China EMP arms
Mike
news.google.com
The Washington Times
June 26, 2008 Thursday
Inside the Ring
BYLINE: By Bill Gertz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
SECTION: PLUGGED IN - NATIONAL SECURITY; INSIDE THE RING; B01
China EMP arms
China's significant military buildup includes strategic weapons
designed to counter U.S. military advantages, including electric pulse
weapons, a senior Pentagon official told Congress Wednesday.
James J. Shinn, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific
security affairs also said during House testimony that China's arms
buildup is increasing the danger of a future conflict over Taiwan.
Mr. Shinn warned that one troubling aspect of the large-scale buildup
is what he termed a "deliberate and well-thought-through Chinese
strategy to invest in asymmetric warfare - cyber-warfare, counterspace
capability, a very sophisticated ballistic and cruise missile program
and, of course, undersea warfare."
He disclosed that China's military is working on exotic
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons that can devastate electronic
systems using a burst of energy similar to that produced by a nuclear
blast.
Chinese EMP weaponry "is one of several examples of asymmetric warfare
that we need to deal with," Mr. Shinn told the House Armed Services
Committee.
"The consequence of EMP is that you destroy the communications
network," Mr. Shin said. "And we are, as you know, and as the Chinese
also know, heavily dependent on sophisticated communications,
satellite communications, in the conduct of our forces. And so,
whether it's from an EMP or it's some kind of a coordinated [anti-
satellite] effort, we could be in a very bad place if the Chinese
enhanced their capability in this area."
"In terms of the danger associated with the military balance across
the straits... I think we'd have to conclude that as the balance has
shifted toward the mainland, it has materially
increased the danger across the straits," he stated
The recent election of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president and the
renewal of China-Taiwan discussions "at least, appears to have reduced
the threat and the probability of the use of force."
Air Force Maj. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, vice director of the Joint
Staff for strategic plans and policy, said he agreed with Mr. Shinn
and warned that the increase in Chinese air defense and other war-
fighting capabilities in the strait "make it militarily a more
challenging area."
Gen. Breedlove said it is hoped that increased military dialogue with
China will diffuse the danger of "possible incidents across the
strait."
The Pentagon's annual report to Congress on China's military power
revealed that Beijing has deployed about 1,000 ballistic missiles
opposite Taiwan, which broke with China in 1949 after nationalist
forces fled the mainland during the civil war with communists.
Michael Shirley
>
> China EMP arms
>
> China's significant military buildup includes strategic weapons
> designed to counter U.S. military advantages, including electric pulse
> weapons, a senior Pentagon official told Congress Wednesday.
That's been a given for awhile now. It's a part of their Assassin's Mace
strategy. It's a smart move too, when you figure that the fundamental
basis of most of the US's military and civil technology is CMOS electronic
architecture and that's very, very vulnerable to EMP.
The real danger is to our civil infrastructure. Business guys don't want
to keep obsolescent systems available as backups to more modern ones. And
when you mention the word "redundancy" to them, they translate it out as,
"Waste, fraud and duplication." The result is that with a carefully
crafted attack, we could go from high tech to no tech in milliseconds.
And when that happens, not only do communications and the power grid go
down, but things like the railroad system does too. Modern diesel
locomotives are electronically controlled and the shops to make the parts
to convert them to direct analog control really don't exist.
--
"Implications leading to ramifications leading to shenanigans"-- Admiral
Elmo Zumwalt, USN.