E-bomb is here

E-bombs are the simplest members of a family of still-secret ‘‘directed energy’’ weapons, and probably the nearest to deployment. They cause damage similar to lightning strikes on power or phone lines, which can ‘‘fry’’ circuits and chips if they’re not shielded or protected by surge arrestors. But E-bombs are more powerful than lightning.

In February 2000, Col. Eileen M Walling, an Air Force analyst, described an E-weapon test that produced 20 gigawatts of power for a few billionths of a second. The surges can penetrate deep bunkers.

They can cause temporary failures and data loss, or complete meltdowns, even when devices are turned off. In the mid-1990s, Australian defence analyst Carlo Kopp dubbed the E-bomb a ‘‘weapon of electrical mass destruction’’. People aren’t injured unless they’re close enough to be hurt by the explosive triggers, Kopp said. But ‘‘their use offers a very high pay-off in attacking fundamental information processing and communication.’’

The fully developed type of E-bomb is said to be the ‘‘explosively pumped flux compression generator,’’ or FCG, which produces 10 to 100 times the power of a lightning bolt, according to Kopp. Here’s how it works: Packed inside a cruise missile, aerial bomb, artillery shell or even a land mine is a cylinder of high explosive wrapped in a coil of heavy copper wire. Batteries and capacitors create an intense magnetic field in the coil. Some distance above the target, just as the magnetic field reaches peak power, the explosives are set off. The blast wave moves from one end of the bomb to the other. It short-circuits the coil and compresses the magnetic field, causing an intense, low-frequency electromagnetic pulse to surge outward as the bomb blows apart. The pulse expands at the speed of light, inducing an electrical surge in power cables, telecommunications lines and antennas it encounters. The ‘‘spike’’ follows the wiring to the sensitive electronic components indoors, burning them out.

Damage also can occur when the expanding magnetic field ‘‘couples’’ directly with internal wiring or cables connecting several devices. E-bombs have limited range, and it’s hard to measure damage after an attack. Nor can the bomb discriminate between the enemy and any ‘‘friendly’’ electronics within its range.

Shielding those friendly devices, Goure said, is extraordinarily difficult and costly. War planners must consider the cost of replacing the damaged infrastructure once the war is over. The technology also could be turned against the US by enemy nations and terrorists. (LAT-WP)