Return-Path: <sentto-279987-5197-1029505221-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Fri, 16 Aug 2002 06:43:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 20717 invoked by uid 510); 16 Aug 2002 13:38:50 -0000 Received: from n25.grp.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.66.81) by all.net with SMTP; 16 Aug 2002 13:38:50 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-5197-1029505221-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.67.198] by n25.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 16 Aug 2002 13:40:21 -0000 X-Sender: fc@red.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_7_4); 16 Aug 2002 13:40:21 -0000 Received: (qmail 76655 invoked from network); 16 Aug 2002 13:40:21 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.218) by m5.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 16 Aug 2002 13:40:21 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (12.232.72.152) by mta3.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 16 Aug 2002 13:40:20 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id g7GDfH612696 for iwar@onelist.com; Fri, 16 Aug 2002 06:41:17 -0700 Message-Id: <200208161341.g7GDfH612696@red.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 06:41:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [iwar] [fc:Weapons.That.Can.Zap.Electronics.Near.Reality] Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.0 tests=DIFFERENT_REPLY_TO version=2.20 X-Spam-Level: Atlanta Journal and Constitution August 15, 2002 Weapons That Can Zap Electronics Near Reality By George Edmonson, Staff Washington --- With modern warfare so dependent on computers and communications devices, a weapon that renders them useless could be invaluable. After decades of research, U.S. scientists and engineers might be close to fielding an effective technology known as high-powered microwave weapons. Recent articles have speculated that microwave weapons could be deployed if the United States invades Iraq. But some experts, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, say considerable work remains. ''It's been this elegant promise for decades that never quite seems to happen,'' said John Alexander. ''The check's always in the mail.'' Alexander is author of ''Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First Century Warfare'' and a retired Army colonel who directed nonlethal weapons development at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The concept behind high-powered microwave weapons is simple. A burst of electromagnetic energy is created and directed at an enemy's electronics. The force burns them out, much the way a lightning strike can destroy home appliances. Delivery of the weapons probably would be done by cruise missiles or unmanned aerial vehicles to help get close to the target. As a result, the weapons would have to be not only high-powered but also rugged and relatively small. Air Force Col. Eileen Walling labeled that combination as ''extremely challenging and technically difficult'' in a paper she wrote in 2000 on the weapons. Another problem is unpredictability, even when everything goes right, Alexander said. ''Electrical components are really rather tricky,'' he said. ''You can put the same amount of energy into 10 identical targets, and you can destroy two of them, upset five of them, and, in three of them, nothing happens.'' Most of the Defense Department's work on high-powered microwave weapons takes place at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., where research facilities are designed to handle high radiation and blasts. Researchers also are exploring ways to block incoming high-powered microwave weapons. That will require something of a super surge protector, experts point out, because the blasts are so intense and brief they can escape detection. The now-dissolved Soviet Union once was involved deeply in exploring high-powered microwave weapons, but it is now thought that Russia no longer is avidly pursuing them. Other nations believed to be conducting research are China, Britain and France. Earlier this month, Aviation Week & Space Technology printed an article stating, ''An attack on Iraq is expected to see the first use of high-power microwave weapons." On Wednesday, the New York Post, citing unnamed U.S. military officials, reported that a preliminary Iraq battle plan ''outlined for President Bush last week calls for the most extensive use of electronic and psychological warfare in history, including secret new electromagnetic pulse weapons to disable Saddam Hussein's entire command and control structure.'' In December, Michael Booen, vice president of Directed Energy Weapons at Raytheon Co., told OpticsReport, a journal aimed at investors, that some of its high-powered microwave systems were ''on the verge of use today'' and ''In the next three to four years, several HPM systems will be out in the field.'' But last week, when Rumsfeld was asked at a Pentagon briefing about using directed energy and high-powered microwave weapons, he characterized them as being in ''varying early stages.'' He noted, though, that unmanned aerial vehicles deployed successfully in Afghanistan had been in a developmental stage and had not been authorized for use. "The real world intervenes from time to time," Rumsfeld said, "and you reach in there and take something out that is still in a developmental stage, and you might use it.'' ------------------------ Yahoo! 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