Electromagnetic pulse weapons referred to as EMP is known as the "second atomic bomb", can emit billions of watts of powerful microwaves in an instant of one billionth of a second, powerful pulse voltage and pulse current, can burn the circuits and transistors of electronic devices, erase the information stored in the computer, and the car is all lying down, because there are a large number of electronic components on it. Cell phones, computers, cars, and power plants were all paralyzed, and the city was pitch black, with only old-fashioned hand-cranked tractors able to start.
Electromagnetic pulse weapons
An electromagnetic pulse weapon weighing only 1 kilogram can destroy electronic devices that can only be damaged by tons of high explosives. Unlike ordinary bullets and missiles, the target of electromagnetic pulse weapons is not people, but various electronic devices, radar is burned, control systems are destroyed, and power stations are out of power, there is no way to fight. Using high-intensity electromagnetic pulse energy to attack each other's electronic information systems can destroy radars, computers, missiles, electronic equipment and even command systems in an instant.
Electromagnetic pulse weapon warhead
The principle is Faraday's law of electromagnetism, when the circuit circuit senses the electromotive force, it will generate a current, the current is strong enough to burn the circuit, so that the electronic products permanently fail. Even if the electromagnetic pulse is weak, it cannot burn the circuit, but it will also make the chip fail for a short time. Because electronic products have embedded control systems, when there is an instantaneous large current, the control system will make an error, that is, the transmission of 0/1 error, the wrong program instructions, electronic products can not be used.
Renderings of electromagnetic pulse bomb attacks
The First to Discover electromagnetic pulses so powerful were the Soviets, the Novaya Zemlya Test Site is located in the Arctic Circle, where the Soviets conducted 130 nuclear tests, 88 of which were nuclear explosion tests in the atmosphere, the most famous of which was the 50 million tons of TNT equivalent hydrogen bomb experiment on October 30, 1961, the Big Ivan weighed 27 tons, detonated at an altitude of 4200 meters, released more than 210,000 tejoules in 39 nanoseconds, and the mushroom cloud produced by the explosion was 40 kilometers wide and 64 kilometers high.
The hydrogen bomb exploded
The hydrogen bomb destroyed everything in the vicinity, the electromagnetic pulse wave generated by the explosion caused a radio communication failure, the troops were in a state of inability to command for more than 1 hour, the electronic system within thousands of kilometers caused damage, the Soviet air defense radar and many electronic equipment were burned out, the radio contact between the bomber that dropped the hydrogen bomb and the ship and the ground was all interrupted, and it was not restored until 1 hour later, and the electromagnetic disturbance spread three times around the world.
Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb 2
Not to be outdone, in June 1963, after an airburst nuclear test 4,000 meters above Johnston Island in the Pacific, 1,280 kilometers away on Oahu, Hawaii, there was a massive power outage, telephone outages, and almost all electronic equipment failures, and Honolulu was also in chaos, with burglar alarms ringing non-stop, street lights going out, and relays burning one by one, like popcorn. It was later discovered that it was caused by the strong electromagnetic pulse generated during the nuclear explosion.
Electromagnetic pulse warheads
So the United States and the Soviet Union began to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons, nuclear bombs can not be used casually, they invented non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapons, that is, the use of explosives explosion to compress magnetic flux method to produce high-power microwaves. The electromagnetic pulse bomb converts the energy generated by the explosion into high-power microwave radiation energy, which can peak at more than a few megawatts and reach a frequency of 300 GHz.
The B-2 dropped a "blackout missile" to paralyze the enemy's power grid
Such a huge amount of energy allows electronic components to instantly produce thousands of volts of transient voltage, causing irreparable damage to electronic equipment, there is no way to fix it, or it takes a lot of energy to repair it is better to make one. In 1986, the United States used electromagnetic pulse bombs for the first time in Libya, successfully destroying Libya's air defense radar system. In addition, electromagnetic pulse weapons were used many times in the Gulf War, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the Iraq War, such as causing power outages in Iraq and the broadcast could not be sent out.
Electromagnetic pulse bomb
Electromagnetic pulse weapons can be divided into nuclear warheads, conventional warheads, and directed energy weapon systems. Electromagnetic pulse bombs, electromagnetic pulse missiles, electromagnetic pulse shells, etc., these are high-power microwave bombs integrated into missiles or bomb platforms. There is also a reusable high-power microwave weapon. In reality, the more commonly used is the electromagnetic pulse bomb, the warhead has an electromagnetic pulse wave generator, the use of high explosives generated by the shock wave, quickly compress the coil of the magnetic flux generator, produce an instantaneous high-power electromagnetic pulse, destroy the other party's electronic system.
The energy generated by the explosion is converted into high-power microwave radiation energy
In recent years, the development of unmanned aerial vehicles has become more and more rapid, in addition to high-end check and fight integrated drones, some cheap swarm drones are also the future trend, such as the release of 100 miniature drones at a time, with C4 explosives on them, self-destructing after flying to the target in a concentrated manner, because of the strong concealment of the small size, in addition to the bee swarm strategy, even if the other side counterattack will also have a fish that slips through the net, this tactic is very headache for the military.
Clustered delivery containers" release hundreds of drones
Electromagnetic pulse weapons are indeed the best choice against swarm drones. In 2019, the US military developed a "tactical high-power microwave combat reactor", the name is very tall and abbreviated as Thor, which is actually an electromagnetic pulse weapon, which can shoot down 50 UAVs at a time, which can effectively protect military bases from UAVs. Thor's developers said: It operates like a flashlight, and anything that gets caught in the beam will be shot down in the blink of an eye.
Drone swarms are the trend of future warfare
The principle is to concentrate the electronic pulse energy into a launch direction through the directional antenna of the transmitter device, aim at the target after launching, as long as it encounters the UAV, through the gap of the UAV's antenna, wire, and wire shell, it can let the electromagnetic wave energy enter the inside of the UAV, forming a high voltage or large current, which is directly burned in the sky. Although the Faraday cage can shield this super energy, you can't put the drone in the cage, the only way is electromagnetic reinforcement.
The shape of this weapon is a bit like a circular radar, which can gather the emitted electromagnetic pulse into a narrow beam, with a range of up to 10 kilometers, and after the UAV is launched, the UAV is not blown up, but burns the flight control system of the UAV, and the wrong control command makes the UAV shake and crash. Electromagnetic pulse weapons hit the surface, not like a bullet to hit a point, so the electromagnetic pulse weapon can destroy a dense swarm of drones at once, if the electromagnetic pulse missile energy is large enough, can paralyze a city's power grid system.
A large number of drones were destroyed
Russia's electromagnetic pulse weapons are also very advanced, such as the "Arabuga" electromagnetic pulse weapon, which can interrupt the operation of electronic equipment within 3 kilometers of the surrounding 3 kilometers after a 300-meter air explosion, and deprive battalion-sized combat detachments of communication capabilities. And the Russian army also has an electromagnetic pulse gun (EMP), with a range of 10 kilometers, which can destroy electronic equipment within 10 kilometers, and drones can also shoot down. The principle is to use ultra-high capacitance capacitors to discharge instantaneously, so that the directional antenna emits directional high-power electromagnetic waves to destroy the target.
It relies on generators to run and is stored in transport containers
The remote control minesweeper of the Russian strategic rocket force also uses the principle of electromagnetic pulse, this minesweeper has electromagnetic pulse equipment and high-power electromagnetic signal suppression equipment, which can effectively cut off the enemy's remote control signal to explosives, and can emit specific electromagnetic pulses to destroy the electronic components in the explosive device, which can avoid explosion.
The American company Thunder has developed high-power microwave weapons, mainly used to combat drones. They stole a lazy, using active phased array radar, on the basis of which they developed a high-power microwave weapon. It can launch high-power microwaves to hit the drone, so that the internal chip overload burns down, and if the microwave power is strong enough, it can also detonate the explosives carried on the drone.
Raytheon Phaser high power microwave anti-drone weapon
Can the detonation site in the movie use an electromagnetic pulse system to burn the circuit of the explosives? This is not OK, because the essence of electromagnetic pulse is to instantly release super pulse voltage and current, so that the circuit induces a large current in the electromagnetic effect, thereby burning the circuit, but the strong current and electromagnetic pulse will trigger the bomb detonator, causing an explosion, so it is still necessary to defuse the bomb, but you can try liquid nitrogen.
Schematic of an electromagnetic pulse bomb attack
Electromagnetic weapons are still a great threat to civilian facilities, but the threat to military equipment is smaller, the military's electronic equipment is constantly upgrading, and after the US military uses electromagnetic pulse weapons against Iraq, the military equipment of various countries has been reinforced against EMP. For example, military computers, radars, and control systems have professional anti-EMP circuit designs, and tanks and armored vehicles also have three-defense equipment, and the attack of electromagnetic pulses will not be too obvious to it.
Conceptual diagram of champ weapons action
Strong electromagnetic pulse can paralyze civilian electrical equipment in a large area, military weapons will also be affected, but far less fragile than civilian, such as ships and aircraft have discharge brushes, electronic equipment have short suspension protection, skin has a good isotope connection and joint grounding, wires and antennas are filtered and arc extinguishing protection measures, must be equipped with anti-wave sleeves, to avoid ring connection. In order to prevent transient high voltages, there must be overvoltage protection devices, dischargers, band-pass filters, limiters, compensation redundant circuits, circuit breakers, avoidance lines, surge prevention measures, etc.
High-power microwave weapons are used in anti-drone warfare
But this does not mean that electromagnetic pulse weapons are ineffective, because many small countries do not have such technology at all, and electromagnetic pulse weapons are developing in the direction of greater power, wider spectrum, and smaller devices, and still have great potential for stealth aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft carriers, etc. Spears and shields are one or the other, the main methods of dealing with electromagnetic pulse weapons are electromagnetic shielding, conduction inhibition, ground discharge, etc., and some new technologies such as graphene, plasma protection, microwave photonic technology and other advanced technologies can better defend against such weapons.
Tactical High Power Combat Responder (THOR)
When some small countries are attacked by electromagnetic pulse weapons, ordinary people can use simple Faraday cage protection, wrap important mobile phones and computers and other equipment with copper wire mesh, or throw them into the microwave oven, pay attention to do not ding, but also effectively prevent their mobile phones from being damaged, because even if your mobile phone and computer do not turn on, it can still be destroyed.
Lite version of EMP
Laser weapons and electromagnetic pulse weapons are the development direction of future weapons, which can not only attack fiercely but also better defend. Laser weapons can fire and knock out large targets at a greater distance, while electromagnetic pulse weapons can destroy multiple targets at the same time, combining these two technologies to develop a weapon system that may be achieved in the near future.