From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utcsri!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!uunet!think.com!linus!linus.mitre.org!mwunix!m23364 Wed Sep 16 21:23:20 EDT 1992
Article 6906 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: m23364@mwunix (James Meritt)
Subject: Re: 21st Century Soldier
Message-ID: <1992Sep14.175430.11621@linus.mitre.org>
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References: <1992Sep11.230936.14718@cas.org> <BuH0JM.5E4@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca> <1992Sep14.134609.23335@cas.org>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:54:30 GMT
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In article <1992Sep14.134609.23335@cas.org> sdr57@cas.org () writes:
}In article <BuH0JM.5E4@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca> jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll) writes:
}>In article <1992Sep11.230936.14718@cas.org> sdr57@cas.org writes:
}>
}>       On using small nuclear devices to produce EMP  to destroy
}>high-tech gadgets:
}>
}>
}>       Hmmm. Anyone  know if EMP-enhanced weapons are available?
}>A  non-nuclear EMP device might be very useful in a near-future war,
}>as well. Only problem is that producing EMP weapons may require
}>First World grade industry, in which case the Third World may find
}>it hard to get their hands on them.
}>
}Generating an electromagnetic pulse can be done without a nuclear device.
}It requires lots of power and an interesting array of wires. There is an
}EMP setup big enough to put whole airplanes into at Kirtland Air Force
}Base in New Mexico (it was, and presumably still is, used to evaluate
}the vulnerability of aircraft electronics to emp - military electronics
}are designed to survive with the possibility of exposure to EMP in mind).
}It is big - not portable - and the aircraft has to be inside. Its use
}did not disrupt electronics in Albuquerque, which is adjacent to the
}site. In short, if you want to generate an EMP under battlefield conditions,
}you will need a nuclear device

Nah.  A cesium seeded high temperature explosion can generate the electrical 
pulse through MHD to send the wave through trailing wires.  A use-it-once
weapon, but most are.  Fits in a BIG artillery shell.



