2 hours agoI have no opinion about the accuracy of Escobar’s report. We will know more in time.
EMP is widely and wildly misunderstood. I recommend “The Effects of Nuclear Weapons” by Glasstone; it is available at archive.org.
The 1964 edition discusses EMP starting on page 502. He starts by noting that even small detonations of ordinary chemical explosions can produce electromagnetic signals.
EMP from nuclear weapon explosions are generated by two mechanisms. The Compton-electron model is introduced in section 10.03. It “is believed to be the principle means for generation of electromagnetic pulses by detonations on or slightly above the earth’s surface, and by those near the top of the sensible atmosphere.” (bold emphasis added)
The common misconception that EMPs require very high altitude detonations is false. High-altitude detonations will produce EMPs over a much larger area, but even ground bursts of nuclear weapons produce significant EMP.
Escobar’s post mentioned a “high altitude detonation over Iran that would provoke a surge in the high-capacity power lines.” F-35s can reach at least 50,000 feet. Long power transmission lines make good antennae for coupling EMPs from lightning and presumably those from nuclear detonations. The initial EMP pulse is quite rapid; once coupled into the transmission lines the pulse might be able to cause damage in connected equipment far from the source.
As for warhead yield, I’ve not seen any information on the Israeli designs. The US W-87-1 warhead weighs only about 250 kilos, is less than 2 meters long and fits inside a 56 cm reentry vehicle. Yet is has a yield of 0.3 to about 0.5 Megatons.
As for the range of F-35s, are not drop tanks available? With a single warhead payload there would seem to be room. Such an extreme mission might be planned as a one-way trip; who knows?
If a US warhead was lost in the desert, a “Broken Arrow” retrieval would be in order. The public generally learns about those only long afterwards.There aren’t a lot of cell phones returning video from the desert regions where this supposedly took place.
