E-Bomb Ready For Its Big Test

[anna balint]

http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030319S0012 
[and undercurrents list]

E-Bomb Ready For Its Big Test March 19, 2003


U.S. forces in Iraq may use highly classified weapon that uses a brief pulse of microwaves to 
fry computers and disrupt electronics
By Matt Crenson, AP National Writer


U.S. forces may use a new ?E-bomb? during the expected invasion of Iraq as part of a 21st-
century blitzkrieg designed to render Saddam Hussein's forces blind, deaf, dumb, and incapable 
of retaliation.

The highly classified bomb creates a brief pulse of microwaves powerful enough to fry 
computers, blind radar, silence radios, trigger crippling power outages and disable the 
electronic ignitions in vehicles and aircraft. 

'They would be useful against any adversary that is dependent on electronic systems', said 
Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a think-tank based in Arlington, 
Va. 

In modern warfare, electronics undergird virtually every weapon more sophisticated than a rifle 
or hand grenade. For that reason, Air Force scientists have worked for decades on a practical 
way of producing powerful but brief pulses of microwaves that can incapacitate electronic 
equipment without damaging buildings or harming people. 

Officially, the Pentagon does not acknowledge the weapon's existence. Asked about it at a March 
5 Pentagon news conference, Gen. Tommy Franks said: 'I can't talk to you about that because I 
don't know anything about it.' 

However, military analysts say a number of unclassified documents suggest such a device is 
ready for the battlefield. 

'There's been a lot of discussion behind closed doors in the Pentagon and in the trade press 
that these things are now being tested', Thompson said. 

According to a 2000 report by Air Force Col. Elaine M. Walling, scientists at Kirtland Air 
Force Base in New Mexico have created microwave sources that generate up to 10 times the amount 
of energy that Hoover Dam produces in a day. 

Such powerful pulses can incapacitate electronic equipment without damaging buildings or 
harming people, making them an attractive weapon whenever civilian casualties are a concern. 

In laboratory tests, microwave pulses can melt silicon chips, pushing their circuits far beyond 
their capacity to conduct electricity. But on the battlefield, even the most impressive E-
bomb's effects rapidly diminish with distance. Although E-bombs' capabilities are classified, 
military analysts believe their range is a few hundred yards at most. 

The bombs' effects are also hard to predict, analysts say. The surge of electricity produced by 
a microwave pulse could go directly to the nearest bank of military supercomputers, or it could 
just as easily be shunted harmlessly into the ground. 

'The effects are hard to focus. The moment the energy is absorbed into wiring or other 
electrically conductive material you don't know where it's going to go', Thompson said. 

Those uncertainties and others may prevent e-bombs from playing a major role in the anticipated 
U.S. offensive against Iraq, said Lt. Col. Piers Wood, a military analyst at the defense policy 
think-tank globalsecurity.org. 

'There will be a few commanders who will see these and get to try them out',Wood said. 'We're 
not talking about arsenals of these things.'

Defense experts are particularly eager to see if E-bombs can reach into deep underground 
bunkers that could otherwise be neutralized only by tactical nuclear weapons. By shutting off 
the electricity, a microwave weapon could render a bunker uninhabitable by disabling lighting, 
security systems, ventilation and computers. 

Eventually, Wood said, other nations may acquire high-power microwave weapons; American forces, 
which depend so heavily on technology, would be particularly vulnerable to them. He predicted 
that soon all military electronics will have to be protected from high-power microwaves by 
metal casings, with sophisticated circuit breakers connected to any incoming wires.