Slashdot Mirror
Boeing's CHAMP Missile Uses Radio Waves To Remotely Disable PCs
Dupple writes "During last week's test, a CHAMP (Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project) missile successfully disabled its target by firing high power microwaves into a building filled with computers and other electronics. 'On Oct. 16th at 10:32 a.m. MST a Boeing Phantom Works team along with members from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate team, and Raytheon Ktech, suppliers of the High Power Microwave source, huddled in a conference room at Hill Air Force Base and watched the history making test unfold on a television monitor. CHAMP approached its first target and fired a burst of High Power Microwaves at a two story building built on the test range. Inside rows of personal computers and electrical systems were turned on to gauge the effects of the powerful radio waves. Seconds later the PC monitors went dark and cheers erupted in the conference room. CHAMP had successfully knocked out the computer and electrical systems in the target building. Even the television cameras set up to record the test were knocked off line without collateral damage.'"
I need a tinfoil house!
Will take care of that issue.
On the one hand I love reading about science stories. On the other, I am frankly tired of spending billions of dollars to prove the US has the biggest penis. Please cut our military spending 50 percent, focus on diplomacy and better targeted aid. Fund alternative energy to reduce our reliance on dictatorships.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Welcome to the age of industrial terrorism.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
So, the bad guys (junior grade) have to go out and buy aluminum foil to shield their gear.
The bad guys, senior grade, are worried about Tempest and already have shielding. (Note - if a missile can knock your monitor out, and that is a worry to you, you should also assume that a drone can pick up what the monitor is displaying.)
So what happened to the missile? Did it land in the yard in front of the building to be taken apart and sold on the black market?
...with antennas to remotely disable machines. I've known people make them. However the issue was that 2.4GHz* would cause people to go blind if you hit them with it (due to the clear liquid in your eyes turning milky). As such I don't think this will ever be used in anything other than a war setting, and even then, if you're going to cook the occupants to death, you might as well hit them with a conventional explosive, probably a nicer way to go.
TFA doesn't mention which microwaves they use, perhaps they other other ones which do not affect humans so much.
So what they've basically done is created a missile that does the same thing as my cat -- disables computer systems. Though since my cat is not available for deployment in a combat zone, I think the missile is the way to go.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Can this thing be used to take out the "Dancing With the Stars" and "American Idol" studios? Oh, please God.
It's a bit like saying taking down a building has no collateral damage if it doesn't cause other buildings to collapse.
That is exactly what it means. If it takes down the intended building, then the intended building is not collateral damage.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
On Oct. 16th at 10:32 a.m. MST
Mountain Daylight Time!
No it isn't. Within the parameters of the test, they where expected to shut down. In this case, Collateral damage means they wouldn't be functional again. They functioned fine afterwards.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Microwaves are non-ionizing, so cancer 20 years later is unlikely.
Tin foil? Everything now is ALUMINUM foil, which does nothing to block government waves! They haven't made TIN foil since WWII. Oh they SAY it was because they needed the tin for the war effort, but the truth is they discovered tin was the only effective shield against their new toys so they made sure nobody could get it anymore!
=Smidge=
how are you supposed to record electromagnetic radiation when you are shielding against electromagnetic radiation? (optical filters and/or faraday cage?)
Waveguides are excellent high pass filters with great ultimate attenuation. If you don't believe me, do two experiments and look down the center of a straight section, and then wave a 9-volt battery on one end and a voltmeter on the other. I can't be bothered to look up circ waveguide cutoff freqs vs a standard c-mount inner diameter, but right off the top of my head a cmount hole is probably small enough to stick inside a piece of rectangular WR-42 waveguide so just tune your master blaster missile to somewhere lower than 25 or so GHz and the attenuation thru a cmount is likely to exceed 100 dB or so. Best ask a EE to model it to make sure you haven't built a coupling iris instead of a waveguide. In fact put a tiny little CCD with a pinhole lens in a small metal box that is way too small to resonate at the master blaster freq. Talk to an optician about designing the longest narrowest possible lens system aka a submarine periscope and make the tube outta metal aka a long narrow circ waveguide operating way below cutoff.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
But it doesn't rhyme.
(new englander here, we don't pronounce Rs)
--
BMO
I work right near the test facility, and let me assure your PC is perfectly safe. This thing cannot shu
Nobody uses tin for anything because it's rubbish. Also Aluminium was used heavily in and following the war for aircraft production...
The war was great for Alcoa. They sold aluminum to Japan before (and during) the war and it was turned into Zeroes which were then used to attack American planes and ships which used their aluminum, too. Win-win.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
My understanding - and I am not an expert either - is that it prohibits weapons that are *intended* to cause blindness. It doesn't prohibit weapons which may cause blindness incidentially to their intended purpose, and this has come up in the past with regards to laser-guided missiles where the very high-powered targeting laser can be easily pointed into the enemy eyes to disable them while the missile closes.
Tin Foil, 6"Wide x.001 Gauge 1Lb/Bx, Buffalo Dental Mfg Co Inc , $77.99 ! Aluminum is OK for wraping a turkey, but sometime you need the real deal.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
I love how the U.S. military keeps inventing weapon systems that are far more effectively used against us than against the sorts of enemies we face these days. Sure, we get a few year's worth of lead time where we're the only one in possession of the new toys but once it's been invented, it's just a matter of time until everyone has it. Tell, me, who has more to lose from the wide availability of this sort of missile system? The people with the heaviest reliance on computers, of course. Same goes for Stuxnet, of course, except that was even worse because that weapon system delivers its own blueprint. Thanks, guys.