Originally posted by Lucretius
Basically the idea is that China can't catch the US in it's traditionaly strong areas... so new areas of weaponry are being developed to counter anything the US can deploy.

- That sounds a lot like the mid 1970's story the neo-cons were telling the administration in the US from Ford onward.

Even though every other intelligence agency was saying the 'conventional' programs and weapons to threaten the USA did not actually exist Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Pearle etc were saying that no' they had really really secret stuff no-one but they (thanks to their emigré sources......you know, the kind so helpful and accurate in Iraq recently) knew about.

All (now proven) rubbish (thanks to the fall of the Soviet Union).

IMO we should be very very careful with such stories.

I dunno much about it, but it's suppose 2 use Satillites[I guess 2 detect the missiles].

Anyways,

Missiles+America= THAT WAS A WASTE OF TIME, MONEY, AND EFFORT YA'LL ENEMIES!!!!!!

This is my first post on this board. I came across this thread while doing a google search for emp weapons and their applications. I had often thought of EMP weapons as an anti missile device, but had never seen anything about their use in this way.

I personally believe EMP devices are perfect for the task. Shielding against an EMP would be nearly impossible since the current technology can guide an anti ballistic missile to an actual impact. The burst would be so intense at close ranges there would be no way to shield the delicate guidance systems. Even if each reentry vehicle was shielded with one foot of lead, which would add nearly two tons to each warhead, the burst would be too strong. The tenth thickness of lead is about 2 inches for most mid to high energy gammas, so a foot would give you six tenth thicknesses or a reduction of 1/1,000,000. The effectiveness of a point source EMP works geometrically. At two meters the strength is 1/4 the stregnth at 1 meter, at 10 meters it's 1/100. So at 1 meter shielded with 1 entire foot of lead the effect on the electronics would be the same as an unshielded blast at only 1/2 mile. The circuits would fry.

Grounded copper mesh will not shield against an EMP because the gammas are not charged particles, and will travel pretty much linearly with little to no interaction.

Also the number of reentry vehicles would have to be cut in half, at least, to account for the ton and a half of shielding (minimum) per warhead. That means a reduction of yield of 50%, which would have the same effect of the anti ballistic missile being at least 50% effective.

This is a great topic. I'd love to toss some ideas back and forth. I see it's been dead for a while, so here's to hoping..........