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UK In Danger From Electromagnetic Bomb, Says Defense Secretary

Posted by Unknown on from the dastardly-soviets dept.

judgecorp writes "Britain must build defenses against an EMP bomb, the UK Secretary of Defense Phillip Hammond told a conference today. Electromagnetic Pulse devices mimic the result of a solar flare or a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere, creating a storm of electromagnetic radiation, which can break mobile networks and satellite systems. Any preparation for solar storms must also consider the possibility of deliberate electromagnetic events, warns Hammond."

18 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. US and UK, best friends forever by HighTechDev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's funny how similar (and crazy) both US and UK are while rest of the world lives in peace.

    1. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by zippo01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What is your supporting evidence that the rest of the world is living in peace? Syria? Libya? North Korea? Iran? Or some combination of all of them?

    2. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by captainpanic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What is your supporting evidence that the rest of the world is living in peace? Syria? Libya? North Korea? Iran? Or some combination of all of them?

      There are other countries too. Cherrypicking the 4 unsafest countries is not going to convince me that the world is at war.

      Anyway, I am not buying the latest scaremongering story that demands we spend more on defense.

    3. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The rest of the world lives in peace?

      You're delusional, my good chap.

      There are genocides in Africa, civil unrest and brutal crushing of riots across the largely dictator-led Middle East and North Africa, Israel-Palestine conflict, drug fueled organized crime in Central and South America threatening to tear countries apart, China and India crushing and slowly eradicating Tibet and Nepal, tribal warfare, civil war in tribal areas of Pakistan, in South Philippines, genocide in West Papua.

    4. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Seriously, are all the threats realistic, or does the UK government suffer from a paranoid syndrome? At least once a week /. exposes a new plan in the UK to a) add cameras somewhere b) spy/censor Internet c) control this or that and now d) defense against EMPs.
      The coming Olympics are maybe an excuse^w reason? Or maybe we should prohibit the 8 seasons of Jack Bauer / 24 to be sold in the UK?

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    5. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by AngryOldGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Could you please citate any real warmongering that China or Russia have done? My understanding is that they have only cared about their internal politics. Only when threat from the US has arisen they have had the need to answer.

      For me, both China and Russia seem much more peaceful than US.

    6. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by zippo01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are many levels between war and peace. I never said the world was at war, but it's not at peace.

    7. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Seriously, are all the threats realistic

      Um, no. The amount of energy needed to generate a worthwhile EMP is in the nuclear bomb/solar flare range.

      If you're a terrorist with that much energy in a transportable package the last thing you'll be thinking of doing with it is taking out a couple of cellphone towers.

      --
      No sig today...
    8. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's see:

      * Syria hasn't started any wars that I know of. It is, however, being threatened with war by the US, UK, and France.
      * Libya didn't start any wars, either. It was attacked by the US, UK, and France.
      * North Korea is ruled by a dictator who oppresses his people but hasn't started any wars.
      * Iran hasn't started any wars but has certainly been attacked by a US proxy.

      So what does that tell us about which countries want to live in peace, and which ones don't?

    9. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What's unsafe about Iran? And why is it not peaceful? I don't remember Iran invading other countries and building military bases all over the world.

      Get a fucking clue.

    10. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by arth1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What's especially ironic is that Iran had a democratically elected government until it was deposed of by the US in operation Ajax.

    11. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by Kergan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Could you please citate any real warmongering that China or Russia have done?.

      Could you please hop over to Google and lookup suggestions that turn up when you enter "Russian conquest of" or "Chinese territorial claims"? There are far too many to enumerate here.

    12. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by RaceProUK · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Correction: we have a small number of sociopaths who think the best way to solve the world's problems is by blowing up innocents. And by small, I mean a dozen or so. Labelling them Muslims is about as relevant as labelling them cheese.

      --
      No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
    13. Re:US and UK, best friends forever by eyenot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      added to the list of wars I'd like you to explain how the West was the one who started it:

      * Serbs vs. Croats
      * Serbs genocide against Turks

      Let me hear the deep intrigue and mind-blowing web of conspiracy you conjure up to explain your own people killing women and children in the name of ethnic "cleansing".

      "Cleansing", by the way, is a term first used (to describe genocide) by a Serb.

      --
      "Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
  2. We're in danger from everything and we need by GauteL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ..an infinite amount of money to protect us.

    Seriously. If the ministry of defence thinks we need to protect from this they can evaluate it up against other threats and spend their existing money accordingly.

    1. Re:We're in danger from everything and we need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let me explain something to you.

      A few years ago a substantial part of the research division of the Ministry of Defence was privatised (!) as a mysterious firm called "Qinetiq" and now much of it belongs to US businesses (!!). This research arm then sells back to the MoD at a profit.

      The absurd arrangement means that a great part of the MoD's remit is now to provide corporate welfare to the US "defense" industry. If the MoD say they need something, what they actually mean is that one of their friends is selling something.

      If you thought that the US government was corrupt, they are nothing on the UK. Over the last fifteen years our government's only progress has been a year on year increase in the amount of money it channels to private businesses.

  3. Pedant's corner by Sesostris+III · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apologies for being pedantic, but it's 'Defence' in the UK, not 'Defense'. The article got it right.

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    You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - Blake
  4. Re:Non nuclear by semi-extrinsic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Keywords: "explosively pumped", meaning you need lots of explosives. If there are terrorists in the UK with lots of explosives, I don't think they will use them for making EMPs.

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