U.S. in Texas. The Air Force Base has taken the first steps to protect against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. But, exactly, what is an EMP, and how big is this risk?
Officials at the Joint Base San Antonio in Lakeland, Texas, issued a bid request for a survey of a facility called the Petroleum, Oil and Lubrication Complex. Upon request, a more detailed vulnerability test will survey any devices that may be sensitive to EMP prior to testing. Authorities will then look for ways to keep the device safe in the event of an EMP attack.
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What is EMP?
An EMP is a huge explosion Electromagnetic energy Which can occur naturally or be produced intentionally using nuclear weapons. While many experts do not believe that EMPs are a major threat, some argue that such weapons could be used for widespread disruption in an electricity-based society.
“You can use a single weapon to dismantle the entire North American power grid,” said defense analyst Peter Prey, who served on the EMP Commission of Congress, which was formed to assess the threat of an EMP attack, but closed in 2017.
“Once the electric grid goes down, everything breaks down,” Priya told Live Science. “Everything depends on electricity: telecommunications, transportation, even water.”
According to the request, the test in Lakeland comes in response to a 2019 executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump for the federal government to strengthen its infrastructure against the AMP. Proje, who has consulted on the project, said the survey and the resulting upgrade would help the U.S. It is part of a broader initiative by the Air Force to increase its defense against such threats.
Why EMPs are so dangerous
EMP releases huge waves of electromagnetic energy, which can act like huge moving Magnets. Due to such a changing magnetic field the electrons can move in the nearby wire, there the current is stimulated. With such a huge explosion of energy, any electronics in the EMP range can cause harmful power surges.
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These beans can be intentional or natural. Natural EMP occurs when the sun occasionally emits large currents of plasma, and if it gets in our way, the Earth’s natural magnetic field can interrupt them. But when the sun emits enough plasma at once, the effect can submerge the magnetic field and produce powerful EMP. The last time this happened was at the so-called Carrington event in 1859, and at a time when electronics were still scarce, it had knocked out most of the recently formed telegraph network.
After that, there is the possibility of intentional EMPs. If a nuclear weapon were to explode at high altitudes in the atmosphere, the gamma radiation that would be released from it could strip electrons from the air molecules and accelerate them closer to the speed of light, Prey said. This charge will be carried by the electron through the earth Magnetic field, And as they zipped around, they would produce a powerful, fluctuating electric current, which, in turn, would produce a huge EMP. Explosions can also distort the Earth’s magnetic field, causing a naturally occurring EMP-like slow pulse.
Prey said the U.S. An EMP could be built by setting up a nuclear weapon about 200 miles (300 kilometers) above, covering most of North America. The explosion and radiation from the bomb will be released before it reaches the ground surface, but the resulting EMP will be powerful enough to destroy electronics in the area, Pree said. “If you were on the ground directly below the blast, you wouldn’t hear it,” Prey said. Said Priya. “EMP will harm your body without.”
A small EMP with a radius below one kilometer can also be generated by attaching a high-voltage power source to an antenna that releases this energy wave as electromagnetic waves. U.S. The military has a prototype cruise missile with an EMP generator. Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CAAMP), it could be used to target specific enemy facilities, and Prey said it would be in the capabilities of many troops or even terrorist groups to build EMP generators.
He said, “We have reached a place where a single person can tumble down the technical pillars of culture for the metropolitan area, which is thus equipped with some devices.”
The technology needed to protect against EMP is similar to that already used to prevent lightning damage caused by lightning, Prey said. These technologies have to be adapted to deal with higher voltages, but devices such as surge protectors that rotate higher voltages in the earth or devices such as Faraday cages that protect devices from electromagnetic radiation will work.
Prey said the EMP Commission estimates that it will cost 2 2 billion to 4 4 billion to protect important pieces of equipment on the national grid, but ideally, those standards should be changed so that EMP can be made into security devices.
EMP: Should you worry?
However, the threat posed by EMPs is far from compromised. a 2019 report The Electric Power Research Institute, which is funded by utility companies, has found that such an attack could lead to regional chaos, not nationwide grid failure, and the recovery time would be similar to other large-scale outages.
“While the EMP attack will certainly be devastating, it is unlikely that the enemies of the United States carried out such a brazen attack,” said Frank Silufo, director of the University of Macbury Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security.
“There are other ways in which an opponent can achieve some similar results, some of which will be cheaper and some of which will be less sensible,” Silfu told Live Science.
Such options may include CyberRatex to obtain critical infrastructural features, including an electric grid, or space-based communications or GPS. It also includes attempts to disrupt the system that modern society is so dependent on. Protecting against EMPS makes sense, especially given the possibility of a second Carrington-like event, but these improvements should not distract from your efforts to defend against more potential lines of attack, Silufo said.
Original article on living science.
