Posted by RalphWSiegler
on September 13, 2009, 12:39 pm, in reply to "Re: EMP attack on USA"
You misunderstand that there are two types of nuclear EMP attack. There is the localized one from an air or ground burst, which goes for some number of miles depending on yield of weapon and other variables. But then there is another type done at high altitude, e.g. megaton range yield at 300 miles, which because of interaction with ionosphere and earth's magnetic field can cause over 5,000 volts per meter of electrical field strength for a radius of 1500 miles! Such a weapon would destroy most civilian electronics and electrical systems in the United States, including vehicle ignition systems, cell and ground-line telephony and internet, computers, embedded controllers, power grid. The E3 component of such an attack, which is the disruption of the earth's magnetic field on the same order, can last for tens to hundreds of seconds, and would be what wipes out unhardened power grid transformers, motors, generators.
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