Boeing Unveils Amazing, Slightly Terrifying New Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon

Boeing Unveils Amazing, Slightly Terrifying New Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon
With pinpoint accuracy, this electronic warfare drone can black out opposing forces at will.
Rich Smith
(TMFDitty)
May 24, 2015 at 9:13AM

This article was updated on Dec. 14, 2016, and originally published May 24, 2015.

Born into Generation X, I grew up with the threat of nuclear war -- and all its corollaries, from visions of mushroom clouds to "duck and cover" drills in high school to Terminator movies, and of course, the ever-present worry that one day a sneaky Soviet satellite would detonate way up in the sky and fry all of our electronics with an "electromagnetic pulse."

So imagine my surprise when the U.S. Air Force confirmed that it's developed an electromagnetic pulse weapon of its own, and that Boeing (NYSE:BA) is helping to build it.


Boeing's "CHAMP" (Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project) is a one-missile, flying blackout. Image source: Boeing.
A CHAMP-ion idea

The weapon in question: Boeing's "CHAMP," short for Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project. It's essentially the old nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapon that we used to worry so much about -- but without the nuclear part. CHAMP carries a small generator that emits microwaves to fry electronics with pinpoint accuracy. It targets not nations or cities but individual buildings, blacking out their electronics rather than blowing up physical targets (or people).

What makes CHAMP even more interesting is that, unlike a nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapon, which fires once, blacking out entire nation-states, CHAMP can fire multiple times, pinpointing and blacking out only essential targets. This would permit, for example, taking down radar defenses in a hostile state while saving the electrical grid that supports the civilian population. In a 2012 test flight in Utah, a single CHAMP was reported to have blacked out seven separate targets in succession, in one single mission.


When CHAMP lights up, buildings go dark -- one by one. Image source: Boeing.

Even back then, a Boeing representative was able to boast: "We hit every target we wanted to," predicting further that "in the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy's electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive." Four years later, that future has arrived. Air Force Research Laboratory commander Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello says CHAMP is "an operational system already in our tactical air force."
Who makes it?

Boeing headlines the CHAMP product, but at least two other companies are known to be involved. According to Military Embedded Systems, it's actually Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) that builds the electronic innards of the device -- the "shooting end" of a weapon that doesn't actually shoot anyone. (Raytheon's involvement shouldn't come as a surprise, given the company's expertise building complementary weapons, such as its MALD-J radar-spoofing, electronics-jamming drone.)

Additionally, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) builds the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile -- Extended Range (JASSM-ER), which the Air Force intends to use as CHAMP's delivery mechanism. A cruise missile with an estimated range in excess of 600 miles, JASSM-ER will itself be deployable from combat aircraft such as F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, B-1 and B-52 bombers, and the F-35 stealth fighter -- extending CHAMP's reach even further.

(More at link...)

https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/24/boeing-unveils-electromagnetic-pulse-weapon.aspx

South Korea Develops 'Blackout Bomb' Technology
06:36 08.10.2017(updated 08:36 08.10.2017) RT (MORE At Link...)

South Korea has reportedly developed technology capable of paralyzing North Korean power systems in the event of potential military conflict.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — South Korea has developed technology allowing Seoul to create a so-called blackout bomb that could paralyze power systems in North Korea in the event of potential military conflict, local media reported Sunday.

According to the Yonhap news agency, the technology has been developed by the Agency for Defense Development within the framework of the country's Kill Chain preemptive strike system.

The media outlet added that the technology focused on targeting only electric power systems by spreading carbon graphite filaments over electric facilities that disrupt activities of the electric power system.

A missile is launched during a long and medium-range ballistic rocket launch drill in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on August 30, 2017.
REUTERS/ KCNA
Apocalypse in Figures: Report Reveals Possible Aftermath of Hypothetical N Korean Nuclear Attack
Recently, the South Korean government announced that it "is closely monitoring the situation, given the possibility of North Korea's provocations around the party anniversary in the North," after reports that North Korea was preparing to launch another ballistic missile. Pyongyang often schedules such tests around important anniversaries. This Sunday marks Kim Jong-il's ascent to general secretary and its ruling party's founding falls on Tuesday, Yonhap said earlier.

The relations between the two Koreas have been tense for decades. The sides have also never signed a peace treaty after the Korean War that took place from 1950-1953. The tensions on the Korean peninsula escalated in recent years against the backdrop of Pyongyang's missile launches and nuclear tests.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201710081058044442-south-korea-develops-bomb/