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E-Bomb Process by Vinu

The document discusses electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons called E-bombs. It describes how E-bombs could destroy electrical equipment and thrust cities back technologically by hundreds of years. It then provides details on the technology behind conventional E-bombs, focusing on explosively pumped flux compression generators, explosive or propellant driven magnetohydrodynamic generators, and virtual cathode oscillators, which could produce EMPs powerful enough to damage electronics over large areas.

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RaviKiran Avula
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
66 views35 pages

E-Bomb Process by Vinu

The document discusses electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons called E-bombs. It describes how E-bombs could destroy electrical equipment and thrust cities back technologically by hundreds of years. It then provides details on the technology behind conventional E-bombs, focusing on explosively pumped flux compression generators, explosive or propellant driven magnetohydrodynamic generators, and virtual cathode oscillators, which could produce EMPs powerful enough to damage electronics over large areas.

Uploaded by

RaviKiran Avula
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 35

E-BOMB Process By Vinu

1. INTRODUCTION

The next Pearl Harbor will not announce itself with a searing flash of
nuclear light or with the plaintive wails of those dying of Ebola or its
genetically engineered twin. You will hear a sharp crack in the distance. By
the time you mistakenly identify this sound as an innocent clap of thunder,
the civilized world will have become unhinged. Fluorescent lights and
television sets will glow eerily bright, despite being turned off. The aroma
of ozone mixed with smoldering plastic will seep from outlet covers as
electric wires arc and telephone lines melt. Your Palm Pilot and MP3 player
will feel warm to the touch, their batteries overloaded. Your computer, and
every bit of data on it, will be toast. And then you will notice that the world
sounds different too. The background music of civilization, the whirl of
internal-combustion engines, will have stopped. Save a few diesels, engines
will never start again. You, however, will remain unharmed, as you find
yourself thrust backward 200 years, to a time when electricity meant a
lightning bolt fracturing the night sky. This is not a hypothetical, son-of-
Y2K scenario. It is a realistic assessment of the damage that could be
inflicted by a new generation of weapons--E-bombs.

Anyone who's been through a prolonged power outage knows that


it's an extremely trying experience. Within an hour of losing electricity, you
develop a healthy appreciation of all the electrical devices you rely on in
life. A couple hours later, you start pacing around your house. After a few
days without lights, electric heat or TV, your stress level shoots through the
roof. But in the grand scheme of things, that's nothing. If an outage hits an
entire city, and there aren't adequate emergency resources, people may

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die from exposure, companies may suffer huge productivity losses and
millions of dollars of food may spoil. If a power outage hit on a much larger
scale, it could shut down the electronic networks that keep governments
and militaries running. We are utterly dependent on power, and when it's
gone, things get very bad, very fast.

An electromagnetic bomb, or e-bomb, is a weapon designed to take


advantage of this dependency. But instead of simply cutting off power in an
area, an e-bomb would actually destroy most machines that use electricity.
Generators would be useless, cars wouldn't run, and there would be no
chance of making a phone call. In a matter of seconds, a big enough e-
bomb could thrust an entire city back 200 years or cripple a military unit.

2. BASIC PRINCIPLE-THE EMP EFFECT

The Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) effect was first observed during
the early testing of the theory of electromagnetism. The Electromagnetic
Pulse is in effect an electromagnetic shock wave.

This pulse of energy produces a powerful electromagnetic field,


particularly within the vicinity of the weapon burst. The field can be
sufficiently strong to produce short lived transient voltages of thousands of
Volts (i.e. kilovolts) on exposed electrical conductors, such as wires, or
conductive tracks on printed circuit boards, where exposed.

It is this aspect of the EMP effect which is of military significance, as


it can result in irreversible damage to a wide range of electrical and

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electronic equipment, particularly computers and radio or radar receivers.


Subject to the electromagnetic hardness of the electronics, a measure of
the equipment's resilience to this effect, and the intensity of the field
produced by the weapon, the equipment can be irreversibly damaged or in
effect electrically destroyed. The damage inflicted is not unlike that
experienced through exposure to close proximity lightning strikes, and may
require complete replacement of the equipment, or at least substantial
portions thereof.
Commercial computer equipment is particularly vulnerable to EMP
effects, as it is largely built up of high density Metal Oxide Semiconductor
(MOS) devices, which are very sensitive to exposure to high voltage
transients. What is significant about MOS devices is that very little energy
is required to permanently wound or destroy them, any voltage in typically
in excess of tens of Volts can produce an effect termed gate breakdown
which effectively destroys the device. Even if the pulse is not powerful
enough to produce thermal damage, the power supply in the equipment
will readily supply enough energy to complete the destructive process.
Wounded devices may still function, but their reliability will be seriously
impaired. Shielding electronics by equipment chassis provides only limited
protection, as any cables running in and out of the equipment will behave
very much like antennae, in effect guiding the high voltage transients into
the equipment.

Computers used in data processing systems, communications


systems, displays, industrial control applications, including road and rail
signaling, and those embedded in military equipment, such as signal

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processors, electronic flight controls and digital engine control systems, are
all potentially vulnerable to the EMP effect.

Telecommunications equipment can be highly vulnerable, due to the


presence of lengthy copper cables between devices. Receivers of all
varieties are particularly sensitive to EMP, as the highly sensitive miniature
high frequency transistors and diodes in such equipment are easily
destroyed by exposure to high voltage electrical transients. Therefore radar
and electronic warfare equipment, satellite, microwave, UHF, VHF, HF and
low band communications equipment and television equipment are all
potentially vulnerable to the EMP effect.
It is significant that modern military platforms are densely packed
with electronic equipment, and unless these platforms are well hardened,
an EMP device can substantially reduce their function or render them
unusable.

3. THE TECHNOLOGY BASE FOR CONVENTIONAL


ELECTROMAGNETIC BOMBS

The technology base which may be applied to the design of


electromagnetic bombs is both diverse, and in many areas quite mature.
Key technologies which are extant in the area are explosively pumped Flux
Compression Generators (FCG), explosive or propellant driven Magneto-
Hydrodynamic (MHD) generators and a range of HPM devices, the
foremost of which is the Virtual Cathode Oscillator or Vircator. A wide
range of experimental designs have been tested in these technology areas,

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and a considerable volume of work has been published in unclassified


literature.

This paper will review the basic principles and attributes of these
technologies, in relation to bomb and warhead applications. It is stressed
that this treatment is not exhaustive, and is only intended to illustrate how
the technology base can be adapted to an operationally deployable
capability.

3.1. EXPLOSIVELY PUMPED FLUX COMPRESSION


GENERATORS

The FCG is a device capable of producing electrical energies of tens


of Mega Joules in tens to hundreds of microseconds of time, in a relatively
compact package. With peak power levels of the order of Terawatts to tens
of Terawatts, FCGs may be used directly, or as one shot pulse power
supplies for microwave tubes. To place this in perspective, the current
produced by a large FCG is between ten to a thousand times greater than
that produced by a typical lightning stroke.
The central idea behind the construction of FCGs is that of using a
fast explosive to rapidly compress a magnetic field, transferring much
energy from the explosive into the magnetic field.

The initial magnetic field in the FCG prior to explosive initiation is


produced by a start current. The start current is supplied by an external
source, such a high voltage capacitor bank (Marx bank), a smaller FCG or
an MHD device. In principle, any device capable of producing a pulse of

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electrical current of the order of tens of Kilo Amperes to MegaAmperes will


be suitable.

The most commonly used arrangement is that of the coaxial FCG. The
coaxial arrangement is of particular interest in this context, as its
essentially cylindrical form factor lends itself to packaging into munitions.

In a typical coaxial FCG, a cylindrical copper tube forms the


armature. This tube is filled with a fast high energy explosive. The
armature is surrounded by a helical coil of heavy wire, typically copper,
which forms the FCG stator. The stator winding is in some designs split
into segments, with wires bifurcating at the boundaries of the segments, to
optimise the electromagnetic inductance of the armature coil.

The intense magnetic forces produced during the operation of the


FCG could potentially cause the device to disintegrate prematurely if not
dealt with. This is typically accomplished by the addition of a structural
jacket of a non-magnetic material. Materials such as concrete or Fiberglass
in an Epoxy matrix have been used.

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It is typical that the explosive is initiated when the start current


peaks. This is usually accomplished with an explosive lens plane wave
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generator which produces a uniform plane wave burn (or detonation) front
in the explosive. Once initiated, the front propagates through the explosive
in the armature, distorting it into a conical shape (typically 12 to 14 degrees
of arc). Where the armature has expanded to the full diameter of the
stator, it forms a short circuit between the ends of the stator coil, shorting
and thus isolating the start current source and trapping the current within
the device. The propagating short has the effect of compressing the
magnetic field, whilst reducing the inductance of the stator winding. The
result is that such generators will producing a ramping current pulse,
which peaks before the final disintegration of the device. Published results
suggest ramp times of tens to hundreds of microseconds, specific to the
characteristics of the device, for peak currents of tens of MegaAmperes and
peak energies of tens of Mega Joules.

The current multiplication (i.e. ratio of output current to start


current) achieved varies with designs, but numbers as high as 60 have been
demonstrated. The principal technical issues in adapting the FCG to
weapons applications lie in packaging, the supply of start current, and
matching the device to the intended load. Interfacing to a load is simplified
by the coaxial geometry of coaxial and conical FCG designs .

3.2. HIGH POWER MICROWAVE SOURCES - THE VIRCATOR

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Whilst FCGs are potent technology base for the generation of large
electrical power pulses, the output of the FCG is by its basic physics
constrained to the frequency band below 1 MHz. Many target sets will be
difficult to attack even with very high power levels at such frequencies;
moreover focussing the energy output from such a device will be
problematic. A HPM device overcomes both of the problems, as its output
power may be tightly focussed and it has a much better ability to couple
energy into many target types.

A wide range of HPM devices exist. Relativistic Klystrons,


Magnetrons, Slow Wave Devices, Reflex triodes, Spark Gap Devices and
Vircators are all examples of the available technology base. From the
perspective of a bomb or warhead designer, the device of choice will be at
this time the Vircator, or in the nearer term a Spark Gap source. The
Vircator is of interest because it is a one shot device capable of producing a
very powerful single pulse of radiation, yet it is mechanically simple, small
and robust, and can operate over a relatively broad band of microwave
frequencies.

The physics of the Vircator tube are substantially more complex than
those of the preceding devices. The fundamental idea behind the Vircator
is that of accelerating a high current electron beam against a mesh (or foil)
anode. Many electrons will pass through the anode, forming a bubble of
space charge behind the anode. Under the proper conditions, this space
charge region will oscillate at microwave frequencies. If the space charge
region is placed into a resonant cavity which is appropriately tuned, very
high peak powers may be achieved. Conventional microwave engineering
techniques may then be used to extract microwave power from the
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resonant cavity. Because the frequency of oscillation is dependent upon the


electron beam parameters, Vircators may be tuned or chirped in frequency,
where the microwave cavity will support appropriate modes. Power levels
achieved in Vircator experiments range from 170 kilowatts to 40 Gig Watts.

The two most commonly described configurations for the Vircator


are the Axial Vircator (AV) (Fig.3), and the Transverse Vircator (TV). The
Axial Vircator is the simplest by design, and has generally produced the
best power output in experiments. It is typically built into a cylindrical
waveguide structure. Power is most often extracted by transitioning the
waveguide into a conical horn structure, which functions as an antenna.

4. THE LETHALITY OF ELECTROMAGNETIC


WARHEADS

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The issue of electromagnetic weapon lethality is complex. Unlike the


technology base for weapon construction, which has been widely published
in the open literature, lethality related issues have been published much
less frequently.
While the calculation of electromagnetic field strengths achievable at
a given radius for a given device design is a straightforward task,
determining a kill probability for a given class of target under such
conditions is not.

This is for good reasons. The first is that target types are very diverse
in their electromagnetic hardness, or ability to resist damage. Equipment
which has been intentionally shielded and hardened against
electromagnetic attack will withstand orders of magnitude greater field
strengths than standard commercially rated equipment..
The second major problem area in determining lethality is that of coupling
efficiency, which is a measure of how much power is transferred from the
field produced by the weapon into the target. Only power coupled into the
target can cause useful damage.

4.1. COUPLING MODES

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In assessing how power is coupled into targets, two principal


coupling modes are recognised in the literature:
 Front Door Coupling occurs typically when power from an
electromagnetic weapon is coupled into an antenna associated with
radar or communications equipment. The antenna subsystem is
designed to couple power in and out of the equipment, and thus
provides an efficient path for the power flow from the
electromagnetic weapon to enter the equipment and cause damage.
 Back Door Coupling occurs when the electromagnetic field from a
weapon produces large transient currents (termed spikes, when
produced by a low frequency weapon) or electrical standing waves
(when produced by a HPM weapon) on fixed electrical wiring and
cables interconnecting equipment, or providing connections to
mains power or the telephone network. Equipment connected to
exposed cables or wiring will experience either high voltage transient
spikes or standing waves which can damage power supplies and
communications interfaces if these are not hardened. Moreover,
should the transient penetrate into the equipment, damage can be
done to other devices inside.

A low frequency weapon will couple well into a typical wiring


infrastructure, as most telephone lines, networking cables and power lines
follow streets, building risers and corridors. In most instances any
particular cable run will comprise multiple linear segments joined at
approximately right angles. Whatever the relative orientation of the
weapons field, more than one linear segment of the cable run is likely to be
oriented such that a good coupling efficiency can be achieved.

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E-BOMB Process By Vinu

It is worth noting at this point the safe operating envelopes of some


typical types of semiconductor devices. Manufacturer's guaranteed
breakdown voltage ratings for Silicon high frequency bipolar transistors,
widely used in communications equipment, typically vary between 15 V and
65 V. Gallium Arsenide Field Effect Transistors are usually rated at about
10V. High density Dynamic Random Access Memories (DRAM), an
essential part of any computer, is usually rated to 7 V against earth. Generic
CMOS logic is rated between 7 V and 15 V, and microprocessors running off
3.3 V or 5 V power supplies are usually rated very closely to that voltage.
Whilst many modern devices are equipped with additional protection
circuits at each pin, to sink electrostatic discharges, sustained or repeated
application of a high voltage will often defeat these.

Communications interfaces and power supplies must typically meet


electrical safety requirements imposed by regulators. Such interfaces are
usually protected by isolation transformers with ratings from hundreds of
Volts to about 2 to 3 kV.

It is clearly evident that once the defence provided by a transformer,


cable pulse arrestor or shielding is breached, voltages even as low as 50 V
can inflict substantial damage upon computer and communications
equipment. The author has seen a number of equipment items (computers,
consumer electronics) exposed to low frequency high voltage spikes (near
lightning strikes, electrical power transients), and in every instance the
damage was extensive, often requiring replacement of most
semiconductors in the equipment .

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HPM weapons operating in the centimetric and mill metric bands


however offer an additional coupling mechanism to Back Door Coupling.
This is the ability to directly couple into equipment through ventilation
holes, gaps between panels and poorly shielded interfaces. Under these
conditions, any aperture into the equipment behaves much like a slot in a
microwave cavity, allowing microwave radiation to directly excite or enter
the cavity. The microwave radiation will form a spatial standing wave
pattern within the equipment. Components situated within the anti-nodes
within the standing wave pattern will be exposed to potentially high
electromagnetic fields.
Because microwave weapons can couple more readily than low
frequency weapons, and can in many instances bypass protection devices
designed to stop low frequency coupling, microwave weapons have the
potential to be significantly more lethal than low frequency weapons.

4.2. MAXIMISING ELECTROMAGNETIC BOMB LETHALITY

To maximise the lethality of an electromagnetic bomb it is necessary


to maximise the power coupled into the target set. The first step in
maximising bomb lethality is is to maximise the peak power and duration
of the radiation of the weapon. For a given bomb size, this is accomplished
by using the most powerful flux compression generator (and Vircator in a
HPM bomb) which will fit the weapon size, and by maximising the
efficiency of internal power transfers in the weapon. Energy which is not
emitted is energy wasted at the expense of lethality.

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The second step is to maximise the coupling efficiency into the


target set. A good strategy for dealing with a complex and diverse target set
is to exploit every coupling opportunity available within the bandwidth of
the weapon.

A low frequency bomb built around an FCG will require a large


antenna to provide good coupling of power from the weapon into the
surrounding environment. Whilst weapons built this way are inherently
wide band, as most of the power produced lies in the frequency band below
1 MHz compact antennas are not an option. One possible scheme is for a
bomb approaching its programmed firing altitude to deploy five linear
antenna elements. These are produced by firing off cable spools which
unwind several hundred metres of cable. Four radial antenna elements
form a "virtual" earth plane around the bomb, while an axial antenna
element is used to radiate the power from the FCG. The choice of element
lengths would need to be carefully matched to the frequency
characteristics of the weapon, to produce the desired field strength. A high
power coupling pulse transformer is used to match the low impedance FCG
output to the much higher impedance of the antenna, and ensure that the
current pulse does not vapourise the cable prematurely.

Other alternatives are possible. One is to simply guide the bomb


very close to the target, and rely upon the near field produced by the FCG
winding, which is in effect a loop antenna of very small diameter relative to
the wavelength. Whilst coupling efficiency is inherently poor, the use of a
guided bomb would allow the warhead to be positioned accurately within
metres of a target. An area worth further investigation in this context is the
use of low frequency bombs to damage or destroy magnetic tape libraries,
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as the near fields in the vicinity of a flux generator are of the order of
magnitude of the coercivity of most modern magnetic materials.

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The first is sweeping the frequency or chirping the Vircator. This can
improve coupling efficiency in comparison with a single frequency weapon,
by enabling the radiation to couple into apertures and resonances over a
range of frequencies. In this fashion, a larger number of coupling
opportunities are exploited.

The second mechanism which can be exploited to improve coupling


is the polarisation of the weapon's emission. If we assume that the
orientations of possible coupling apertures and resonances in the target set
are random in relation to the weapon's antenna orientation, a linearly
polarised emission will only exploit half of the opportunities available. A
circularly polarised emission will exploit all coupling opportunities.

The practical constraint is that it may be difficult to produce an


efficient high power circularly polarised antenna design which is compact
and performs over a wide band. Some work therefore needs to be done on

tapered helix or conical spiral type antennas capable of handling high


power levels, and a suitable interface to a Vircator with multiple extraction
ports must devised. A possible implementation is depicted in Fig.5. In this
arrangement, power is coupled from the tube by stubs which directly feed a
multi-filar conical helix antenna. An implementation of this scheme would
need to address the specific requirements of bandwidth, beam width,
efficiency of coupling from the tube, while delivering circularly polarised
radiation.

Another aspect of electromagnetic bomb lethality is its detonation


altitude, and by varying the detonation altitude, a tradeoff may be achieved
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between the size of the lethal footprint and the intensity of the
electromagnetic field in that footprint. This provides the option of
sacrificing weapon coverage to achieve kills against targets of greater
electromagnetic hardness, for a given bomb size (Fig.7, 8). This is not
unlike the use of airburst explosive devices. In summary, lethality is
maximized by maximizing power output and the efficiency of energy
transfer from the weapon to the target set. Microwave weapons offer the
ability to focus nearly all of their energy output into the lethal footprint,
and offer the ability to exploit a wider range of coupling modes. Therefore,
microwave bombs are the preferred choice.

5. TARGETING ELECTROMAGNETIC BOMBS

The task of identifying targets for attack with electromagnetic


bombs can be complex. Certain categories of target will be very easy to
identify and engage. Buildings housing government offices and thus
computer equipment, production facilities, military bases and known radar
sites and communications nodes are all targets which can be readily
identified through conventional photographic, satellite, imaging radar,
electronic reconnaissance and humint operations. These targets are
typically geographically fixed and thus may be attacked providing that the
aircraft can penetrate to weapon release range. With the accuracy inherent
in GPS/inertially guided weapons, the electromagnetic bomb can be
programmed to detonate at the optimal position to inflict a maximum of
electrical damage.
Mobile and camouflaged targets which radiate overtly can also be
readily engaged. Mobile and re locatable air defence equipment, mobile

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E-BOMB Process By Vinu

communications nodes and naval vessels are all good examples of this
category of target. While radiating, their positions can be precisely tracked
with suitable Electronic Support Measures (ESM) and Emitter Locating
Systems (ELS) carried either by the launch platform or a remote
surveillance platform. In the latter instance target coordinates can be
continuously data linked to the launch platform. As most such targets
move relatively slowly, they are unlikely to escape the footprint of the
electromagnetic bomb during the weapon's flight time.

Mobile or hidden targets which do not overtly radiate may present a


problem; particularly should conventional means of targeting be employed.
A technical solution to this problem does however exist, for many types of
target. This solution is the detection and tracking of Unintentional
Emission (UE), where transient emanations leaking out from equipment
due poor shielding can be detected and in many instances demodulated to
recover useful intelligence. Termed Van Eck radiation [VECK85], such
emissions can only be suppressed by rigorous shielding and emission
control techniques.
Whilst the demodulation of UE can be a technically difficult task
to perform well, in the context of targeting electromagnetic bombs this
problem does not arise. To target such an emitter for attack requires only
the ability to identify the type of emission and thus target type, and to
isolate its position with sufficient accuracy to deliver the bomb. Because
the emissions from computer monitors, peripherals, processor equipment,
switch mode power supplies, electrical motors, internal combustion engine
ignition systems, variable duty cycle electrical power controllers (thyristor
or triac based), super heterodyne receiver local oscillators and computer
networking cables are all distinct in their to detect, identify and track such
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sources of emission to detect, identify and track frequencies and


modulations, a suitable Emitter Locating System can be designed

6. THE DELIVERY OF CONVENTIONAL


ELECTROMAGNETIC BOMBS

As with explosive warheads, electromagnetic warheads will occupy a


volume of physical space and will also have some given mass (weight)
determined by the density of the internal hardware. Like explosive
warheads, electromagnetic warheads may be fitted to a range of delivery
vehicles.

Known existing applications involve fitting an electromagnetic


warhead to a cruise missile airframe. The choice of a cruise missile airframe
will restrict the weight of the weapon to about 340 kg, although some
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sacrifice in airframe fuel capacity could see this size increased. A limitation
in all such applications is the need to carry an electrical energy storage
device, egg a battery, to provide the current used to charge the capacitors
used to prime the FCG prior to its discharge. Therefore the available
payload capacity will be split between the electrical storage and the
weapon itself.

In wholly autonomous weapons such as cruise missiles, the size of


the priming current source and its battery may well impose important
limitations on weapon capability. Air delivered bombs, which have a flight
time between tens of seconds to minutes, could be built to exploit the
launch aircraft's power systems. In such a bomb design, the bomb's

capacitor bank can be charged by the launch aircraft enroute to target, and
after release a much smaller onboard power supply could be used to
maintain the charge in the priming source prior to weapon initiation.

An electromagnetic bomb delivered by a conventional aircraft can


offer a much better ratio of electromagnetic device mass to total bomb
mass, as most of the bomb mass can be dedicated to the electromagnetic
device installation itself. It follows therefore, that for a given technology an
electromagnetic bomb of identical mass to an electromagnetic warhead
equipped missile can have a much greater lethality, assuming equal
accuracy of delivery and technologically similar electromagnetic device
design.

A missile borne electromagnetic warhead installation will comprise


the electromagnetic device, an electrical energy converter, and an onboard
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storage device such as a battery. As the weapon is pumped, the battery is


drained. The electromagnetic device will be detonated by the missile's
onboard fusing system. In a cruise missile, this will be tied to the
navigation system; in an anti-shipping missile the radar seeker and in an
air-to-air missile, the proximity fusing system. The warhead fraction (i.e.
ratio of total payload (warhead) mass to launch mass of the weapon) will
be between 15% and 30%.

An electromagnetic bomb warhead will comprise an electromagnetic


device, an electrical energy converter and an energy storage device to
pump and sustain the electromagnetic device charge after separation from
the delivery platform. Fusing could be provided by a radar altimeter fuse to
airburst the bomb, a barometric fuse or in GPS/inertially guided bombs,
the navigation system. The warhead fraction could be as high as 85%, with
most of the usable mass occupied by the electromagnetic device and its
supporting hardware.

Due to the potentially large lethal radius of an electromagnetic


device, compared to an explosive device of similar mass, standoff delivery
would be prudent. Whilst this is an inherent characteristic of weapons
such as cruise missiles, potential applications of these devices to glide
bombs, anti-shipping missiles and air-to-air missiles would dictate fire and
forget guidance of the appropriate variety, to allow the launching aircraft
to gain adequate separation of several miles before warhead detonation.
The recent advent of GPS satellite navigation guidance kits for
conventional bombs and glide bombs has provided the optimal means for
cheaply delivering such weapons. While GPS guided weapons without
differential GPS enhancements may lack the pinpoint accuracy of laser or
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television guided munitions, they are still quite accurate and importantly,
cheap, autonomous all weather weapons.
The importance of glide bombs as delivery means for HPM warheads is
threefold. Firstly, the glide bomb can be released from outside effective
radius of target air defences, therefore minimising the risk to the launch
aircraft. Secondly, the large standoff range means that the aircraft can
remain well clear of the bomb's effects. Finally the bomb's autopilot may be
programmed to shape the terminal trajectory of the weapon, such that a
target may be engaged from the most suitable altitude and aspect.

A major advantage of using electromagnetic bombs is that they may


be delivered by any tactical aircraft with a nav-attack system capable of
delivering GPS guided munitions. As we can expect GPS guided munitions
to be become the standard weapon in use by Western air forces by the end
of this decade, every aircraft capable of delivering standard guided
munitions also becomes a potential delivery vehicle for an electromagnetic
bomb. Should weapon ballistic properties be identical to the standard
weapon, no software changes to the aircraft would be required.
Because of the simplicity of electromagnetic bombs in
comparison with weapons such as Anti Radiation Missiles (ARM), it is not
unreasonable to expect that these should be both cheaper to manufacture,
and easier to support in the field, thus allowing for more substantial
weapon stocks. In turn this makes saturation attacks a much more viable
proposition.

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7. DEFENCE AGAINST ELECTROMAGNETIC BOMBS

The most effective defence against electromagnetic bombs is to


prevent their delivery by destroying the launch platform or delivery
vehicle, as is the case with nuclear weapons. This however may not always
be possible, and therefore systems which can be expected to suffer
exposure to the electromagnetic weapons effects must be
electromagnetically hardened.

The most effective method is to wholly contain the equipment in an


electrically conductive enclosure, termed a Faraday cage, which prevents
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the electromagnetic field from gaining access to the protected equipment.


However, most such equipment must communicate with and be fed with
power from the outside world, and this can provide entry points via which
electrical transients may enter the enclosure and effect damage. While
optical fibres address this requirement for transferring data in and out,
electrical power feeds remain an ongoing vulnerability.

Where an electrically conductive channel must enter the enclosure,


electromagnetic arresting devices must be fitted. A range of devices exist,
however care must be taken in determining their parameters to ensure that
they can deal with the rise time and strength of electrical transients
produced by electromagnetic devices. Reports from the US indicate that
hardening measures attuned to the behaviour of nuclear EMP bombs do
not perform well when dealing with some conventional microwave
electromagnetic device designs.

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It is significant that hardening of systems must be carried out at a


system level, as electromagnetic damage to any single element of a
complex system could inhibit the function of the whole system. Hardening
new build equipment and systems will add a substantial cost burden. Older
equipment and systems may be impossible to harden properly and may
require complete replacement. In simple terms, hardening by design is
significantly easier than attempting to harden existing equipment.

An interesting aspect of electrical damage to targets is the possibility


of wounding semiconductor devices thereby causing equipment to suffer
repetitive intermittent faults rather than complete failures. Such faults
would tie down considerable maintenance resources while also
diminishing the confidence of the operators in the equipment's reliability.
Intermittent faults may not be possible to repair economically, thereby
causing equipment in this state to be removed from service permanently,
with considerable loss in maintenance hours during damage diagnosis.
This factor must also be considered when assessing the hardness of
equipment against electromagnetic attack, as partial or incomplete
hardening may in this fashion cause more difficulties than it would solve.
Indeed, shielding which is incomplete may resonate when excited by
radiation and thus contribute to damage inflicted upon the equipment
contained within it.

Other than hardening against attack, facilities which are concealed


should not radiate readily detectable emissions. Where radio frequency
communications must be used, low probability of intercept (i.e. spread
spectrum) techniques should be employed exclusively to preclude the use
of site emissions for electromagnetic targeting purposes. Communications

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networks for voice, data and services should employ topologies with
sufficient redundancy and failover mechanisms to allow operation with
multiple nodes and links inoperative. This will deny a user of
electromagnetic bombs the option of disabling large portions if not the
whole of the network by taking down one or more key nodes or links with
a single or small number of attacks.

8. EFFECTS OF E BOMB

The United States is drawn to EMP technology because it is


potentially non-lethal, but is still highly destructive. An E-bomb attack
would leave buildings standing and spare lives, but it could destroy a
sizeable military.

There is a range of possible attack scenarios. Low-level


electromagnetic pulses would temporarily jam electronics systems, more
intense pulses would corrupt important computer data and very powerful
bursts would completely fry electric and electronic equipment.

In modern warfare, the various levels of attack could accomplish a


number of important combat missions without racking up many casualties.
For example, an e-bomb could effectively neutralize:

 vehicle control systems


 targeting systems, on the ground and on missiles and bombs
 communications systems
 navigation systems

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 long and short-range sensor systems

EMP weapons could be especially useful in an invasion of Iraq,


because a pulse might effectively neutralize underground bunkers. Most of
Iraq's underground bunkers are hard to reach with conventional bombs
and missiles. A nuclear blast could effectively demolish many of these
bunkers, but this would take a devastating toll on surrounding areas. An
electromagnetic pulse could pass through the ground, knocking out the
bunker's lights, ventilation systems, communications -- even electric doors.
The bunker would be completely uninhabitable.
U.S. forces are also highly vulnerable to EMP attack, however. In
recent years, the U.S. military has added sophisticated electronics to the
full range of its arsenal. This electronic technology is largely built around
consumer-grade semiconductor devices, which are highly sensitive to any
power surge. More rudimentary vacuum tube technology would actually
stand a better chance of surviving an e-bomb attack.

A widespread EMP attack in any country would compromise a


military's ability to organize itself. Ground troops might have perfectly
functioning non-electric weapons (like machine guns), but they wouldn't
have the equipment to plan an attack or locate the enemy. Effectively, an
EMP attack could reduce any military unit into a guerilla-type army. While
EMP weapons are generally considered non-lethal, they could easily kill
people if they were directed towards particular targets. If an EMP knocked
out a hospital's electricity, for example, any patient on life support would
die immediately. An EMP weapon could also neutralize vehicles, including
aircraft, causing catastrophic accidents.

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In the end, the most far-reaching effect of an e-bomb could be


psychological. A full-scale EMP attack in a developed country would
instantly bring modern life to a screeching halt. There would be plenty of
survivors, but they would find themselves in a very different world.

9. LIMITATIONS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC BOMBS

The limitations of electromagnetic weapons are determined by


weapon implementation and means of delivery. Weapon implementation
will determine the electromagnetic field strength achievable at a given
radius, and its spectral distribution. Means of delivery will constrain the
accuracy with which the weapon can be positioned in relation to the
intended target. Both constrain lethality.
In the context of targeting military equipment, it must be noted that
thermionic technology (i.e. vacuum tube equipment) is substantially more
resilient to the electromagnetic weapons effects than solid state (i.e.
transistor) technology. Therefore a weapon optimised to destroy solid state
computers and receivers may cause little or no damage to a thermionic
technology device, for instance early 1960s Soviet military equipment.
Therefore a hard electrical kill may not be achieved against such targets
unless a suitable weapon is used.

This underscores another limitation of electromagnetic weapons,


which is the difficulty in kill assessment. Radiating targets such as radars or
communications equipment may continue to radiate after an attack even
though their receivers and data processing systems have been damaged or
destroyed. This means that equipment which has been successfully
attacked may still appear to operate. Conversely an opponent may shut
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down an emitter if attack is imminent and the absence of emissions means


that the success or failure of the attack may not be immediately apparent.

An important factor in assessing the lethal coverage of an


electromagnetic weapon is atmospheric propagation. While the
relationship between electromagnetic field strength and distance from the
weapon is one of an inverse square law in free space, the decay in lethal
effect with increasing distance within the atmosphere will be greater due
quantum physical absorption effects. This is particularly so at higher
frequencies and significant absorption peaks due water vapour and oxygen
exist at frequencies above 20 GHz. These will therefore contain the effect of
HPM weapons to shorter radii than are ideally achievable in the K and L
frequency bands.

Means of delivery will limit the lethality of an electromagnetic bomb


by introducing limits to the weapon's size and the accuracy of its delivery.
Should the delivery error be of the order of the weapon's lethal radius for a
given detonation altitude, lethality will be significantly diminished. This is
of particular importance when assessing the lethality of unguided
electromagnetic bombs, as delivery errors will be more substantial than
those experienced with guided weapons such as GPS guided bombs.

Therefore accuracy of delivery and achievable lethal radius must be


considered against the allowable collateral damage for the chosen target.
Where collateral electrical damage is a consideration, accuracy of delivery
and lethal radius are key parameters. An inaccurately delivered weapon of
large lethal radius may be unusable against a target should the likely

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collateral electrical damage be beyond acceptable limits. This can be a


major issue for users constrained by treaty provisions on collateral damage.

10 . CONCLUSIONS
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Electromagnetic bombs are Weapons of Electrical Mass Destruction


with applications across a broad spectrum of targets, spanning both the
strategic and tactical. As such their use offers a very high payoff in
attacking the fundamental information processing and communication
facilities of a target system. The massed application of these weapons will
produce substantial paralysis in any target system, thus providing a
decisive advantage in the conduct of Electronic Combat, Offensive Counter
Air and Strategic Air Attack.

Because E-bombs can cause hard electrical kills over larger areas
than conventional explosive weapons of similar mass, they offer substantial
economies in force size for a given level of inflicted damage, and are thus a
potent force multiplier for appropriate target sets.

The non-lethal nature of electromagnetic weapons makes their use


far less politically damaging than that of conventional munitions, and
therefore broadens the range of military options available.

This paper has included a discussion of the technical, operational


and targeting aspects of using such weapons, as no historical experience
exists as yet upon which to build a doctrinal model. The immaturity of this
weapons technology limits the scope of this discussion, and many potential
areas of application have intentionally not been discussed. The ongoing
technological evolution of this family of weapons will clarify the
relationship between weapon size and lethality, thus producing further
applications and areas for study.

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E-bombs can be an affordable force multiplier for military forces


which are under post Cold War pressures to reduce force sizes, increasing
both their combat potential and political utility in resolving disputes.
Given the potentially high payoff deriving from the use of these devices, it
is incumbent upon such military forces to appreciate both the offensive
and defensive implications of this technology. It is also incumbent upon
governments and private industry to consider the implications of the
proliferation of this technology, and take measures to safeguard their vital
assets from possible future attack. Those who choose not to may become
losers in any future wars.

Bibliography

www.popularmechanics.com
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www.pcmag.com
www.geocities.com
www.globalsecurityzz.com
www.foxnews.com
www.alphalink.com

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