North Korea and E.M.P.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

Doubtful, or else there would be at least as many states that have them are there are “conventional nuclear” states.

[Namkcalb]

I’ve createda threaddiscussing using EMP devices ***against ***North Korea

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

What, so we can bomb them forward to the Stone Age?

[Leo_Bloom]

[Leo_Bloom]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Doubtful, or else there would be at least as many states that have them are there are “conventional nuclear” states.

No, I meant those states that are already nuclear, or nuclear-capable at the drop of a hat (Japan, S. Korea [?], Germany [?]).

[Der_Trihs]

@Stranger_On_A_Train

In general, research in directed energy weapons (lasers, particle weapons, EMP cannons, et cetera) has proven to be extremely problematic due to the high power throughput requirements and the complex electrodynamic interactions both within the lasing or amplifying medium and in the external atmosphere, such that even going on three decades since Reagan’s infamous “Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)” speech and tens of billions of dollars of research we still have yet to field a single effective directed energy weapon of any sort.

Not quite true; there’s the antipersonnel microwave weapon the military has deployed; the “Active Denial System”. Still, that’s a far enough cry from the weapons you’re talking about that it’s something of a nitpick.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

Huh. Guess there really could be a use for a tinfoil hat!

[Great_Antibob]

@Blakeyrat

That said, the book might have been full of crap. But Streiber seemed to think the EMP threat was at least as great as the threat of direct detonation.

To repeat it again, the point of discussion was a single nuke in the hands of a rogue state or terrorist organization.

If Al Qaeda or North Korea can plant nukes in orbit, I’ll be more worried about EMPs. Actually, I’d be more worried about where they got the funding and technical know how without anybody being the wiser.

Until then, ground level explosions are the real threat from them.