Skunk Works Mailing List

Re: Pulse weapons

From: "Allen Thomson" 
Subject: Re: Pulse weapons
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 08:13:17 -0500


Terry W. Colvin reported,


>Bill Rose writes, EMG weapons have been a reality for some time and are
>designed to disable electronic systems.  A new device was recently
introduced
>for the Tomahawk cruise missile which is called the Explosive
>Magnetocumulative Generator Warhead.  It consists of a coil surrounded by
>explosives, which are configured to implode.  A fraction of a second before
>detonation, a current is passed through the coil which generates a small
>magnetic field.  When the implosion occurs, the coil is squeezed to
generate
>a massive electromagnetic pulse which equals that produced by a tactical
>nuke.  Developed at Los Alamos, this particular device adds to the many
>warheads now available for cruise...

Just as a historical note, while the original work on explosive MCGs was,
IIRC, done in the US, Andrey Sakharov of Soviet human rights fame picked it
up and was responsible for much of the early development.  After he fell
from official favor, A.I. Pavlovskiy at Arzamas-16 became the leader of the
work and published a large number of unclassified papers on the technology
in the '70s.  (There have been reports of a "non-nuclear EMP" warhead for
the SS-21/Tochka for a number of years, presumably something like that
described above.)

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Created: Sat Apr 17 09:22:17 EDT 1999