Some respected references on EMP attack
http://empcommission.org/
The Commission is charged with identifying any steps it believes should be taken by the United States to better protect its military and civilian systems from EMP attack.
Multiple reports and briefings associated with this effort have been produced by the EMP Commission including an
Executive Report (PDF, 578KB) and a
Critical National Infrastructures Report (PDF, 7MB) describing findings and recommendations.
http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jd...0726_1_n.shtml
The US armed forces infrastructure, and American society at large, remain vulnerable to a debilitating attack by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by a high-altitude nuclear blast, a senior-level, congressionally appointed panel has warned.
Several potential adversaries, such as China, are capable of launching a crippling EMP strike against the US with a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile, and others, such as North Korea or even terrorist groups, could have the capability by 2015, the panel said in its findings that it unveiled to US legislators at a hearing on 22 July.
Panel members said this type of attack may be an appealing option, especially for an unsophisticated opponent. One possible scenario is a 'Scud' missile, with a modified nuclear warhead to maximise the EMP effect, launched from a barge off the US coast.
While the US military has grown increasingly dependent on computers, electronics and information systems, it has relaxed requirements for EMP-hardened systems since the end of the Cold War and its overall record of adherence to its guidelines for such robust equipment "has been spotty", they said. This trend continues "in the wrong direction", the panel noted.
Similarly, the US civilian critical infrastructure is not adequately prepared to deal with the effects of an EMP attack, according to the panel, which is known formally as the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack. Congress created the panel in 2000 out of concern that this issue was not receiving enough attention.
An EMP attack, for example, could place the nation's electrical grid "in danger of fundamental collapse", said commission chairman William Graham, who served as scientific advisor to US President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. The overall effects could be long lasting and difficult to recover from, he added. An EMP strike would also be likely to knock out non-hardened satellites in low-Earth orbit "within days or weeks", he said, noting that commercial satellites are especially vulnerable. Interest in a big penetrating bomb is growing in some US defence circles, including the Defense Science Board (DSB), the senior policy advisory panel to the Secretary of Defense. It recommended in its February 2004 report on 'Future Strategic Strike Forces' that the Department of Defense "immediately undertake" a demonstration of a "bomber-delivered massive penetrator" weapon as part of a family of ultra-large bombs that would "improve conventional attack effectiveness against deep, expansive, underground tunnel facilities". ----End of non-subscriber extract
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Apr15.html
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the American homeland, said one of the distinguished scientists who testified at the hearing, is one of only a few ways that the United States could be defeated by its enemies -- terrorist or otherwise. And it is probably the easiest. A single Scud missile, carrying a single nuclear weapon, detonated at the appropriate altitude, would interact with the Earth's atmosphere, producing an electromagnetic pulse radiating down to the surface at the speed of light. Depending on the location and size of the blast, the effect would be to knock out already stressed power grids and other electrical systems across much or even all of the continental United States, for months if not years.
