A new weapon could change the future of modern warfare.
Boeing calls it CHAMP -- the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project.
It’s a new missile that can take out electrical and data systems by emitting high powered microwaves[1] “without causing injury or collateral damage” as it flies over targets.
After months of testing, Boeing announced this week that CHAMP could be a viable weapon for U.S. forces.
“This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare,” said Keith Coleman, CHAMP program manager for Boeing Phantom Works.
The announcement comes after CHAMP’s first fully operational flight test last Tuesday where the missile successfully disabled a room full electronics[2], including computers and surveillance cameras.
Much of the details of CHAMP are most likely classified, but Boeing has released a short video[3] that includes an animation of CHAMP being deployed from a Stealth Bomber over an urban area.
In part of the video showing results from an earlier test, computers went dark and cameras went offline seconds after a blast of high power microwaves from CHAMP.
“We know this has some capabilities and some impact and so we’re really trying to engage the customer and see if there’s a way to get this fielded and implemented sooner than later,” James Dodd, Vice President, Advanced Boeing Military Aircraft says in the video.
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Comments
EMP VS(?) Microwave
Submitted by kldimond on Fri, 11/02/2012 - 13:35.
SFsecurity, you're probably thinking of the kind of EMP that one reads about in those doomsday scenarios where a nuke is detonated, indiscriminately spewing all kinds of electromagnetic energy in a huge, wide-band pulse without any real directivity.
FYI, All radio and light waves, along with x- and gamma rays, propagate via electromagnetic activity. The pulse from a nuke runs the gamut of those frequencies and its damage is indiscriminate--whatever's in range and vulnerable to whichever given frequency(ies) will be damaged.
What is described in the article undoubtedly is rather "domesticated" compared to a nuke--it would be a much narrower (in terms of frequencies) and more controlled (in terms of direction) pulse, causing targeted as opposed to indiscriminate damage. But it's still electromagnetic energy and it does damage by creating a pulse, so it's still an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) weapon.
This article is useful for reference: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html
Microwave vs. EMP
Submitted by SFsecurity on Mon, 10/29/2012 - 12:24.
I think there are some significant differences between the CHAMP system and an EMP system. Am I wrong in thinking a microwave missile acts differently than EMP?
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Comments
EMP VS(?) Microwave
SFsecurity, you're probably thinking of the kind of EMP that one reads about in those doomsday scenarios where a nuke is detonated, indiscriminately spewing all kinds of electromagnetic energy in a huge, wide-band pulse without any real directivity.
FYI, All radio and light waves, along with x- and gamma rays, propagate via electromagnetic activity. The pulse from a nuke runs the gamut of those frequencies and its damage is indiscriminate--whatever's in range and vulnerable to whichever given frequency(ies) will be damaged.
What is described in the article undoubtedly is rather "domesticated" compared to a nuke--it would be a much narrower (in terms of frequencies) and more controlled (in terms of direction) pulse, causing targeted as opposed to indiscriminate damage. But it's still electromagnetic energy and it does damage by creating a pulse, so it's still an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) weapon.
This article is useful for reference: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html
Microwave vs. EMP
I think there are some significant differences between the CHAMP system and an EMP system. Am I wrong in thinking a microwave missile acts differently than EMP?