Summer Blockbuster Disaster Film material, where it's surface-realistic enough to scare the piss out of the average uninformed viewer. Don't shelve the idea...just turn it into a screenplay instead. Seriously, Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer would wet themselves over such a thing.

I honestly think you can sell this, and I say "go for it"! :D

Thanks for the idea. I'll give something like that a shot! :)
 
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