"'Even the cockroaches won't survive': Expert discusses Hezbollah's new EMP weapon"
Barbara Tuchman got the central message of her book on the march to World War I, The Guns of August, wrong.
It wasn't her fault.
Archives that were unavailable to her at the time she was writing show that unlike her thesis of Great Powers accidentally slipping into war, that Germany actively drove toward the conflagration.
On the other hand her description of the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war
against Serbia on July 28, 1914 as an example of “the bellicose frivolity
of senile empires” seems pretty much on the mark.
And jumping ahead 110 years, the seeming inevitability of a wider war in the Middle East may one day be exposed as an error in perception of what is driving the escalations we are now seeing.
From the Jerusalem Post, July 28:
Rotem Mey-Tal, CEO of Asgard
Systems, a company developing military technology for the defense
industry discusses Hezbollah's new tactic and supply of electromagnetic
ordnance.
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported that Iran has supplied Hezbollah
and other Iranian proxy forces with electromagnetic ordnance, which can
disable communication systems and shut down radars. Rotem Mey-Tal, CEO
of Asgard Systems, a company developing military technology for the
defense industry and the initiator of the "30U30 in Defense" competition
for 2024, discussed the issue.
First, what is electromagnetic ordnance?
"Describing
electromagnetic ordnance is like talking about something no one has
ever seen, but everyone understands exists and is present in reality—in
our case, on the geopolitical and military chessboard of the Middle
East. In essence, imagine lightning striking the building you live in,
not hitting a lightning rod or antenna, but the entire building, causing
all the electrical panels, water heaters, water and electrical systems,
household appliances, computers, television systems, and even
life-saving medical systems to stop working. It's like a power outage,
but in this case, the systems can also burn out from the inside like in
an electrical short."
Where is this threat aimed?
"I
suspect the threat is more focused on bases, strategic facilities,
desalination systems, and the Israeli power grid. However, it's
impossible to say precisely, as such a weapon has never been used in
history, so there are no sources or references to learn from."
A screenshot from a Hezbollah video allegedly showing a new
missile-firing UAV target an Israeli position in northern Israel. May
17, 2024. (credit: Hezbollah Telegram)
Does it work like an electric wave or like conventional munitions and rockets?
"The
physics are the same in any way they choose to use such capability, but
I suspect the model will likely be in the form of a low-flying UAV.
Much like the Iranian-Houthi attack of the upgraded Samad 3 UAV, which
struck near the US Embassy in Tel Aviv last weekend, only instead of a
kinetic warhead with gunpowder, the front of the UAV can be armed with
an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) activation mechanism, which is triggered
during the UAV's flight and emits an EMP upon contact with the target.
But again, it's mostly speculation, as there is no documentation to date
of the use of such a weapon or technology."....
