[Leica] EMP

[msmall at infionline.net (Marc James Small)]

The existence of Electro-Magnetic Pulse effects from nuclear weaponry was
classified in the US until the Reagan years, and portions of information
about it are still unfortunately classified.

EMP is simply a side effect of an atomic or nuclear bomb.  A brief but
titanic emission of hard radiation (alpha, beta, and gamma rays, the mix
depending on the bomb employed) dramatically outstrips the effect of
lightning (which, in the end, is almost totally a matter of surplus
electrons).  The only "nice" part about EMP is that it is often not
permanent and wears off in a matter of hours or days from most equipment,
while lightning damage is "termination with extreme prejudice" and is
almost always permanent.  

The effect of EMP on military C3 (Command, Control, Communications) and on
civilian administration would be devastating in the short run:  after all,
how do you call out the Fire Department when the telephones are dead?  The
use of shielded landlines helps but is generally neither practicable nor
foolproof.  The British military probably had the right idea, doing away
with divisions and making the Brigade the basic formation, as a Brigade can
be controlled by heliograph, wig-wag, smoke signals, hand gestures, and
gallopers, while higher formations, when used, are provisional Brigade
Groups and the like.  But no other army followed this rather logical
approach and I understand that even the Royal Corps of Signals no longer
teaches heliography and the use of wig-wag flags (hint:  once you know
Morse Code, all is made clear by remembering "dot's right!"), though all
navies still seem to glory in signal flags, blinkers, and hand flag signals.

In the Cold War days, EMP would have meant that, with hours of the
decimiation of the 6th ACR in the Fulda Gap, no one would have been able to
talk to anyone outside of direct line-of-sight.  This would have affected
the Soviet forces less than thoser of NATO, as the Warsaw Pact was already
unable to communicate effectively due to the hundreds of languages spoken
by its soldiers.  (NATO used to monitor Warsaw Pact field exercizes;
whenever the umpires ruled that the officers and NCO's were killed, a
normal part of such doings, the higher command might well be reduced to a
single Mongolian radioman attempting to talk to a Hungarian battalion where
the only survivors spoke Magyar.  The transcripts are grand to read, as the
confusion was immense.)

(A minor historic footnote:  the first use of a long shielded land-line was
the original AUTOVON trunk between Atlanta and Boston, installed in 1938 to
1940 and intended as a protection against air attack.  AUTOVON became
increasingly unuseable over the years on this line as water leakage and the
like destroyed the original copper lines;  I believe that these have now
been completely supplanted by optical cable but I have no direct knowledge
of this and suspect that this information would be classified in any event.)

<arc

msmall@infionline.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!