Worldwar 3 and EMP bombs

[Biomech]

]Unfortunately, the type of launch system for an EMP is different than an ICBM.  An EMP can be placed at the right altitude say from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico using SCUD level rocket technology and NO other guidance system.

that puts a pretty big footprint on the ground out of commission as far as electronics and power is concerned, say 500 mile diameter.

I agree though that the Carrington event, the solar flare, is far more serious because it could affect the whole planet or a big part of it.

yes, that's a FOBS system. In a way, it's worse. The 14 minute DEW alert is based on ICBM's which have a much higher and longer orbit. Against a FOBS attack, the interval to decide NOT to launch a retaliatory strike (which is the way the response is structured) is MUCH smaller. Maybe five minutes.

My biggest point on this, other than the irrelevancy of bitcoin or any other currency, is that in the interval between launch and response, there is literally no way to determine whether that missile is aimed to launch an attack against electronics or kill a city.

In terms of financial devastation, a monster solar flare is probably more of a concern as it's effects would be at least half the globe, depending on duration. But other than creating chaos, it would hardly be a world stopping event. Any fool who thinks they can pull off an EMP strike without direct nuclear reprisal just hasn't done the math. Unfortunately, a whole hell of a lot of politicians on all sides aren't too good about the math. By some strange fortune, none of the real looney-tunes have gotten hold of the launch codes yet.

Of all the nuclear powers on earth, I fear North Korea the least, because they have such primitive delivery systems. Our warning against them would be pretty good, unless they tried to pull off a FOBS attack from a boat, and frankly I think China would then erase them from the map before anyone else responded. I also think that the current "dear leader" is young, but not stupid. He knows this. They are playing a game of brinkmanship and it will end badly, but probably not horribly from a global standpoing. China is unlikely to use their nukes as anything but a deterrent. Russia and the USA likewise, unless McCain somehow gets hold of the launch codes. India probably falls in that category. That basically leaves two major wildcards. Pakistan and Israel. Pakistan is much like North Korea in that respect, so probably less of a threat than most, except for their love of pissing off India. Israel is the nuclear power than frightens me the most.

Israel has never openly admitted to having a nuclear arsenal and are not signatory to the non proliferation agreements. They have hinted, more than once, that they would be willing to use nukes against their neighbors. That they do have them, and what numbers, is an open secret. Their arsenal is not huge, but they could absolutely devastate much of the middle east. They could also easily reach Russia and China, and a great deal of Africa. This is not even counting their submarines. In my view, the only thing that restrains them is that they are not suicidal, for the most part. But they do have itchy trigger fingers.

Despite a great deal of chest pounding by the bastards that rule my country, Iran is not a threat. Even if they could or have developed some small scale weapons, they have no real way to deliver them against anyone but their neighbors. And they are painfully aware of how easy it would be for Israel to remove them from the map with their large and modern nuclear arsenal.

I have been and remain a proponent of nuclear electric power, but the bomb needs to go. Somehow, we as a species need to figure out a way to put an end to the existence of these weapons. They serve NO military purpose. They are and always have been a purely political terror weapon. While in a given area, poison gas has a longer and more devastating effect, there's no chance of such weapons ever going global, and mitigation is trivial by comparison.

Given the larger picture, I see any worry about whether a currency, whatever it's merits, might survive a nuclear attack to be insultingly trivial.

[Biomech]

It actually is possible to generate an EMP without a nuclear blast. As you point out, though, the delivery systems would be pretty similar, and a nuclear blast is, I think (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), the strongest way of generating an EMP currently available. Certainly the effect would be identical, to anyone not in direct line-of-sight of the event: A missile launch, and then a few seconds later, they lose contact with a large swathe of countryside.

Thus, if one is worrying about world-wide EMP, one is also probably worrying about world-wide nuclear war, and at that point, the inability to access your bitcoin wallets is the least of your problems.

I've gotten behind on the technology, unfortunately. But to my knowledge an EMP generator that will have an effect great enough to do anything other than piss off some people on the ground still requires a nuclear blast. You can make a very small device that would be an interesting battlefield weapon, as it would fry unshielded electronics in it's line of sight, but that really wouldn't do anything to major electronic infrastructure. It might stop a charging tank, though. Then again it might not as most modern mechanized infantry is shielded by transuranics which would mitigate if not completely negate such a small pulse.

Such a device would be pure fun in a traffic stop, though

[Spendulus]

]Unfortunately, the type of launch system for an EMP is different than an ICBM.  An EMP can be placed at the right altitude say from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico using SCUD level rocket technology and NO other guidance system.

that puts a pretty big footprint on the ground out of commission as far as electronics and power is concerned, say 500 mile diameter.

I agree though that the Carrington event, the solar flare, is far more serious because it could affect the whole planet or a big part of it.

yes, that's a FOBS system. In a way, it's worse. The 14 minute DEW alert is based on ICBM's which have a much higher and longer orbit. Against a FOBS attack, the interval to decide NOT to launch a retaliatory strike (which is the way the response is structured) is MUCH smaller. Maybe five minutes. ....

No kidding?  And you left this out in your first post?

Next, you'll be annoyed that I must point out that in the case of a launch of an EMP weapon from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, there would be no immediate traceback to the perp - and so rather than a decision to be made, there would be no decision to be made, and thus the discussion about decisions to be made is moot.  You get the EMP attack and you absorb it.  And some months later, after divers had located the sunken boat and sifted through evidence, and after comm traffic had been analyzed, some organization or country would indeed have hell to pay.

But that wouldn't be the end of the world.  This article has a quite a bit of interesting facts concerning EMP.

http://www.aussurvivalist.com/nuclear/empprotection.htm

[myrkul]

I must point out that in the case of a launch of an EMP weapon from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, there would be no immediate traceback to the perp

So, they can track missile launches on the other side of the planet, but not in their own back yard?

[Spendulus]

I must point out that in the case of a launch of an EMP weapon from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, there would be no immediate traceback to the perp

So, they can track missile launches on the other side of the planet, but not in their own back yard?

Who is the THEY?  Air traffic radar?  Nope.

That is why the subs all track and follow each other, there is a high national interest in always knowing the location of the subs.  Then if one launches rockets, you know whose boat it was and who to retaliate against.

[myrkul]

I must point out that in the case of a launch of an EMP weapon from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, there would be no immediate traceback to the perp

So, they can track missile launches on the other side of the planet, but not in their own back yard?

Who is the THEY? 

NORAD.

[Spendulus]

I must point out that in the case of a launch of an EMP weapon from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, there would be no immediate traceback to the perp

So, they can track missile launches on the other side of the planet, but not in their own back yard?

Who is the THEY? 

NORAD.

And certainly no one could rent a small Cessna then fly it into the Soviet Union and land in Red Square.  Nope!  Nyet!

[myrkul]

I must point out that in the case of a launch of an EMP weapon from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, there would be no immediate traceback to the perp

So, they can track missile launches on the other side of the planet, but not in their own back yard?

Who is the THEY? 

NORAD.

And certainly no one could rent a small Cessna then fly it into the Soviet Union and land in Red Square.  Nope!  Nyet!

Your point?

[Luckybit]

What will happen if worldwar happens and some countries use EMP bombs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-bomb.htm

No internet, No phone, No BITCOIN

EMP isn't as powerful as you think. Companies will appear which offer emp shielded cases.  It's a problem only if you don't prepare for it.

Also I don't think Emp would shut down the electric grid but I'm not in a position to say. I would hope they have invested in the right kind of equipment.

[Foxpup]

I must point out that in the case of a launch of an EMP weapon from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, there would be no immediate traceback to the perp

So, they can track missile launches on the other side of the planet, but not in their own back yard?

The key word here is boat. If a missile is launched from mainland North Korea, it'd be pretty obvious that the missile belongs to North Korea. But a boat in the Gulf of Mexico could belong to anyone. It could be North Korea. Or maybe China, or Russia, or literally any other country that owns both boats and missiles. That's why submarines are such a critical part of nuclear strategy: they can go almost anywhere in the world without being detected and then fire their missiles without anyone knowing which country was responsible.

[MysteryMiner]

WWIII would result in the end of humanity for sure.

No, it will result with an end of western capitalistic elite, zionism and jews. They are not the whole humanity.

WW1 was won by latvians.
WW2 was won by communists, capitalists, jews and freemasons.
WW3 will be won by aryan people again. At least I hope so!

WWIII would result in the end of humanity for sure.

Probably not the end. We're a remarkably resilient species. But it woud definitely set us back a ways.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
   -- Albert Einstein

... or it will bring progress to humanity like World War 2 did. Einstein was one smart jewish rat, he was not apolitical and said some things on purpose.

Anyway I don't care about death of other people or my own possible death in war, the victory of ideology and destruction of enemy is all that matters. The heroism of previous wars heroes will be with us! Because things are so bad that it should not continue this way. Capitalism, inequality of people, multiculturalism, mass surveillance. I better see WW3 than such things taking place in society.

Stop posting bullshit about end of life. USA have detonated about one thousand nukes on US soil and we all are here posting crap on internet. If I had nukes I would need about one third of that delivered to target to force USA to capitulate. And I won't be using ICBM missiles for first strike but I would place them in space orbit in fail-deadly configuration to prevent from them being tampered by enemy. (No expected encrypted signal received from ground station equals going after preprogrammed targets on earth.)

Also I don't think Emp would shut down the electric grid but I'm not in a position to say. I would hope they have invested in the right kind of equipment.

It will. Watch the film "Trinity and beyond".

And certainly no one could rent a small Cessna then fly it into the Soviet Union and land in Red Square.  Nope!  Nyet!

I remember that one. Back then russians were more willing to press trigger to shoot down the intruding civilian aircraft than USA personell are willing to make decision about unknown dot on radar screen. I don't think the USA will launch second strike counterattack even if the launch is detected. Because political situation does not suggest that anyone with that capability are willing to attack them. And disbelief and human factor will play significant role that everyone is excluding from their scenarios.

[Drezi]

Why would you be worried about browsing the internet when bombs are falling from the sky?

[MysteryMiner]

Why would you be worried about browsing the internet when bombs are falling from the sky?

When in nuclear fallout shelters internet is very important. This will make the fallout shelter just like your home and nobody will care about war as long as you can play games and chat online.

[chmod755]

I can't even imagine what WWIII would look like, but I wouldn't be concerned about EMP bombs as there are already ways to strongly reduce the impact of EMP.

No internet, No phone, No BITCOIN

It seems everyone wants to have more and we don't even realize how much we have right now (especially if you live in the so called 'first world'). Maybe at some point a war is needed to open our eyes.

[Spendulus]

I can't even imagine what WWIII would look like, but I wouldn't be concerned about EMP bombs as there are already ways to strongly reduce the impact of EMP.

No internet, No phone, No BITCOIN

It seems everyone wants to have more and we don't even realize how much we have right now (especially if you live in the so called 'first world'). Maybe at some point a war is needed to open our eyes.

Well, I certainly WOULD worry about EMP.  The reason is that it could occur from solar flares reaching the earth, or from a rogue nuclear attack.  I'd worry about asteroids, too.

Anything that might disrupt my supply of morning coffee is worth worrying about.

[Anon136]

Somehow, I think thats going to be least of our worries.

The issue is that most of our infrastructure is computerized. There will no power and most important no communication. 

You mean you guys haven't made a room size faraday cage and filled it with all kinds of important electronics?

no but seriously, if we actually get into a real war with china or russia im totally going to do that.

[Spendulus]

What will happen if worldwar happens and some countries use EMP bombs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-bomb.htm

No internet, No phone, No BITCOIN

That means no on line porn?

I guess we could go back to live strip shows.

[mprep]

What will happen if worldwar happens and some countries use EMP bombs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-bomb.htm

No internet, No phone, No BITCOIN

That means no on line porn?

I guess we could go back to live strip shows.

Or our imagination.

[ZephramC]

No Bitcoin? Then I think WW3 should be made illegal to start! :-]

[Jakewell]

Since we would all die in a nuclear war it is not really a concern. Cockroaches do not need bitcoin.

What if there will be no nuclear attack? only EMP..

the emp bombs are used primarily before a nuke attack to disable all the nuke alert / defense systems