A U.S. company has delivered antenna assemblies for U.S. military Global Positioning System satellites to detect nuclear explosions.
While long a staple of science fiction, directed energy weapons have yet to play a major role in warfare. Taylor Dinerman examines the state-of-the-art in this area and the role such weapons might eventually play in space.
The Project on Government Oversight counters a recent Washington Times article on the threat of EMP weapons, arguing that while EMP is theoretically possible, "it would be difficult for terrorists to pull off. And nation-states that would attempt such an attack would face nuclear retaliation from the United States which, during the Cold War, shielded its nuclear command and control systems from the possibility of EMP effects from an exchange with the Soviet Union."
The United States is highly vulnerable to attack from electronic pulses caused by a nuclear blast in space, according to a new book on threats to U.S. security.
New analysis shows that a single nuclear weapon detonated 60 miles above the Earth?s surface could leave almost all low-flying satellites useless within weeks.