Pentagon: Electromagnetic pulse bombs from 2012

A presentation given by a US Air Force official may have - temporarily, at least - laid to rest one of the wilder and wackier secret superweapon conspiracy theories of recent times.

The superweapon in question is the dreaded "E-bomb", aka "Electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP)" "High Power Microwave (HPM)" and so on, depending on the exact details.

Most people are familiar with the fact that a nuclear weapon gives off a powerful electromagnetic pulse when detonated. Just as an ordinary-strength RF transmission induces tiny electrical flows in receiving antennae, a nuclear bomb's much more intense EMP can cause damaging spikes in exposed electronic circuitry, potentially knackering it.

Ever since the effect was noted, various people have speculated that it would be interesting to use a suitable nuke, not to leave one's enemy atomised and/or glowing in the dark, but rather to fry all his electronics.

One way of doing so might be to let off the nuke just outside the atmosphere above the location to be EMPed. The eponymous Russkie space zappers in the Bond flick Goldeneye were supposed to be some kind of E-bomb, for instance. More...