October 26, 2012

Boeing's EMP "CHAMP" weapon test succeeds




Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) test in the US.
-

America has maintained its military lead through quantity of weapons, a larger defense budget and also by producing high quality innovative weapons. Like the Suter air, sea and land based electronic jamming weapons electro magnetic pulse (EMP) weapons jam enemy military (eg. radar and sigint)  and many civilian electronic systems. EMP weapons, like CHAMP, are likely to be used in many war and peacetime special forces situations, even counter terrorism - because the US (or other Western buyers like Israel) can claim there are no intended military or civilian casualties.

See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/25/boeing_champ_missile_microwave_attacks/
US multinational "Boeing has successfully conducted a test of a missile capable of blasting a building's electronics with an energy beam without harming the structure itself. The era of [electro magnetic pulse] EMP weapons has arrived it seems.

The Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) is an air-launched device that uses a high-powered microwave pulse to disable electrical systems. On Oct. 16th the missile was tested at the Utah Test and Training Range and successfully toasted electrical systems in a two storey building."

http://www.gizmag.com/boeing-champ-missile-test/24658/ explains "The difference is that where an EMP weapon uses a nuclear warhead or an explosive shot through a wire coil to generate a pulse over an area, the Boeing CHAMP missile aims a precise beam of high-energy microwaves at a target, or multiple targets, as it flies over."

Also http://io9.com/counter-electronics-high-powered-advanced-missile-project/ in which Annalee Newitz commented:

"These drones are being touted as non-lethal weapons, aimed at taking out an enemy's "electrical systems," like say targeting systems or maybe their intelligence databases. But to say that this is a non-lethal weapon seems a bit disingenuous, since so many lives depend on electricity. Knocking out the computers in a hospital, or the technology in computer-guided vehicles, could lead to fatalities. And losing databases of information could lead to many more deaths in the long term. Imagine one of these drones taking out a stock exchange or a water management system. Or a computer-controlled dam. The consequences could be quite dire.

So thanks, Boeing, for bringing us into the era of indirectly lethal weapons. Things are about to get interesting, as they say."

No comments: