Could an emp burst damage or stop in-flight nukes?

[Dartz]

Would an electromagnetic pulse be able to disable nuclear missiles in-flight? How effective would it be? In an all-out nuclear war, could EMPs covering large areas disable most of them?

[vh]

i would guess not. nukes are probably heavily sheilded from emps. if you got really close to the nukes maybe you could disable some, but that would be very unlikely.

i'm assuming this by the fact that if any country launched a nuclear strike, they probably don't want to disable their own nukes.

[Dartz]

I've always wondered if they were, but researching the issue is hampered by the fact that typing it into Google brings up crap about Call of Duty.

In terms of strategy, I was considering the idea that the aggressor may want to take large-scale nuclear warfare out of the picture.

[Kevin1994]

end of the World 

[FiahOwl]

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[vh]

nuclear sheilds? how would that work.

what do you mean dartz? about no large scale nuclear warfare?

[Dartz]

Yeah, how would that work?

No large scale, meaning no attacks consisting of hundreds or thousands of nuclear weapons. I say that since, even if it's possible to disable most missiles in the air, a few may still get through. Either some missiles survive, or later on both sides find other ways of delivering nukes. While still undesirable, it's survivable.

[vh]

There is no any way to really defend against against nuclear war effectively. In fact, any such mechanism would destabilize the MAD doctrine because you can now attack without suffering retaliation and cause more harm than good.

[vh]

bump on this. I found that particle beams about a gigawatt or so might have been used in the star wars project to fry the electronics in a nuke from the radiation.

during the cold war, planned emp yields in nuclear weapons were about 10 petajoules or so, according to wikipedia. also according to a less reliable wiki answers source, a nuclear fission blast takes about 100 shakes of 10 nanoseconds; so that's 1 microsecond. It might be different for a nuclear fusion bomb i'll assume it's about the same. 10 petajoules/1 miceosecond = 1e21 watts at the peak of the explosion.

assumine the electronics in a nuclear warhead have an combined area of .1 m^2, then the required distance is 89206 meters = 89 kilometers.

so it might be effective and possible, assuming you could aim well enough.

[vh]

ok i've found this page on a radiation enhanced surface to air missile capable of disabling nukes by neutron flux
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(missile)

[fredetuc]

 No you couldn't. Electromagnetic pulses can't stop nuclear powered objects. Most nukes are powered by nuclear power. Therefore there is no way of stopping that nuke with a EMP ( electromagnetic pulse). But the government have found ways to in some terms "dodge a nuke". But if one came to the town I live in we would all be dead.

[Gordon Freeman]

nuclear sheilds? how would that work.

Not sure if they're at all practical, but super powerful artificial magnetic field "umbrellas" might do the trick.

Would an electromagnetic pulse be able to disable nuclear missiles in-flight? How effective would it be? In an all-out nuclear war, could EMPs covering large areas disable most of them?

Considering that EMPs are themselves powered by nuclear reactions, I would say no. EMPs are also super powerful, and would not only take out the nuke, but also the entire power grid of the region below.

[Darvince]

1) but nuclear weapons are just missiles with fissile material inside they don't have to have any electronic guidance on them or anything you just drop it and a fuse runs out before it hits the ground and then the fissile material is bombarded with neutrons and it cascades into an enormously explosive reaction

basically, MAD doctrine is a result of the ease of creating a nuclear fission bomb and the difficulty of stopping one

[vh]

No you couldn't. Electromagnetic pulses can't stop nuclear powered objects. Most nukes are powered by nuclear power. Therefore there is no way of stopping that nuke with a EMP ( electromagnetic pulse). But the government have found ways to in some terms "dodge a nuke". But if one came to the town I live in we would all be dead.

yes you can. they don't stop the physical object. they just disable the electronics which guide the missile and trigger the detonation. this is sufficient.

nuclear sheilds? how would that work.

Not sure if they're at all practical, but super powerful artificial magnetic field "umbrellas" might do the trick.

that's not really how magnetics work unless you want to use electromagnets to alter their flight paths, which is kind of absurd.

Would an electromagnetic pulse be able to disable nuclear missiles in-flight? How effective would it be? In an all-out nuclear war, could EMPs covering large areas disable most of them?

Considering that EMPs are themselves powered by nuclear reactions, I would say no. EMPs are also super powerful, and would not only take out the nuke, but also the entire power grid of the region below.

EMPs can be focused, they will not take out the power grid although they might cause problems with radar. also EMPs do not have to be powered by nuclear reactions.

1) but nuclear weapons are just missiles with fissile material inside they don't have to have any electronic guidance on them or anything you just drop it and a fuse runs out before it hits the ground and then the fissile material is bombarded with neutrons and it cascades into an enormously explosive reaction

basically, MAD doctrine is a result of the ease of creating a nuclear fission bomb and the difficulty of stopping one

i can't tell if you're serious but ICBMs are immensely complex devices with tons of electronics in them. perhaps bombs dropped from strategic bombers are not but strategic bombers are pretty obsolete and slow.

[Darvince]

I was serious

[fredetuc]

Like I said before only nemp can shut down nukes not emps. unless the nuke has a circuits that runs on electric power.

[vh]

Like I said before only nemp can shut down nukes not emps. unless the nuke has a circuits that runs on electric power.

A nuclear electromagnetic pulse is simply an electromagnetic pulse triggered by a nuclear explosion. There's nothing special about nuclear emps that a normal emp cannot do. The whole point of the electromagnetic pulse is to disrupt the electronic guidance system of ICBMs

No you couldn't. Electromagnetic pulses can't stop nuclear powered objects. Most nukes are powered by nuclear power. Therefore there is no way of stopping that nuke with a EMP ( electromagnetic pulse). But the government have found ways to in some terms "dodge a nuke". But if one came to the town I live in we would all be dead.

nukes are /not/ powered by nuclear power. they are powered by rocket fuel and batteries.

[fredetuc]

Like I said before only nemp can shut down nukes not emps. unless the nuke has a circuits that runs on electric power.

A nuclear electromagnetic pulse is simply an electromagnetic pulse triggered by a nuclear explosion. There's nothing special about nuclear emps that a normal emp cannot do. The whole point of the electromagnetic pulse is to disrupt the electronic guidance system of ICBMs

No you couldn't. Electromagnetic pulses can't stop nuclear powered objects. Most nukes are powered by nuclear power. Therefore there is no way of stopping that nuke with a EMP ( electromagnetic pulse). But the government have found ways to in some terms "dodge a nuke". But if one came to the town I live in we would all be dead.

nukes are /not/ powered by nuclear power. they are powered by rocket fuel and batteries.

There are some nukes that run on nuclear power. There for you can't cut off there circuits. But some nukes do run on electric power.

[vh]

There are some nukes that run on nuclear power. There for you can't cut off there circuits. But some nukes do run on electric power.

there are no nuclear missiles which run on nuclear power. that's like suggesting that your aquarium runs on hydroelectric power. is it possible? yes. does it make sense? no.

also, nuclear power is simply electricity generated by a nuclear reactor. there is nothing special about it that makes immune to electromagnetic disruption. electricity generated by nuclear power plants also travels along the same copper wires as anything else.

[fredetuc]

ok sorry