Amongst prepper and survivalist communities, the prospect of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) or Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) is guaranteed to strike fear and stimulate debate.
The problem with these events is that there is so much uncertainty regarding the severity of the effects, and it seems that the federal government is unable or unwilling to take serious measures to harden critical infrastructure against EMP or CME.
The question is, what has the US government done to protect its citizens against the effects of an EMP or CME, and if they haven’t done much, why haven’t they taken action?
Executive Order
On March 29th, 2019, the president signed Executive Order 13865, which aims to harden the country’s infrastructure against the effects of an EMP or CME.
The general scope of the order is that various government agencies will figure out the impact of a CME or EMP attack, identify the vulnerable critical infrastructure, and devise a plan to harden this infrastructure against attack.
As of the writing of this article, three years have passed, and it seems that not a lot has been done to protect the grid.
⇒ 70+ Projects That Help You Survive Long-Term Without A Grid
While I am sure that work is being conducted behind the scenes, it would appear that we are a very long way from being secure against the threat.
Why Is It Taking So Long?
The simple fact of the matter is this; it is far less expensive to protect the grid now than to replace the grid after an attack.
The highest cost estimate that I found for hardening the grid against an EMP or CME is about 50 billion dollars.
Other estimates that I’ve seen suggest the cost could be as low as 1 billion dollars.
For a point of comparison, the current price of an aircraft carrier is a little over 13 billion dollars. Currently, the United States has eleven active aircraft carriers and is building more.
No one was ever going to win an election on a campaign centering on hardening the electrical grid from attack by the Sun or EMPs.
Related: 11 Things You Believe About EMPs and Faraday Cages That Are Actually Wrong
When there is only so much money to go around, it is difficult to convince your constituents to purchase equipment for the electrical grid when another critical infrastructure is falling apart.
Upgrading transformers look good on paper, but what people really want is for the potholes on their street to be fixed, decent healthcare, cheap gas, healthy food, and a future for their children.
Even when it makes sound financial and tactical sense to invest in preparing for an EMP or CME, far too many politicians will refuse to expend the political capital to see the necessary upgrades funded and implemented.
It is far too easy for those who make the decisions to put projects like EMP defence on the back burner in favour of other more politically favourable projects.
Why Would The Government Choose To Take Action Now?
Nuclear weapons have been around since World War Two, and the concept of an EMP has been known and studied for almost as long.
So why is it then that the United States government is only taking the threat seriously in the past few years?
Even though the current actions that the United States government is taking are decades too late, it is not hard to understand why they are taking some measures to begin the process of hardening the grid now.
In the past few decades, the concept of EMP and CME being a tangible threat has found its way into popular culture through movies and TV shows which have served to educate the public about the danger.
While the information delivered was dramatized and not entirely accurate, I am confident that this recent education of the general public has resulted in increased pressure on the government to take action.
There are also emerging threats that may also be spurring the politicians to start taking action.
North Korea has been a problem for a long time, but until recently, its threat was limited to the peninsula it occupies. That is until they joined the nuclear club and managed to successfully launch missiles that hold the potential to reach the continental United States.
It is unlikely that they would nuke a city, but they could detonate a nuclear weapon in the upper atmosphere causing a high-altitude EMP which could take down large portions of the electrical grid.
⇒ How An EMP Will Affect Your State
Terrorists could acquire smaller devices which are engineered to generate an EMP which they could use to take out the power grid of a major city. All they would need is a device and a small airplane. A small EMP delivered to the right location could shut off the power to massive areas of the continent.
The decades of research since the first atomic test have also led to the development of EMP as a weapon.
There is little doubt that the development of EMP weapons which the United States has undertaken, has also served to expose the strategic vulnerability of the current grid infrastructure.
Along with the development of offensive EMP weapons comes the development of countermeasures and early warning systems to defend against a strike by unfriendly nations.
If the United States can weaponize EMP, it is inevitable that most other nuclear nations will do the same. There is nothing like an arms race to stimulate government action.
Final Thoughts
It is true that efforts should have been made decades ago to harden the grid against EMP and CME, and that the government has made little progress in protecting its citizens against the threat.
It is also true that the wheels of government policy and action grind painfully slow, and a robust and protected grid may only be seen well after most of us are in the ground.
This is why we all need to take matters into our own hands and do everything we can to prepare for when the grid fails, because your elected officials are definitely in no hurry to help their constituents.
Well voting is dead and the government is corrupt beyond anything worth saving. They really just want to collapse it and rebuild their true obe world gov.
Best thing since all of the USD is based on fiat money, the USA govt does a bankruptcy. China gets kicked out of the farmlands and meatpacking companies they bought.
Take all the politicians that profited from selling our their country, place them in Guantanamo prison. Time to clean house on both sides of the swamp. Defund all the alphabet agencies.
Build the wall and drill for oil.
We can start with an Article 5 Convention of States….and there’s nothing the establishment can do about it….except start a civil war, create a new plandemic, nuke the US….
You forgot COAL
Bob
You really think all those good things are in the near future?
Yeah you’re talking Seahorse I’m sure.
Even with a corrupt government and your desire to talk everyone out of voting, I’ll still vote.
How’s voting working
raven: Do you ever pay attention to what’s going on? Your president is in deep trouble thanks to hunter and his own greed. States are rebelling and RINOs losing seats, dems are abandoning their sinking ship. Not to fear, I’m sure you voted, registered or not.
oh gosh… you think they will arrest Hilary or biden this year…… did the Q man tell you that lol
Instead of hardening our infrastructure for an EMP., they are hardening the IRS for taxpayers – especially those taxpayers who own their own business.
Please do not follow the Convention of States. It is Soros funded. Is everyone in the movement a bad actor? I don’t think so. However, is Soros going to fund something that going to kick him out of the US? No. Follow New California State and understand there is a way to legally form a new State from a corrupt old State. If you follow NCS 51, you’ll be shocked at how corrupt the non-functioning, Unconstitutional California government is and how financially irresponsible the so-called California government has been for decades.
well with a emp what would you use to protect your solar?
I’m Aussie, so might have a different approach and thoughts. My in laws have just gone through a (not isolated) three day power outage (rural Australia + wild weather + aging networks = this sort of stuff) …. We have back up generators and low electricity living, so it wasn’t a major issue for us (rest of town was rather miffed).
I suspect living in an urban area would dramatically change your reliance on the grid being up (as would living in harsh environments, most Aussies didn’t have air con in the 80s and even 90s and thus can survive even a week of 40C/110F if they need to – they have learnt how over the years). If the grid is down and you cannot run a generator, cannot get cool or warm and cannot forage food then sure, an EMP is a major headache. If you are rural you can probably get by for quite a while.
This said, I use an EMP (or Nuke) as the ultimate goal to prep for. It’s the tokenistic catastrophic event that is TEOTWAWKI smashing through. I did read somewhere that a lot of small electronics will be fine, but Comms, power and large electronics could well fry. (EMP/Solar flare, same issues)
I’m aware that generally a solar flare will only hit one half of the world – the recent COVID and sabre rattling politics that have hit the supply chains has shown us that it’s not great if half the world stops shipping, but I suspect that allies all over the world will help. Maybe not fast. Can you buckle down, beat off the looters and survive three to six months while things are returned to up and running? It’ll never go back to the way it was though. And when I say buckle down I mean not rely on water pumps, on power or on transport.
EMPs won’t destroy most of your copper cables and your conduits and pipes – that’s the expensive part of building your power networks. The microchips that fry are easily replaceable but will need to come in on a ship. And yes, the Australian government can unload large military ships on tiny islands in disaster zones (it’s why we do international aid – to train our armed services in times of peace for times of conflict, war is after all just another ugly disaster), they can fly and land planes on atolls and remap and reconnaissance dramatic changes in geography rapidly. I assume every other western country has similar capability. Only issue is right now the international shortage of quality chips.
People think if an EMP lands they can jump in their pre 1970s Mad Max car with armour plate (can you imagine the modifications to the suspension and frame?!) and zip down the highways to their bug out locations. Cough cough. If it’s so bad that no one else is driving then a) you’ll have to fight you way through clogged roads littered with dead cars, and b) anything that makes that much noise purring down the highway will become an immediate target for gangs (good luck as you try to slalom through the dead vehicles) or martial law enforcers / police (who will commandeer your vehicle).
Anyone who thinks they can pull all the electronic wizardry of 2022 out of a faraday cage and set up and carry on will face the same targeting. That massive radio aerial on your roof is going to be noticed eventually.
I’m not saying don’t do this stuff, but instead consider how to hide it, consider how you’ll use it, and make damn sure it’s all legal spec so no one has an excuse to take it off you when things are slowly returning to normal but not there yet. Whether it be a Ham Radio licence, or your purely mechanical car having the right roadworthiness.
Oh, and I’ll add. I don’t trust the government to adequately prep for this for me. I’ll work it out for myself, share with others what I know and can, and call it enough. It’s a big thing, you want to be ahead of the curve on, but I’m not doomsday prepping in a flash, but instead mixing solid mechanical knowledge, off grid life projects and ‘homesteading’ in a combined lifestyle that should see me through the worst of a slow disaster, and safe enough in a short sharp one. Security is also high on the prep list, but not something I feel the need to spend more hours on than learning to feed and shelter myself at this point.
My Mad Max car has Condaluni’s hand hanging on a chain. I hear he wants it back.
“It is unlikely that they would nuke a city, but they could detonate a nuclear weapon in the upper atmosphere causing a high-altitude EMP which could take down large portions of the electrical grid.”
in reality – and not just trying to add influence to an EMP article >>> the rogue countries like North Korea and Iran along with any terrorist groups will be looking for an immediate body count – and not relying on some sci fi proposed death toll that’ll decimate the USA in the next 5 years ….
They know ANY attack on the US will be their last day on earth – and they’ll be looking to shine in the glory while it lasts – waiting for CNN to broadcast the crater where NYC Times Square or the DC Lincoln Memorial once stood ….
The PAW novel One Second After is a great read – but based on quite a few improbables – just moving one of the rudimentary nukes into the US would be hard enough – missile warhead sophistication and a large enough rocket for orbital altitude is currently just a terrorist wet dream ….
With all the terrorists ICE thinks are coming in (based on people they pick up), they won’t need to nuke a city and probably won’t. Military bases, yes. niio
red, research deeper
Illini, they will do both, devastating lower altitude bursts to enhance immediate casualties for publicity, as well as higher level EMP bursts for total extended harm to the entire society, along with as much cyber damage as they can. They are not stupid, fanatical yes, but also very diabolical.
I’ve heard that President Trump got those EMP breakers from the company. They won’t give out information. “ That is why DHS is taking these contingencies very seriously, working diligently to mitigate our risks and equipping our state and local partners with the resources they need to do the same. We’ve made significant progress and look forward to the work ahead.” Add this to the extensive list of things the President said he would do if elected in 2016.
BUT DON’T think Biden will continue in this effort. So, at best, the US is only partially protected.
If Trump had gotten the Pres. election, then we would not have to talk of an EMP war. Since he did not get in, now we have to worry about the great purge of the dead wood of our population. Too bad.
Yeah, it’s wild, isn’t it that most targets will be major lib areas. niio
I feel that an attack on our power grid is very real cyber warfare nuclear maybe both could very well be in our not so far future our country is showing major weakness because of our current administration we have many enemies just a matter of when they will strike this is the number one reason I prep
how does one find people likewise interested in safety measures and prepared for what’s coming soon but is not afraid to find them and where does one find them ?
I live in Arizona, and people from here will ask how to contact. you can try that. State, and maybe add your county. niio
Anna, if you mean finding others in your area also concerned with real issues and might be pro-active about preparing for emergency situations, my first advice is OPSEC, Operational Security, which means do not share your prepping activities with anyone until they EARN your trust, and I must stress: EARN your Trust. This includes friends and even family. You will be surprised how many people are willing to adapt an attitude of “if SHTF, I’ll just come to your place” even if they have done absolutely NOTHING themselves to do anything in advance to prepare for adversity.
Those people DO NOT DESERVE your support, especially at the cost of your own security. This is a hard knocks attitude that many people will ignore, and suffer for it, but those that have planned and prepared in advance, as long as they take the “hard knocks” stance of refusing to support the lazy and ignorant “deniers” after SHTF, then those are the folks with better chances of making it through the hardships.
Good luck trying to charge you electric car dummies, they barely keep it working now!!!
Since I don’t think anything happens in DC by accident or ignorance, everything we see in our lives is for a self serving purpose of the filthy low life rich politicians and their swamp monsters who are nameless but probably include Melon’s, DuPont’s, Rockerfellow’s, and that group. Oh, they know what they are doing alright…..
I do not think the agenda of our Democrat politicians is to protect this country. As a result, nothing will happen for the next two I years to any degree I suspect. They have almost broken us financially following the Alinsky plan that Obama and Clinton were more than likely supporting surreptitiously. I believe there is a good chance Trump will kick start this issue when he returns though the Democrats, the Chinese and the Russians will be using every trick in the book to neutralize him during his second term……………
trump isnt going to save us…. they already have taken him out…..
Wake up.
raven, got proof of that? Any documents a sitting president has he has the right to declassify, and Trump did that. Your party, the dnc, is already on a major losing streak because they’re still shrieking hate at Trump.
“Charlie Foxtrot” X-spurt, why are you still spouting nonsense base upon your Elohim Cult crystal ball? How about posting some real world, (verifiable) information to support your ignorant Libtard supporting comments?
Jerry: dems have hated this country since they lost the right to own people like livestock. To make matters worse, FDR became a nazi in the 30s, as did a lot of wealthy liberals. Dems do nothing unless hitler wanted it done. Hitler was listed as a homosexual by his doctor, he was into gay rights (only for the butches) and the head of the Jungen was a gay pedo. He was into animal rights, called the earth man’s only god, was anti-democracy, and an elitist communist. That last makes communism look very enticing to world leaders. niio
The picture of USA above might mislead. 2 of 3 citizens live less than 200 miles from borders – Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific — and Canada. Smarter to smaller bombs east coast, west, and south. Especially winter. God forbid!
Revenge would be bad for whole the world. Even elites-who would be lackys?
They would rather spend the money on getting us to believe men are women and women are men as well as paying off China,Ukraine and all the other countries that hate us. And it would likely cost way more than the above estimates considering how many they will have to pay off. Get ready yourself as best you can because even if they harden everything tomorrow it won’t be enough. And it will only benefit them. Look at all the bunkers they have already built for “the government “. Remember the one they secretly built under the resort in W VA? We only found out about it by accident. And once we did they shut it down so fast it made my head spin. But yeah that’s called “being worried about us”. They only care for themselves and that bunker is proof. Where did they move it to now? And you can be sure they have. Hardened, supplied with food,water, medicine, a hospital, military security. And US?? NOT A DAMN THING. In fact once the shooting stops they will be coming after US and the supplies we have managed to get for ourselves. Why? Because “we have to keep the government going”! WHY? They don’t give a s*** about us why should we care about them? Take care of YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!PERIOD!
Biden is to busy GIVING TRILLIONS away for nothing, to even BEGINE to pay for the upgrades it would require to harden the grid from attack. We would need to order 30 billion in replacement transformers to store. They would be the first thongs to fry that would need replacing to even begin to get power restored, not to mention the BIG major ones that WE don’t even manufacture here in the US. THEN to harden the rest of the facilities would be even more. BUT we’re to busy giving money away to everyone else. AMERICA FIRST Should be the VERY 1st thing we think of to protect ourselves BEFORE we go looking to help others. Because once we are down for the count (and we will be) then we cant help anyone, even ourselves. We will just be slaves to whoever moves in.
America is deadthr republic is gone
raven: Nope. Your party tried that a lot of times, but always lost.
Hey horsefly x-spurt you don’t wanna vote, don’t vote but you’re not going to talk me out of it. In fact now that I know it bothers you I’ll be very sure to vote.
Who cares if you vote…. It solves nothing honestly but if it gives you the false hope of saving this country and you buying less ammo or supplies then great. More for our group then.
Oh horseface I know it is your hope that no one on the right votes. If none of us vote your leftist rulers can just eliminate elections. Oh Yeah you’d sure like that.
Yeah I understand the condition of the country and the rigging of elections better than you I’m sure. However, it is my right as an American Citizen to vote, I shall do so and feel good about it… You on the other hand can feel good about doing exactly what the leftist rulers want you to do. You can also feel good knowing that you have forfeited your right to vote as well as your right to complain about election outcomes.
Our only hope is New Blood. We have young people knocking on our door looking for votes. Google them, study them.Make informed choices!
lol…………yeah right
Most tools are hand tools. If worried about having a vehicle, can you buy all the computer gadgets needed for your vehicle and store them in a faraday cage? Do you have water storage? Not jugs, but tanks? A concrete storage unit buried is best. It’s hidden and a small handpump can draw water from it. Do you raise eatable ornamentals in the flowerbeds or fancy weeds? Everything in the flowerbeds should eatable, animal feed (parts not used by humans), or a med. Buy solar is you can, the small stuff like calculators and other gadgets. go to sites like thrift books and see about reprints of old-school books. Tools that make tools are very good. How-to like smelting junk metal. A very good youtube channel is privative technology. He does everything from forest gardening to making things like a trebuchet. Primitive Techonolgy
My best to you–please, thrive!–in the new coming age. niio
red, exactly the type of message I have been trying to convey to others: Practical Prepping. This means doing what you can to stock up and prepare for emergencies, both natural and from society. Natural emergencies are usually weather driven such as tornados, hurricanes, floods, but also include things like earthquakes and even volcanic eruptions. Societal emergencies are things like attacks from enemies like cyber or EMP attacks, or internal economic collapse as the DNC has been trying to accomplish for many years.
Until 11/24, the current administration will be far too busy creating “fake ballots” to bother with the possibility of an EMP failure. Afterwards, they’ll return to naming post offices and other urgent business of the people like passing a tax on meat. You know, of course, the pesky livestock here in Nebraska “fart” and produce methane gas That must be severely reduced lest it harm the environment. And what better way to reduce the demand for livestock than tax meat so it’s unaffordable by the average person?
The Co2 that the greenies worry about from cows is easily solved with a different diet for the cows. An Australian farmer discovered that his cows produced less if they ate a red seaweed. With all of the humans wearing masks, that threw off the balance of Co2 as they ended up with less oxygen in their lungs. Instead they had more used Co2. With the underground volcano expelling contaminated gases into our country’s supply of commercial Co2 down in Mississippi, beverage makers are having troubles. If true honest science was involved with the whole Co2 issue, there would be no issue to regulate. I listed various aspects of Co2 because those in power delight in regulating us, even if it makes no sense. We just have to learn how to function and work around illogical rulings.
Elfin, what I find absolutely ludicrous is that there use to be millions of Bison roaming the Great Plains, and they were farting all day long, but that did not affect the “Climate”, but when Libtard’s claim it as a crisis it becomes a profitable left-wing political agenda. Truth is denied, and political lies for profit are promoted by Fascist funded MSM propaganda support.
They are already taking care of this. With the drought in the midwest right now, farmers are slaughtering cattle by the thousands because won’t be any feed this winter. Last time we saw this kind of Drought in Summer, It snowed like crazy all winter and had ice storms knocking out power. Don’t need to tax the meat, won’t be much left.
Saw a movie the other day that really got me thinking. If you remember the old movie of the 80’s Red Dawn. It was about a Russian Invasion. They have recently updated this movie and it is now about a Korean/Chinese attack preceded by an EMP strike. A pretty realistic type of movie that has real world implications even today.
at this point Jericho is more closer to whats going on
X-spurt, you fail again. How about posting something useful for a change.
here’s what is ironic and a total failure of the current Biden administration: “The highest cost estimate that I found for hardening the grid against an EMP or CME is about 50 billion dollars.” and yet this Libtard agenda promoting Administration is willing to budget $87 Billion to expand the IRS, instead of protecting our Electrical Grid. It’s easy to see where the current Administrations priorities are, and they are NOT in doing what is best for America.