A single hydrogen bomb detonated about 250 miles above the United States would generate an EMP covering the lower 48 states, a U.S. congressional report said.
The Chinese regime could deploy nuclear warheads to cause electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks targeting U.S. military bases or allies in the Pacific, potentially securing a victory in a conflict by isolating those countries from U.S. support, according to retired Navy Capt. Carl Schuster, who served as a director of operations at the U.S. Navy Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.
But a limited deployment of such weapons—utilizing the intense electromagnetic pulse generated by nuclear explosions to knock out power grids and electronics across broad swaths of territory—could prove decisive should the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursue its geopolitical ambitions through military means.
In particular, EMP attacks over the central Pacific would “devastate the space-based communications and sensor systems the U.S. uses to alert, control, and inform its forces,” Schuster told The Epoch Times.
This would “allow the PRC to isolate Japan and Taiwan,” he added, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
Beijing views democratically governed Taiwan as a rightful part of communist China, and frequently conducts naval and aerial maneuvers near the island’s territory.
Some U.S. intelligence officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is aiming to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027.
Lights Out
Nuclear weapons used to create EMPs—also called HEMPs due to the high altitude of the strike—would have little, if any, direct destructive impact, but would cause widespread devastation by crippling the electrical and digital infrastructure that modern industry, logistics, and communications rely on to function.
A single hydrogen bomb detonated about 250 miles above the United States would generate an EMP covering the lower 48 states, according to a 2017 report by a U.S. congressional commission.
With most electrical equipment and energy sources—including motor vehicles—disabled, millions of people in areas affected by an EMP would face starvation or exposure to the elements.
China currently possesses around 600 nuclear warheads, and according to the Pentagon, is on track to expand its arsenal to 1,000 bombs by 2030.
By Leo Timm
