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In what could potentially be one of the most, or least, significant actions of his term in office, President Trump Tuesday signed an Executive Order requiring federal agencies to strengthen critical infrastructure against ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) attacks.
EMPs occur for a variety of natural and man-made reasons including, most notably, Nuclear Explosions and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), either of which could potentially take out entire sections of the country's electrical grid and other infrastructure and capabilities, requiring require years or decades to recover from.
Members and supporters of the decommissioned US Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse have long warned of the possibility of an EMP attack, with some individuals, such as Peter Pry, who previously led the congressional EMP commission, asserting that an EMP attack on America could kill off 90% of the US population.
This is because a man-made EMP has the advantage of being highly asymmetrical. A small country able to pull one off would cause potentially massive disruption to a large tech dependent country such as the United States.
Past EMP related coverage here, here and here
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday March 29 2019, @06:51PM (3 children)
>weapons that don't need ammunition (knives, swords, caltrops, etc.)
Don't forget weapons with reusable ammunition like bows, especially compound- and cross- variety that are much more difficult to make without an industrial base. Not quite as effective at killing people in a pitched battle, but a lot more valuable for hunting, especially small game. You've got to be pretty hungry to trade one of your limited supply of bullets for a rabbit.
And - caltrops? Really? We're talking survival, not well-organized warfare. Caltrops really only serve to slow down approaching enemy vehicles and mounts.
Also, by and large EMP hardening is unnecessary for electronics - they're just not large enough for an EMP (even a super-sized CME) to generate damaging currents within them. They may go haywire during the pulse, but power cycle them afterwards and they'll be fine. You just need to make sure they're not plugged in when it hits, because miles of electric lines *will* end up carrying huge currents that climb slowly enough to be ignored by most surge protectors. EMP hardening is mostly only called for with satellites, battlefield hardware, and other special-purpose equipment where it's important that they continue to function properly during the pulse.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday March 30 2019, @04:11PM (2 children)
Reusable ammo, absolutely.
If you've even a few wits, you won't be doing very much hunting of rabbits long term... you'll be raising them. This of course takes forethought and protected, available space, not things commonly encountered in the general population. But that's okay, because those people are going to die anyway, and if the problem takes at least a few years to resolve itself, likely the wildlife will recover into (relatively) larger populations. The only reason we don't have wildlife everywhere right now is because people have crowded them out, both intentionally and other. At that point, one could change ranching procedure and perhaps get away with it. Although it's always safer to go down into the basement and cull than it is to go out hunting. Tularemia, parasites, other hunters, animal predators, etc.
Caltrops, absolutely. You really don't want mounted incoming, plus, you disable the horse or mule, you may get to eat it. After you off the rider, of course, which will now be much easier with a lame mount. Caltrops can interfere with vehicles are are running on inflated tires as well, although of course there won't be running vehicles about for very long at all. Not unless someone cobbles up a steam vehicle, anyway, or has an EV and a solar system. Driving such a thing would make you an instant target, though, so...
Depends on your electronics. If they're in use, they're plugged in, which can be a problem. Mine have large antennas connected to them (yes, including the computers, via SDRs.) And as for unplugging said antennas, power lines, sensor runs...
Well, there's the rub, because whichever entity lets off an EMP burst over the US probably isn't going to send out a public service announcement to unplug everything.
What you really need here is a local power supply, for instance a nice 12 VDC system, that is powering 12 VDC electronics, and is being charged / aided with a diode-steered 12 VDC input driven from the AC line where just the power supply is hardened, which obviates the need to harden everything else connected to it. But again, antennas, particularly long wires, are an issue. An EMP may not blow the entire receiver out, but it's likely to eat the front end for snackies. Back to back high current Schottky (high speed) diodes are your friend there, and they should always be in line when the radios are in receive mode. Helps with nearby lightning, too, although not a direct hit of course. A capable solar installation is a very good idea to back all this as well, at least insofar as nominally providing power post-event. Unfortunately, solar panels are also a flag saying "come take me" to others, so again, we're back to requiring a very good defense, sensors, etc.
Going to need somewhere safe to keep females and children, too, if you have those. In circumstances such as these, where equality suddenly becomes again based upon physical capacity in many circumstances, the average female and/or child will be just as likely to be taken as a nice set of solar panels. They would have many uses, including as trade goods.
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I'm not passive aggressive.
Unlike some people.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday March 30 2019, @09:36PM (1 child)
>because whichever entity lets off an EMP burst over the US probably isn't going to send out a public service announcement to unplug everything.
Nope - but a CME has days of warning (I routinely unplug my electronics whenever a bit one is going to hit - do you?). And it's bloody difficult to hide an incoming bomber or ICBM... though I have to admit, I don't actually trust the government to let me know about it. Not unless there's another cold-war style active fear campaign.
Those solar panels are going to make you an instant target too.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday March 31 2019, @12:59PM
Gear on the AC line gets unplugged when there is a major event in the offing; there hasn't been for quite some time. All of my radio gear, all of my computers, the fish tanks, the furnace, the refrigerators and freezers, and a lot of my lighting are 12 VDC or inverted 12 VDC and are well protected by the AC to 12 VDC bridge, so none of that has to be unplugged from power. The various antenna systems get unplugged quite a lot. Connection to the WAN is by optical link, so we're protected from damage from that vector.
I assume they won't, either intentionally to reduce panic, or because the lead time may be too short. If they did, that would be useful, but counting on it... no.
There are other possibilities as well, some of which would present very short notice. A submarine or surface launch from just off the coast; a vertical launch from within the US borders either from the ground or an inland waterway; an apparently commercial or private aircraft launch (wide area EMPs are all high altitude events that non-military aircraft can't actually reach); a satellite drop; and in the area of natural causes, a wavefront incoming from outside the solar system that might catch us unaware.
All of the typical military / terrorist scenarios assume a nuclear weapon would be required. There may be other ways of doing this as well that we're not aware of, or haven't been invented yet. It would be a valuable military capability, and is already known to have been prototyped at that scale [phys.org], so it's pretty safe to assume it's been on the military's list of interests at larger scales as well since at least 2010.
The advent of high-discharge rate ultracaps has put a number of new design possibilities on the table as well, even at the low voltages they're currently capable of. If anyone manages to get high voltage ultracaps into production, that'll be a game changer. EEStor [eestorcorp.com] has been waving this capability about in the "we're almost there" sense for years now, but has yet, as far as I know, to produce a practical product. Some of the independent test results are interesting, though.
Yes, I said that. 😊 Mine are installed such that they aren't visible or easily accessible from outside the property except by air, and are well covered by a security system inasmuch as they're at ground level and fairly valuable. They're also insured, which of course would be useless in these types of events, but cover us from theft and other damage under normal circumstances.
And no, I'm not a prepper. A lot of this stuff is just basic sane engineering designed to not lose my investment and keep things running when the power company fails or mother nature gets especially pissy. We had a solid lesson in not counting on the utility electricity here when the power went out for 15 hours at -35ºF. It was an expensive and very uncomfortable lesson, not one we care to repeat. Burst plumbing, etc. All this would be useful in the event of a CME or intentional EMP event for initial survival, but I have no illusions at all about being able to stand off serious armed parties for any length of time, nor am I convinced that it would even be worth trying.
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You matter.
Unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light.
Then you energy.