Saddam to be target of Britain's 'E-bomb'

news.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2002/08/26/wirq26.xml

By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 26/08/2002)


The Pentagon is planning to use a British weapon that can disable electronic and electrical systems without killing anyone to attack Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons sites.

The "radio frequency weapon", or E-Bomb, developed at a secret site in south-west England, sends out a high-intensity radio wave with similar effects to the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast.

It is also able to penetrate the underground bunkers where Saddam's chemical and biological weapons are stored as protection from allied bombing. The radio pulse will travel easily down the bunkers' power and ventilation ducts.

One of the biggest problems facing allied troops if they were sent into Iraq would be that, with any attack aimed at removing him from power, Saddam knows he has nothing to lose in using his weapons of mass destruction.

Bombing the sites would only spread the chemical or biological agents, killing innocent Iraqi civilians and threatening invading forces.

By using the E-bomb to cripple the plants' refrigeration and computer systems, the allies would ensure that the weapons could not be used in any effective way.

Although the weapon is still in the final stages of development, American defence sources said they were interested in acquiring it for immediate deployment in any attack on Iraqi chemical and biological weapons sites.

The E-Bomb can be made to have a limited range and be delivered by cruise missile, by smart bomb, or by one of the unmanned aerial vehicles which proved their effectiveness during the campaign in Afghanistan, one British official said.

As it approaches its target, an array of aerials spring out and its capacitors discharge themselves, sending out a burst of high-powered microwave energy to disable electrical and electronic systems.

The weapon was developed by the novel technology department of Matra BAe Dynamics. It gives credence to the nightmare scenario of a high-technology war when the enemy could disable the radio, radar, and computer systems on which modern defences depend.

The weapon can also bring civil infrastructure to a standstill, closing national electricity grids, stopping telephone, radio and television systems.

The discovery that Russia was close to producing the E-bomb sparked a race to build similar weapons and counter-measures to protect against them in which Britain has become the world leader.

MI6 has told ministers that Iraq may still possess tons of chemical warfare agents, the necessary materials to produce thousands of litres of biological agents and as many as 10 Scud missiles with which to deliver them.

Iraq has admitted that before the Gulf war it manufactured 100 botulinum bombs, 50 anthrax bombs, and seven aflatoxin bombs. Five missile warheads were filled with anthrax, 16 with botulinum, and four with aflatoxin.

The Iraqi chemical warfare arsenal is known to include:

The nerve agents Sarin and VX. Colourless and tasteless, they cause death by respiratory arrest in one to 15 minutes.

Blister agents such as mustard gas. Severely incapacitating, they damage tissue, causing extensive large blisters.

Psychoactive agents such as Agent 15. Symptoms include dizziness, vomiting and hallucinations lasting for days. Biological warfare agents produced by Iraq include:

Anthrax. Symptoms initially resemble that of a common cold and are only identifiable in the fatal phase. Once this begins, vomiting, severe head and joint pain, and respiratory distress will lead to death in one to three days.

Botulinum. Causes botulism. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhoea, paralysis of the throat and convulsions, followed by death due to respiratory arrest.

Aflotoxins. Poisons produced by fungi and mould, they have the capacity to cause liver cancer.

Ricin. Inhalation leads to weakness, fever and pulmonary oedema within 24 hours followed by death.

Clostridium perfringens. A bacterium which causes gangrene.

sounds like a neat weapon. Sounds safe also. A weapon even Lupe can appreciate.

It sounds safe enough.But you know some one(lupe) will find a problem with it. It will cause cancer or something.

Good point, nyeff.
I have some other concerns myself.
- Is this new weapon environment-friendly?
- Is it made of biodegradable materials?
- Was the weapon made using ISO 9002 standards?
- Are the components in the weapon constucted in a fashion that lends it self to proper Feng Shui?

Just so many things to consider....Good time Lupus, good times.

Fascinating topic �although in this context I suspect it�s rumour- & scare-mongering. It�s been around for a while and there�s a good general write up at popularmechanics.com...

and there�s a splendid, but more technical, Australian article here.
www.pha.com.au...

(a) all this talk of pulses is there to hide the possibility that small nuclear weapons will be used - the E-bomb explains away the detactable traces

It's also worth remembering that something that is claimed to destroy "chemical and bilogical" materials might not be safe -people are chemical and biological materials.
Add that to the legendary accuracy of American bombing and it doesn't sound so safe any more.

nope I'm all for emp weapons, my main concern with this however is the sentence:

"By using the E-bomb to cripple the plants' refrigeration and computer systems, the allies would ensure that the weapons could not be used in any effective way."

If you cripple a chemical or nuclear weapons refrigeration and computer systems don't you:

a) risk an outbreak
b) turn a guided missile with the safetys on into an unguided missile with the safetys off?

Estragon, its only an E-bomb, it destroys electrical components that are delicate enough to be damaged by an electro-magnetic pulse that isn't shielded. There'll be no nuclear trace and no human damage, except maybe a temporary disorientation.

No Lupe, it shouldn't turn a guided missile into an unguided one, even if Saddam had guided rockets. What happens is power is induced into the component that is high enough to "fry" subcomponents, like transistors, diodes and chips. This lets the magic smoke out of them, and they won't work anymore. Magic smoke is important to electronics!

Smarts bombs are betters. Smarts bombs kills only stupids peoples, not smarts peoples.

William One Sac

Good Post.

While WOS covered many of Iraq's nasty little bugs, there are a couple more that are worthy of note.

Tabun, ricin, aflatoxin, and wheat cover smut have all been weaponized. In addition Iraq has also dabbled around with brucellosis, hemorrhagic conjuctivitis virus (Enterovirus 70), rotavirus, camel pox, plague (?), and gas gangrene toxin.

cns.miis.edu...

I read somewhere that RF weapons were also designed but never built. Supposedly the bomb was able to be tuned to a certain wavelength. This tuning of wavelength varied the affects on humans from dizziness and nausea to painful death. These weapons in the 1000lb range could affect all life within 100miles.
Just thomk if they were built they would kill more people than the biggest H-bomb built.
Scary

ROFL, Bob! Uh... I volunteer that YOU do the environmental testing on this one!

Neat concept, though, and one I could support. As to the question of "won't turning off the electronics turn guided missles into unguided missles", the answer is "No."

You can't launch them without the electronics.

I suppose they could run off and build a huge slingshot...

mad scientist & Grasshopp12, do you know that you are scary, both of you ?

I don't want to see these weapons in action. I know who'll pay the bill. Civilians.

ultra_phoenix, I was not advocating the use of such weapons. I was just stating what I knew.

ultraphoenix - You are very right that innocents will pay the bill should these weapons be used. They are not like smart bombs which target and kill, end of story. They tend to last longer and also effect those who were not near the immediate blast area.

I also read an interesting theory about biological warfare some time ago that I fell somewhat compelled to relate to my fellow ATS members. Basically the article said that a biological weapon, while it would effect the target nation, would more than likely also effect third world nations as much or more as the target due to the fact that their medical system isn't as modern/well supplied as those of the Western world. With world travel, an agent such as smallpox or Ebola could be spread through a population with incredible ease, thus effecting the world as well as the target nation.

Oh yeah, and why do I frighten you ultra_phoenix? Just curious.

Ebola has never been weaponized, very few viruses are as it is extremely difficult.
Of course it is going to be worse in a third world country.
If half the stuff i've read about the soviet/russian research and development it wouldn't matter where u were. These strains have been engineered to withstand anti-biotics and in some cases chimera's have been synthesized.
If that #'s ever released we're probably all dead.

Originally posted by mad scientist
ultra_phoenix, I was not advocating the use of such weapons. I was just stating what I knew.

I know. It was just remark.

And I was not excately scary. I was reading your post, and I was thinking that we are living in a crazy world, where we can post what we want on Internet about mass destruction weapons. But I'm not sure that we are able to understand all consequences of this weapons. We can just wondering. I was feeling a strange sensation. That's why I wrote that I was scary.

With the world travel scenario, it's like in the movie " 12 monkeys " with Willis.

Mad Scientist - I'm sorry to say you are indeed wrong. Ebola has been weaponized...in two forms.

The first being straight Ebola which was weaponized by the former Soviet Union. The second, which is a bit nastier, is Ebolapox which is a hybrid of Ebola and Smallpox. It kills like Ebola, however it is spread like Smallpox.

Lastly, one thing about biological warfare is that everyone WILL NOT be killed. Natural immunities and tolerances exist, so some will be left. Two prime examples of this are shown in 'Andromeda Strain' and 'Omega Man.'

Oh yeah, good comparison with '12 Monkeys.'

Sorry, Grasshop... I looked up the references on Ebolapox. It's a hoax.

Yes, there was a Russian scientist who made big waves claiming it was made. However, he had another agenda -- and the information that he leaked with such a big impact was simply disinformation.

You're correct that not everyone would die. In a smallpox outbreak, I could safely nurse the ill... I have a natural immunity to it.