The Pulse

 

Note: All information used in this fictional article came from unclassified public domain, open sourced information contained on the Internet.

There were three teams. All had been through training in various locations such as Pakistan, Yemen and Syria. The mission was clear, the resolve was absolute. America, the "Great Satan" was about to take a trip through time - back to the 18th century. At last, this was going to be the great equalizer for the world's greatest super power.

It really was not going to be that hard. The technology has been around for decades. Actually, it was discovered by accident. In the later years of World War II, when Project Manhattan was in full swing, atomic testing was taking place on the Bikini Atoll. A strange effect was noticed when a bomb was detonated - electronic devices and lamps, as far away as Hawaii, would fail. It was the dawn of the EMP pulse.

During the Cold War, EMP was part of the Soviet order of battle. The theory was in a thermonuclear exchange, the first shot would be a high yield, high altitude detonation over the center part of the country. This would leave the majority of transportation, utilities and electronic devices useless. A salvo of surface detonations on a helpless and immobile population would follow. Yes, it would have been that bad.

The attack plan by the terrorists was incredibly simple. In 9/11, where our own assets were used against us, it turned out to be a very low cost, yet very effective event. This attack would be more costly as it would involve using assets bought mostly on the black market. Whereas 9/11 was an attack on our financial sector, this one was designed to bring America to her knees. It was going to take considerable planning and resources, carried out in a most clandestine manner to pull it off. Higher cost, higher risk, unbelievable reward.

Three barges were obtained. They all needed to be retrofitted, have the appropriate blast suppression and ablative applied, and all done without causing one speck of attention or suspicion. Each had to be able to transport and launch one Scud missile tipped with an 80 kiloton nuclear warhead. The Scud is a liquid fuel rocket that is about 38 feet long and 3 feet in diameter. Even though the Scud variant to be used is more accurate than previous versions, absolute accuracy did not matter with this launch. All the missile needed to do was go straight up for thirty miles and detonate it's payload.

The nukes were not that hard to find on the black market. During the collapse of the Soviet Union after the end of the Cold War, some lower yield devices "fell through the cracks". Even though we and the Russians have been actively seeking the "bread crumbs", the trail has long since gone cold. Current speculation is that some ended up in Lebanon's Beeka Valley with other toxic goodies left over from Saddam Hussein and Syria. Although tricky to smuggle three of these low yield devices without triggering the NEST (Nuclear Emergency Support Team) System, it was not impossible.

Aided in part by the disarray and budget cutting of United States intelligence assets, the plan came together. The three barges finished retrofit, the Scuds were obtained and loaded, and the nukes were successfully brought to the staging point. All was accomplished with the appropriate subterfuge to confuse any spy satellite which happened to pass by.

The barges left the staging area and began their journey to America. One was to be stationed 200 miles off the coast of Virginia, one 200 miles off the coast of Louisiana and the third 200 miles off the coast of California. Once in position, at a designated time all would launch their payloads. The resulting EMP pulse from the simultaneous detonations would cripple 90% of the population centers in the United States. In the following weeks and months, millions would starve or freeze to death. Mayhem, bedlam and anarchy would follow. The damage would be so wide spread, so complete to our infrastructure, the government would be powerless to help.

As I said in the prologue to the article, this story is fictional. My purpose it is not to alarm as much as it is to inform. This is a nightmare scenario that many of our enemies would like to see come to pass. Regardless of what our Administration tells us, there are still bad guys out there who would like to do us, our families, and our country great and permanent harm.
As a country and as citizens, we need to stay vigilant. We need to stay alert, stay aware, and stay prepared.