November 27, 2009: Electromagnetic Pulse Attack - William R. Forstchen
The conversation traces the history of EMP discoveries, from the 1962 Starfish Prime test that blew out power grids in Hawaii to the declassified Soviet Test 184 over Kazakhstan, which fused automobile ignition systems and destroyed power stations 400 miles away. Forstchen describes the 1859 Carrington Event, a massive solar flare that melted telegraph wires and set railroad ties ablaze, warning that a similar solar storm today could collapse the global power grid for years.
Art and Forstchen examine how nations like Iran and North Korea could use EMP-calibrated weapons as first-strike tools. A 2004 congressional study projected that 90 percent of Americans could die within a year of such an attack, not from the pulse itself, but from the total collapse of water, food, medical, and transportation systems that civilization depends upon.
Key Moments
Starfish Prime and the Compton Effect: Forstchen explains how a 1962 high-altitude nuclear test 500 miles south of Hawaii triggered a cascading EMP via the Compton effect, blowing out parts of the Maui and Honolulu power grids and overwhelming instrumentation.
The Carrington Event and Solar EMP Risk: Forstchen describes the 1859 Carrington Event - telegraph wires melting, railroad ties burning, operators electrocuted - and warns a comparable solar storm today could leave 80% of the eastern U.S. grid offline four years later.
Just-in-Time Society Collapse: Forstchen recounts interviewing his pharmacist and college food manager, who confirm pharmacies and grocery stores run on just-in-time delivery with only days of supply, meaning insulin-dependent and pancreatic-enzyme patients die within weeks of any grid failure.
Iran's Vertical Launch Barges: Forstchen argues Iran's repeated vertical missile tests from Caspian Sea barges - dismissed publicly as failures - fit only one scenario: practicing a container-ship EMP first strike using a low-yield 40-100 kiloton fission weapon, not megatonnage.
MAD Doesn't Deter Apocalyptic Believers: Forstchen contrasts atheist Soviet leadership, who feared inheriting smoking ruins, with Iran's Shiite Twelvers who may welcome destruction of the infidel as fulfillment of prophecy bringing back the hidden Imam, breaking Cold War deterrence logic.