Electromagnetic pulse threat to be analyzed - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Electromagnetic pulse threat to be analyzed

Navy engineers in March began looking into how the fleet should prepare for an attack by one of the most feared and controversial weapons of the modern age: an electromagnetic pulse.

Naval Sea System’s Command’s EMP assessment group is the latest government agency to tackle the threat from an EMP, a devastating electromagnetic burst that fries computers, sensors, weapons and all other electronics in its path.

“The consequences of failing to take appropriate precautions to protect fleet mission-critical systems can ultimately prove catastrophic to the Navy’s mission,” said Blaise Corbett, the EMP assessment group’s leader, in a NavSea announcement.

The EMP team, inactive for about 10 years, was resurrected in March. Although the danger from electromagnetic attacks was long associated with the Cold War, some officials worry it has remained, or even increased, in the 21st century.

A high-altitude EMP is an enormous surge of energy created by a nuclear explosion in the upper atmosphere. In the Cold War, as militaries became reliant on computers, networks and guided weapons, strategic planners realized that a nuclear blast’s pulse could be a weapon on its own.

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To read more about this threat, pick up the next issue of Navy Times on newsstands Monday and on navytimes.com.