We should all be clapping, at 7.5 Million That a bargain. When was the last time the government ever spent so little on a project?

CoolTri

Kinda brings back a few memorys...

+ Watch video

PS. was i the only one that didnt know that Richard Dean Anderson voice acted in it??

KylejvT

oooooorrrrr they could use it to take out the power in Las Vegas, and rob the casino.

MrBlahBlah

Is it really going to look like that? They'd love it at Burning Man.

Shoghon

lets all hope the apocalypse does not start in 2009

damnElantra

I think fear of reverting to the stone age is the least of the fears for the people underneath that detonated nuclear device.

Citizen Kang

You know, I"d be a hell of a lot more concerned about the ensuing nuclear fallout and primary blast than about whether my imac will make it out alive. Just sayin.

ZPfan

Will only be a matter of time before they work it into weapons, they already use graphite bombs to disable power plants so this is just the next step.

[en.wikipedia.org]

KylejvT

so, is it more powerful than existing ones?
[en.wikipedia.org]

jkr2

Starcraft style EMP shockwave!

iatacs19

Will the iPhone work afterward?

Set to evil

@pizzlepaps: Yeah you're right. That looks more like a budget for 100 Husky hammers and a box of nails.

Joseph

7.5 mil seems pretty cheap for something military

pizzlepaps

That decimal needs to be further right...more....more

BiZarRroBALlmeR

Can we drop an EMP on Apple's iphone plant in China?

Justapspfan

More

BiZarRroBALlmeR

oh yeah, they got it just for testing purpose...

you know, i just got a whore to practice not cheating on my girlfriend... you know, i didn't went well at the fisrt try, or the second...

laio

I'm going to go ahead and start building my Faraday Cage now.

max.goedjen

Effect on pacemakers?

Meh.

Seniors beware, the Navy is out to kill you is all. This is the solution the Social Security issues. Or someone really, REALLY wants Obama in office.

doobiebros2two

Lead Scientist for anthrax defense, what happened? Will another such mad scientist pack an EMP generator into a van and take out Wall Street someday?

whootowl

Testing...okay...with the almost essential role of technology in the world today, especially with superpowers, I'm going to have to be paranoid and predict that this will ultimately be the new weapon to own to cripple an enemy.

NcSchu

@CoolTri: @pizzlepaps: An EMP is actually fairly simple to make. You just need a small capacitor bank, feeding into a Marx generator or EPFCG, subsequently feeding into a magnetron, or other suitable microwave generator. A fairly powerful device could probably be built for a few thousand. Hell, a sufficiently powerful search radar functions as an EMP. My uncle talks of when he was in the Air Force, they had a helicopter fly too close to the radar tower, and repeatedly lose power each time it was hit by a sweep.

The trick is they want one for testing other devices for resistance. That means they want it to be contained, tunable, reliable, and reusable. That's what the $7.5M is being put into.

wagnerrp

"The device is not going to be used as a weapon"

Suuuuure it isn't.

unibrow4o9

"Even if the possibility of such a scenario occurring is remote..."

Not really. The Iranians just tested a missle that was launched from a freighter at in the black sea and detonated at altitude - there is only one reason to do that. Once they have a nuke (1 yr!) they can get it within firing range, launch it and take out all the electronics on the eastern sea board. America would instantly cease to be a world power.

We need to hit the Iranians and hit them hard.

Carni77

@Citizen Kang: But will my APC insurance cover damage caused to my devices by an electronagnetic discharge from a 50 kiloton nuclear blast 30 miles over my house?

I KNEW I should have kept the TOC that came along with it.

rudolphdude

Did anyone even notice that the Navy already has one? The other branches (Air Force, Army) have them as well. Why not just ask the others to be nice and share? Save the 7.5 Mil for something more vital like a hammer or a toilet seat.
BTW, EMP can be generated with a high altitude Nuclear Blast in which case there would be little local fallout to worry about. It'll kill ALL (even Iphones and MACS!) not protected or even plugged in to anything.

CHUCK1UP

"The device is not going to be used as a weapon, instead it will be used to test the resistance of military systems to specific EMP levels as a preventative measure in the event that a nuclear weapon is detonated in US airspace."

Of cooouuuurse it is. And as DARPA told my physics-genius friend when he crunched numbers for them, the orbital railguns he was helping design will only be aimed outwards so they can blow up approaching asteroids.

Killjoy

@Carni77: Dude, that's scary shit.

liquidsoapdispenser

@Justapspfan: only if we can drop a brain into your head

johnthevulcan

@Killjoy: Not to confirm nor deny, but your friend might now expect a visit from a couple of guys wearing black coats. Good luck figuring out what side they're really on.

whootowl

Yeah right! I am sure military will use it only for "defence research" Do they think everybody is naive or is everybody really naive?

KroKan

@doobiebros2two: "Or someone really, REALLY wants Obama in office."

His wife? Al Qaeda? Iran? China? North Korea? The Castro Brothers? Hey, you know he is rather popular!

@Carni77: "We need to hit the Iranians and hit them hard."

Or we can sit on the side lines and pretend to disapprove when Israel does it, whilst applauding loudly on the back channels.

GadgetPlay

Won't be used as a weapon?!? HAH, I say, HAH!!! <---(exclamation points)

TSlade

Its about time!

RoboChop

Good, So now I can have confidence that my Playstation 4 will make it out of a nuclear bombing alive.

....Excellent.

Jaredu

"wont be used as weapon"...this is the most awesome weapon there is. Imagine ruining/turning off all the enemys electronic equipment. They would just be guys with guns. No radio, no intel, nothing.

redkamel

I actually think there are enough ways to generate EMP that the military doesn't really need this as a weapon.

liquidsoapdispenser

what they're really gonna do is knock over not one, not 2, but 3 las vegas casinos.

kaikai34

didnt they have one in oceans 11?

darklybishop

Hit the Iranians hard? I love the morons that are taking over our Country. I cannot imagine why Iran would attack us. Have they ever in the past? What would be their reason? I dont think any country is stupid enough to think they can launch missiles against us (USA) and win. The minute they do that, 50 nukes will be launched as a counter attack. And remember, its been us who has always fracked with Iran (over threw their "Shah" and supplied Iraq for 8 years against Iran).

Back on the subject, anybody who also thinks this isnt going to be tested as a weapon slash isnt already being tested needs to be more into consiperesies(sp!)

illegalprelude

@whootowl: I told him at the time that he probably shouldn't be talking about stuff like that to me. Like many geniuses his considerable gifts in in one mental department are balanced by deficiencies in others, judgement being one of them.

Killjoy

@Killjoy: Of course, the identity of your friend will be ascertained by first contacting...

whootowl

@whootowl: Well that was the other thing I said at the time. "[Insert name here] old pal, if they knock on my door about this, I'm gonna sing like a nightingale."

I'll be sure to mention that I never assumed protecting the Earth from asteroids would be a state secret.

Killjoy

@Killjoy: Beyond rail gun technology, this is just a wee bit sensitive in that certain international treaties would be violated.

whootowl

@whootowl: I'll take your word for it, but if that's so, I'm not the one violating them.

Killjoy

well, all i know is, if they use this on Afganistan it wont work... they are already on the "Stone Age"

GatewayMaster

The single biggest thing I don't get about these military releases is - aren't we compromising on your capabilities by telling this stuff to the whole world?

shouldn't they be focusing on how to get this country out of debt than spending money on unnecessary things?