Consumers’ Research White Paper: America not Prepared for EMP Attack


America’s power grid is a fragile system that holds us all together, without it, we would be plunged into chaos. The American and Soviet government has tested the possible outcomes of this type of attack and are taking action to protect our most sensitive military infrastructures. Unfortunately for everyone else, it’s back to the stone age and the surviving under extreme conditions. Consumer Research reports:

The US and Soviet militaries learned first-hand of the potential consequences of a major EMP event when conducting high altitude nuclear tests over 50 years ago. In 1962 for example, a U.S. military exercise dubbed “Operation Starfish” exploded a 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead 240 miles above Johnson Island in the Pacific Ocean. Alarmingly, the resulting EMP field caused street lights to blow out and affected telephone and radio communications in Hawaii, 900 miles away. Fearing its use as a “first strike” weapon that would take out critical military command and control infrastructure, both superpowers spent the following decades hardening their military apparatuses against such an attack. Our civilian infrastructure, however, has remained largely unshielded from severe electromagnetic events. Much of the knowledge on the effects of EMPs has been classified due to its national security implications.

In March 2016 the United States Government Accountability Office released a report on critical infrastructure protection relating to the threat posed by electromagnetic risks. The paper further supports our findings that, while progress is being made to assess vulnerabilities and improve grid security, the United States is unprepared for the effects of an EMP and more work is necessary to protect the American public. Despite the complexity of the relationships between our critical infrastructure assets, it is clear from the Commission Report as well as other experts’ opinions that our Electric Power Infrastructure represents a center of mass of the threat from EMP. This stems largely from our dependence on electricity and electronic control systems that enable or control our other critical infrastructure assets. George H. Baker, who served on the Committee explained:

“Among the critical infrastructure sectors, EMP risk is highest for electric power grid and telecommunication  grids… These infrastructures are the most vulnerable due to their organic long lines. And they are also the most critical to the operation and recovery of the other critical infrastructure sectors… If we have to pick one infrastructure to protect, the top choice would be the electric power grid.”
19
 The following source outlines the probability of an EMP attack as well as the immediate and lingering consequences of an attack against America as well as known countries with the ability of deploying such a bomb against us.

Source: Consumer Research



Share

60 Comments

Leave a Reply

Pin It on Pinterest