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Nuclear electromagnetic pulse
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==Post–Cold War attack scenarios== The United States EMP Commission was created by the [[United States Congress]] in 2001. The commission is formally known as the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.<ref>{{cite web |title=Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack |date=n.d. |df=dmy-all |url=http://www.empcommission.org/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908212925/http://www.empcommission.org/ |archive-date=2017-09-08}}</ref> The Commission brought together notable scientists and technologists to compile several reports. In 2008, the Commission released the "Critical National Infrastructures Report".<ref name="empcnir"/> This report describes the likely consequences of a nuclear EMP on civilian infrastructure. Although this report covered the United States, most of the information is applicable to other industrialized countries. The 2008 report was a follow-up to a more generalized report issued by the commission in 2004.{{r|empc}} In written testimony delivered to the United States Senate in 2005, an EMP Commission staff member reported: {{Cquote|text=The EMP Commission sponsored a worldwide survey of foreign scientific and military literature to evaluate the knowledge, and possibly the intentions, of foreign states with respect to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks. The survey found that the physics of the EMP phenomenon and the military potential of an EMP attack is widely understood in the international community, as reflected in official and unofficial writings and statements. The survey of open sources over the past decade finds that knowledge about EMP and EMP attacks is evidenced in at least Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Egypt, Taiwan, Sweden, Cuba, India, Pakistan, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia. Many foreign analysts – particularly in Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia – view the United States as a potential aggressor that would be willing to use its entire panoply of weapons, including nuclear weapons, in a first strike. They perceive the United States as having contingency plans to make a nuclear EMP attack, and as being willing to execute those plans under a broad range of circumstances. Russian and Chinese military scientists in open source writings describe the basic principles of nuclear weapons designed specifically to generate an enhanced-EMP effect, which they term "Super-EMP" weapons. "Super-EMP" weapons, according to these foreign open source writings, can destroy even the best protected U.S. military and civilian electronic systems.<ref name="pry"/>}} The United States EMP Commission determined that long-known protections are almost completely absent in the civilian infrastructure of the United States and that large parts of US military services were less-protected against EMP than during the Cold War. In public statements, the Commission recommended making electronic equipment and electrical components resistant to EMP – and maintaining spare parts inventories that would enable prompt repairs.<ref name="empc"/><ref name="empcnir"/><ref name="med-emp">{{cite journal |last1=Ross Jr. |first1=Lenard H. |last2=Mihelic |first2=F. Matthew |title=Healthcare Vulnerabilities to Electromagnetic Pulse |journal=American Journal of Disaster Medicine |volume=3 |issue=6 |pages=321–325 |date=November 2008 |issn=1932-149X |pmid=19202885}}</ref> The United States EMP Commission did not look at other nations.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} In 2011, the [[Defense Science Board]] published a report about the ongoing efforts to defend critical military and civilian systems against EMP and other nuclear weapons effects.<ref>{{cite report |date=2011-08-01 |title=Interim Report of the Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on the Survivability of Systems and Assets to Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and other Nuclear Weapon Effects (NWE) |docket=Summary Report No. 1 {{!}} ADA550250 |language=en |publisher=[[Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment|Office of the Under Secretary of Defense For Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics]] |via=[[Defense Technical Information Center]] |df=dmy-all |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA550250.pdf |access-date=2022-08-11 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811141009/https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA550250.pdf |archive-date=2022-08-11}}</ref> The United States military services developed, and in some cases published, hypothetical EMP attack scenarios.<ref name="miller">{{cite report |last1=Miller |first1=Colin R. |date=November 2005 |title=Electromagnetic Pulse Threats in 2010 |chapter=Chapter 12 |chapter-url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA463475.pdf |docket=ADA463475 |pages=385–410 |language=en |location=[[Maxwell Air Force Base]], [[Alabama]] |publisher=Center for Strategy and Technology [[Air War College]], [[Air University (United States Air Force)|Air University]] |via=[[Defense Technical Information Center]] |df=dmy-all |access-date=2022-08-11 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811135601/https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA463475.pdf |archive-date=2022-08-11}}</ref> In 2016, the Los Alamos Laboratory started phase 0 of a multi-year study (through to phase 3) to investigate EMPs which prepared the strategy to be followed for the rest of the study.<ref>{{cite report |last1=Rivera |first1=Michael Kelly |last2=Backhaus |first2=Scott N. |last3=Woodroffe |first3=Jesse Richard |last4=Henderson |first4=Michael Gerard |last5=Bos |first5=Randall J. |last6=Nelson |first6=Eric Michael |last7=Kelic |first7=Andjelka |date=2016-11-07 |title=EMP/GMD Phase 0 Report, A Review of EMP Hazard Environments and Impacts |docket=No. LA-UR-16-28380 |publisher=[[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] |df=dmy-all |url=http://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/lareport/LA-UR-16-28380 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513081109/http://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/lareport/LA-UR-16-28380 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 13, 2018 |access-date=2022-08-11 }}</ref> In 2017, the US Department of Energy published the "DOE Electromagnetic Pulse Resilience Action Plan",<ref name="DOE2017">DOE and partners "[https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/01/f34/DOE%20EMP%20Resilience%20Action%20Plan%20January%202017.pdf DOE Electromagnetic Pulse Resilience Action Plan]" DOE, January 2017</ref> Edwin Boston published a dissertation on the topic<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Boston, Jr. |first1=Edwin J. |date=2017 |title=Critical Infrastructure Protection: EMP Impacts on the US Electric Grid |type=PhD |publisher=[[Utica College]] |bibcode=2017MsT.........47B |df=dmy-all |isbn=978-0355503470}}</ref> and the EMP Commission published "Assessing the threat from electromagnetic pulse (EMP)".<ref>{{cite report |title=Assessing the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) |volume=I: Executive Report |date=July 2017 |docket= |publisher=Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Commission |via=[[Defense Technical Information Center]] |df=dmy-all |url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1051492.pdf |access-date=2022-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210011936/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1051492.pdf |archive-date=2019-12-10}}</ref> The EMP commission was closed in summer 2017.<ref>{{cite report |last1=Pry |first1=Peter Vincent |date=2017-07-01 |title=Life Without Electricity: Storm-Induced Blackouts and Implications for EMP Attack |publisher=Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack |s2cid=217195558 |df=dmy-all |url=http://www.firstempcommission.org/uploads/1/1/9/5/119571849/life_without_electricity_-_final_april2018.pdf |access-date=2022-08-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503151723/http://www.firstempcommission.org/uploads/1/1/9/5/119571849/life_without_electricity_-_final_april2018.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-03}}</ref> They found that earlier reports had underestimated the effects of an EMP attack on the national infrastructure, highlighted issues with communications from the DoD due to the classified nature of the material, and recommended that the DHS instead of going to the DOE for guidance and direction should directly cooperate with the more knowledgeable parts of the DOE. Several reports are in process of being released to the general public.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Graham |first1=William |last2=Pry |first2=Peter |date=2018-05-18 |title=Trump's actions have been critical to defending the US against an EMP attack |department=Opinion {{!}} National Security |work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |issn=1521-1568 |oclc=31153202 |df=dmy-all |url=https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/387148-trumps-actions-have-been-critical-to-defending-the-us-against-an/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801234720/https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/387148-trumps-actions-have-been-critical-to-defending-the-us-against-an/ |archive-date=2021-08-01}}</ref>
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