Iran May Build EMP Warhead

The May edition of Jane's Missiles and Rockets reports that recent missile tests by Iran may have been part of the development of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warhead. Jane's cites testimony from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security from March 8, 2005, by Peter Pry and Lowell Wood. Wood is a member of the Congressional EMP Commission, which released a report on the EMP threat in July 2004 (see link below for full text of report). Iran has practiced detonating its Shahab-3 missiles while in mid-air, which has lead some intelligence officials to suspect that Iran is practicing the execution of an EMP attack.

www.khouse.org...

[edit on 2-2-2006 by Bozorgh]

[edit on 6-2-2006 by UK Wizard]

Okie, first, when you post something, please give an opinion or what you think about the article. Put some input into it. This will help you not get eaten alive in the future.

Second. I know a few people here are well aware of the EMP thing, not Irans, but the situation in general. Almost all of the United States' military equipment has been shielded against EMP's for just this reason. So we should be pretty good.

Welcome to ATS enjoy your stay

Originally posted by truttseeker
Okie, first, when you post something, please give an opinion or what you think about the article. Put some input into it. This will help you not get eaten alive in the future.

Second. I know a few people here are well aware of the EMP thing, not Irans, but the situation in general. Almost all of the United States' military equipment has been shielded against EMP's for just this reason. So we should be pretty good.

Welcome to ATS enjoy your stay

Ok thanks for the comment but I very much know what i have to say about my opinion which the article could be very well true since we know what Arrow-2 can do and how we have to upgrade Shahab-3 every once in a a while.

[edit on 2-2-2006 by Bozorgh]

[edit on 2-2-2006 by Bozorgh]

[edit on 2-2-2006 by Bozorgh]

here are a couple more threads reference your idea:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

i've been saying this for years. all of their "accidental explosions" of iranian rockets at precisely the correct altitude needed for an effective emp blast is quite unnerving. they could shut down the east coast of the US by launching one of these off of a civilian ship in international waters and we have nothing to prevent an attack of this kind.....this would effectively take us out of the world picture for three or four months....if not longer.

I would honestly like to see them try and build a EMP weapon after the USAF drops theirs on Iran.

America's EMP bomb

Well another reason why Iran wont be a pushover. If Iran will get invaded it will be like Iraq times 1000.

Originally posted by tomcat ha
Well another reason why Iran wont be a pushover. If Iran will get invaded it will be like Iraq times 1000.

Absent some NBC attack by Iran, there won’t be an invasion. However, if Iran rebuffs the diplomatic efforts and/or attacks shipping in the gulf, you can expect a robust response by the US that will leave Iran without her nuclear research facilities, navy, air force and air defenses.

There's no doubt Iran has her own cards to play, but world can’t accept a nuclear Iran.


[edit on 3-2-2006 by ElTiante]

An EMP attack from Iran would be pointless, sure, they could shut down alot of the country, but they wouldn't be able to follow it up with anything. They could use a nuclear weapon, but using a nuclear weapon without an EMP is going to have the same result.

Iran don't have enough ground or air forces to effectively invade, so an EMP attack would be suicide. We know it, and they know it.

Originally posted by tomcat ha
Well another reason why Iran wont be a pushover. If Iran will get invaded it will be like Iraq times 1000.

Um, apples and oranges my friend. Iraq's military fell like a fat mall security guard would after lunch, its the occupation of Iraq that is tough. Defeating Iraq's military, both times, was a cake walk.

Iran would be much tougher, but the goal wouldn’t be occupation. It would simply be an attack, and the USA and friends are very effective at that, the most effective in the world in fact.

I don’t even think any boots on the ground would be needed to nullify Iran’s offensive military power. A HUGE initial air raid followed by a month of strategic air strikes would basically destroy Iran’s offensive abilities, and that’s the goal. Not occupation


[edit on 3-2-2006 by skippytjc]

Um, apples and oranges my friend. Iraq's military fell like a fat mall security guard would after lunch, its the occupation of Iraq that is tough. Defeating Iraq's military, both times, was a cake walk.

Time will only tell my friend if that is true. iraq, had not an army just a bunch of misfits, dressed in camoflague, most of it's fighting power existed, as back in the pre iran iraq, war, and at that time they were the fourth most powerful army, in the world,! we in america, are sometimes too overconfident, on our battles from time to time. But we haven't face the real global big 5;s. Of course u know bro, we can't maintain this military might forever. Big trees fall very hard, No?

Skippy and I are in rare agreement on this one. Only an Idiot would think that the US will be able to overrun Iran like they did Iraq. We bareley have controll of Bahgdad (and only in a few areas to be honest) Can you imagine trying to Pacify Therahn with 3 times the population??


Actually I think the EMP is a viable strategy to persue. Questionable military value, but strategic value? HUGE

Alot of military systems are hardened for EMP blasts, but not all so some would get shut down.

Think of the global effects if Iran detonated a decent sized EMP over the ME? I not 100% sure but i doubt most civilian systems are hardened for such a blast. So any tankers, oil facilites, oil pumping stations, oil terminas, oil refineries (getting the picture) would go offline. It would take a long time to restore these to current production levels. Iran kknows it cannot win, but it could do serious economic damage to the world if attacked (in this scenario)

Originally posted by Zanzibar
An EMP attack from Iran would be pointless, sure, they could shut down alot of the country, but they wouldn't be able to follow it up with anything. They could use a nuclear weapon, but using a nuclear weapon without an EMP is going to have the same result.

Iran don't have enough ground or air forces to effectively invade, so an EMP attack would be suicide. We know it, and they know it.

i dont think you guys are looking at the big picture here. an emp attack from a civilian freighter off the coast of the eastern US would effectively take us out of world politics for quite awhile. not only would it shut down trivial things like computers and all cars built after 1983, but it would shut down the airtraffic system, and about 90% of commercial aviation in the effected areas would just fall out of the sky, because they are fly-by-wire with computer controlled engines. we're talking about massive damage....the kind that would make katrina and 9/11 look trivial.

and guess what? we have absolutely no technology in place to detect and stop an attack of this kind that close in to our shores. in the aftermath, we would have to bring all our troops home to help control the effected areas and rebuild.

it's a very real threat, boys and girls, and i hope our government is looking at it that way, because you can bet iran has considered it. like i have mentioned several times, their missiles keep blowing up at precisely the altitude needed for an effective attack.

coincidence? i dont believe in those.

Get this, America isn't the whole world!

If Iran use an EMP weapon on America, the world will not stop, sure some things will go wrong, but the world will go on.

It will seem that the world has stopped of course and that's because alot of the population of America are so big-headed and think that their country is the hub of civilization or the plug of the world.

It seriously gets annoying at times.

EMP weapons used in a non-tactical manner are considered WMD's.

And I think the position of the United States regarding attacks against our territories and peoples by enemies wielding WMD's is pretty clear.........

If Iran wants to exchange a few EMP weapons for a few Whiskey-88's, well, I personally wouldn't reccomend it........

Originally posted by crusader

iraq, had not an army just a bunch of misfits, dressed in camoflague, most of it's fighting power existed, as back in the pre iran iraq, war, and at that time they were the fourth most powerful army, in the world,! we in america, are sometimes too overconfident, on our battles from time to time. But we haven't face the real global big 5;s. Of course u know bro, we can't maintain this military might forever. Big trees fall very hard, No?

I don’t mean this as an insult (although it’s going to read that way), but that remark doesn’t make me feel like you know what you’re talking about. In 1991 at the time of the gulf war, Iraq had the 4th largest military in the world and used many of Russia’s top technologies. They amassed to this status after the Iran war. Your statement implies that it was depleted in 1991 because of the Iran war, and that’s false. And please don’t forget that the Iraq and Iran war was basically a stalemate.

Iraq had some of the most battle tested soldiers in any army in the world, not all were misfits. If anything, the 1991 Iraqi military capability was far superior to any in its past due to its Iran conflict.

USA and coalition literally walked over Iraq at its peak military power. A power that stalemated against Iran I may add.

Look, I agree 100% Iran today is a far mightier military force than Iraq was in 1991, but the nature of any attack against Iran won’t be anything like what’s happening in Iraq today. This would be an air attack using the most state of the art technologies in the world with the sole purpose of destruction, not to occupy or politically influence. I.e. the goal of this action would be the very thing the USA and allies do the very best. And I don’t think Iran has enough of what it needs to resist an attack of this nature.

A grand army means nothing against airplanes. And Iran simply doesnt have enough of the technologies necessary to successfully thwart an advanced attack of this type. I suspect Iran may have some success with their surface to air defenses initially, but it would not last long enough to impact the whole campaign. The Iranian air force would be nullified instantly for any practical purposes. Once the surface to air threat was beaten and the coalition controlled the skies the war would be won.

I would imagine a HUGE overnight raid using many, many hundreds of aircraft hitting critical communications and air defenses to start. This would continue for a few nights. Once Iran’s military infrastructure was weakened by the nighttime air strikes, strikes would graduate to day time raids as well. After maybe 7-10 days the skies over Iran would be mostly safe for fighter and strike aircraft. After 2-3 weeks the skies would be nearly devoid of Iranian threats and aircraft like A-10’s and C-130 gun ships would be able to operate with minimal risk.

At that point the coalition would simply continue to cherry pick targets as they deemed necessary until they decided Iran’s offensive military ability was adequately subdued. It would be suicide for any Iranian ground forces to operate let alone show any offensive behavior.

I’m sorry, but any USA led coalition against Iran right now would end in Iran’s defeat. And in short order too.

I hate to admit it, but the US would stomp Iran into the ground if they used an EMP weapon, nuclear weapon or even if they fired a round in the general area of America.

Iran would be turned to glass.

Originally posted by Zanzibar
Get this, America isn't the whole world!

If Iran use an EMP weapon on America, the world will not stop, sure some things will go wrong, but the world will go on.

It will seem that the world has stopped of course and that's because alot of the population of America are so big-headed and think that their country is the hub of civilization or the plug of the world.

It seriously gets annoying at times.

i guess you didnt really get the point. america is the main armed force in both iraq and afganistan. if we have to bring troops home to deal with a catastrophe here, i sincerely doubt the remaining coalition forces in either country would be able to stop the onslaught, and would most likely pull out as well. i'm sorry that you couldnt clearly see the logic behind that and felt like you had to post a negative reply.

[edit on 3-2-2006 by snafu7700]

I sincerely doubt that any troops would have to be pulled out of the Middle East to protect the US. Iran wouldn't be able to get a force to America.

The only stretch of water they have access to is the Gulf of Oman, which is chock full of American and British and countless other countries navies. Nothing would be getting out of there. They couldn't fly a successful air raid, as obviously, they would have to fly over Iraq, whos airspace would be swarming with fighters.

An EMP would damage, but not destroy. The thing is that it could not be backed up with anything that could do any serious damage.

alot of people are mentioning that america walked all over iraq in both gulf wars and thats complete and utter crap becuase it wasnt american vs iraq it was iraq vs america + britian + france etc... it was the worlds most powerfull countries combined vs 1 country which was iraq even though not every country provided full support they still provided valuable services such as for example SAS with there SCUD hunting etc....

if the war was america and iraq only the outcome would have been the same america would win but the war would have lasted longer much longer then it did.

also we must mention that in the second war against iraq almost no modern anti-tank missiles where used against western tanks on the other hand iran has a miniumum of 50,000(raad-t/toophan2 tow2/at-4/konkurs AT-5) wire guided anti-tank missiles plus hundreds of thousands of tandem warhead RPG's i read this in a report cant remeber the name. anyway the war against iran will be seriously different to iraq becuase iran can engage tanks with missiles making land occupation very difficult.

also irans plan is not to fight on its home terratory but to engage western babes based in the middle east taking the fight to america rather then letting america bring the fight to iran. also america will have alot less support millitary wise from alot of countries that arnt going to attack iran making this a completly different war then iraq becuase lets face facts you cant destory all of irans facilities with ariel bombardments in the end to take out 100% of there facilities you will need to send in the troops.

America has Iran surrounded, Iraq on the west, Afghanistan on the east and the Persian Guld and Gulf of Oman to the south.

Iran are like a wounded animal, they will try to spring a desperate atack, but wont succeed. If they tried anything, America will more than likely nuke them.