DARPA develops zap-bomb electropulse countermeasures US military boffins are preparing highly sophisticated technical defences against the dreaded electromagnetic pulse bomb, a weapon which has long been anticipated but never successfully built. We know about the counter-electropulse defence technology because the company which will develop it - HRL Labs of Malibu, California - …
Well didn't the USA test their EMP armed cruise missiles during the last Gulf war? Now they know they work, the penny has finally dropped that they can be used against the USA! Doah!
My one has ARP* on the back!
* To non UK readers, it was used in WW2 by Air Raid Precaution's staff.
This has potentially been a problem for years with radar and comms gear being vulnerable to nuclear generated EMP.
The only difference with the 'pulse bomb' would be that the power would be much lower, and probably not spread over such a range of frequencies.
One assumes that existing countermeasures (technical or *cough* having some spare bits ready on the shelf *cough*) will still be adequate to deal with any new threats.
Of course civil equipment is less likely to be in a position to deal with this than military, though I guess that civil stuff would be covered by a similar design philosophy to that used in at least some military hardware: the scenario is extremely unlikely to happen, and if it does there would be other effects anyway, so it's not even worth bothering to introduce countermeasures.
Not a bad concept, really. Isolate the part of the works that *must* be exposed to radiation from the rest of the works (which would of course have its own shielding). Sorta like an inline surge suppressor. If things really hit the fan, only the exposed part should go, leaving the heart of the outfit "blind" but otherwise intact.
Rail DARPA all you like, but this could be considered an honest step forward in safeguarding important electronics.
Some of the parts that would get fried in an EMP blast (from conventional *or* nuclear sources) are probably going to be among the toughest to replace--especially on the field. It's not like outfits will carry spare microprocessors and circuit boards lying around the place. It's spare tech just *asking* to be stolen by spies. So, like a walled city that still needs to do business, you put guards to the gates. That is what this technology does, along with electrical surge suppressors and the like.
Recently, man (dutch) refused bankloan, walks into bank later - joins queue - *puts attache case down* all bank PC's 'stop'. Confusion/reboots/BSOD. Man goes home!
Six months later, security expert analysing CCTV frame by frame notices the *attache case*. man visited at home, many capacitors and other items of terror, is arrested. Maybe urban-myth, maybe current amateur SOTA cross-over from .mil technology?
Then there was the...
....is all that I need some foil on the walls, ceiling and floor, a surge protector on the mains (my UPS should do this) and to receive internet only via a fibre link?
And maybe some surge protection on the LAN patch panel/switch (I'm not going to bother protecting the user PCs, its probably easier to replace them post incident, even allowing for supply issues). I know the rest of the city may be doing its Rice Crispies impression (snap, crackle & pop), but assuming the utilities come back up at some stage then at least we could keep some IT functions going, or have I missed something important (lets leave out the staff problems)
So the geniuses have found out about optocouplers, serious high end tech there(!) i imagine that must be a real skunkworks sort of component to obtain, oh wait
http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?MenuNo=12418&FromMenu=y&doy=28m8
so what they are saying is put receiver out in open, put signal processor in sheilded box, have a screened cable run between the 2, and use idiot proof (XLR, BNC etc.) plugs
massive slow hand clap for DARPA there
What about the ole' strategically-placed special-gas ultra-fast reacting spark-gap that will-cause-a-dead-short to all incoming enegy trick? Before you poo-poo the concept, don't forget that many run-of-the-mill comm system are designed to survive a direct fricken hit from a rather large lightning bolt. And the protection devices that do they job are small and rather cute. I'm very surprised that it's considered to be an unsolved problem.
"....is all that I need some foil on the walls, ceiling and floor, a surge protector on the mains (my UPS should do this) and to receive internet only via a fibre link?"
Err... no
According to http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp/toc.htm
you need a "layered sheet-steel wall built with two thin layers of steel separated by plywood or other core material". However calculations are hairy. Just add more steel, get rid of the ventilation shafts and cut those cooper power lines.
You have an antenna system which has to punch out a lot of power, and then switch to being a very sensitive receiver.
Trouble is, you don't know when you are going to get an EMP attack. The receiver is overwhelmingiy likely to be vulnerable, listening, absorbing all the incoming energy it can.
So this has to be doing something clever. And it might be a new trick for military radar. A faster switch from trasmit to receive means a shorter minimum range.
...the which quasi-URL I just pulled outa' me Nether Regions:
Um, "Countermeasures Arresting Most Electrical Labs' Totally Obscene Electomagnetick /Scheiss/ " might do...
Because, Doctor Evilord, the hired help just always borrow the labs' portable hard drives on weekends "to do our telework from home on the Interpipes", and just leave them lying all about the trailer-park... At least the ones they don't punt on eBray...
E-e-e-a-w-w-w. (snort)
I'll get me coat now. 'Twas the acronym that diddit...
From an old article on www.globalsecurity.org: "The US Navy reportedly used a new class of highly secret, non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse warheads during the opening hours of the Persian Gulf War to disrupt and destroy Iraqi electronics systems. The warheads converted the energy of a conventional explosion into a pulse of radio energy."
In a statement to a Congressional Hearing on Intelligence and Security in June 1997, it was implied that the Russians were way ahead in this field with weapons already in production for some time.
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