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Pentagon: Chicoms developing high altitude EMP weapon
From East Asia Intel, subscription req'd.
The People’s Liberation Army is seeking to create a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapon, a Pentagon report on China’s military said. The report said China “might consider using HEMP as an unconventional attack, believing the United States and other nations would not interpret it as a use of force and as crossing the nuclear threshold.”
That could be a mistake. Trying to blind our electronics could be seen as an act of war. How would such a weapon system be powered to create widespread havoc without using a nuclear weapon as a trigger?
EMP weapons simulate the electronic shock wave produced by a nuclear blast. They produce short bursts of intense energy that can disrupt electronic devices, such as computers and weapons systems.
Yep, that would be an act of nuclear war allright -- even if they managed to generate an EMP using a non-nuclear source, how would we know the difference, and know in time to stop a nuclear response, even assuming that we'd be inclined to hold back, which we wouldn't.
China also could use such weapons in an attack on Taiwan. “HEMP causes a substantial change in the ionization of the upper atmosphere, including the ionosphere and magnetosphere,” the report said. “These effects likely would result in the degradation of important war fighting capabilities, such as key communication links, radar transmissions and the full spectrum of electro-optic sensors," the report said. "Additional effects could include severe disruptions to civil electric/power and transportation. These effects cannot easily be localized to Taiwan and would likely affect the Mainland, Japan, the Philippines and commercial shipping and air routes in the region.”
Two could also play the game of one.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s military is planning to develop EMP weapons by 2016. The disclosure was included in a report to the South Korean parliament by a state-run defense institute known as the Agency for Defense Development. The report said EMP weapons have been under development since the mid-1980s. The first test firing of a device is set for 2008.
And where are they going to test that prototype?
Not over the Norks -- they don't have anything electronic, so you'd never know if it worked or not.

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-10-07
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=131543