Improvised E-Bombs

[cutefix]

There is the latest issue in Popular Science Magazine dated September 2001.It is displayed in the cover , the E-Bombs(Electromagnetic pulse bombs) (I'm at the library right now and looking at the issue mentioned. Volume 178, #9. It's allright for what it is, but a much better explaination can be found in "Information Warfare, vol. 2, by Winn Schwartau (SP?). Also, look at www.infowar.com (http://www.infowar.com) NBK2000).it say that it can be improvised easily, in the form of Flux Compression Generator.You will see in the diagram on page 50 its simple design.I was thinking that a fast (brisant) explosive like C-4/semtex could easily be used for explosive component..Somehow the bank of capacitors looks complicated.Guys what can you say about the feasibilty of improvising this weapon.?

[This message has been edited by nbk2000 (edited August 30, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by nbk2000 (edited August 30, 2001).]

[Mr Cool]

Easy in theory, hard in practice. It'd be easier just to blow up the electronics. Also, most designs I've seen use a capacitor bank of around 10kJ, pulse rated. If you can find one of them for less than £2000 I'd be very impressed. And setting of the device will destroy it.

[DoH BoY]

Talk about a waste of perfectly good money
if u wanted to set somthing like this off u would have to be a rich terrorist or somthing.

[This message has been edited by DoH BoY (edited August 22, 2001).]

[Machiavelli]

Can somebody provide a scan of said design? Popular Science is not that easy to get in Germany...

[BoB-]

It was popularmeachanics dude, I'm looking at the article, the diagram is overly simplistic, it gives an accurate description about how the device should work, but gives no detail in its construction. Nice read about physics though.

More accurate diagrams of an easilly built EMP device is on Jhonbus' page:
http://www.geocities.com/Pipeline/Curb/2003/

[cutefix]

Sorry about that,these magazine if you only care too look in the interesting cover you will overlook the title.Popular science and popular mechanics looks similar in cover…Anyway I searched the web today and this what I found from this site:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/ebomb.html
“As an example, the fabrication of an effective FCG can be accomplished with basic electrical materials, common plastic explosives such as C-4 or Semtex, and readily available machine tools such as lathes and suitable mandrels for forming coils. Disregarding the overheads of design, which do not apply in this context, a two stage FCG could be fabricated for a cost as low as $1,000-2,000, at Western labour rates. This cost could be even lower in a Third World or newly industrialised economy.
While the relative simplicity and thus low cost of such weapons can be considered of benefit to First World nations intending to build viable war stocks or maintain production in wartime, the possibility of less developed nations mass producing such weapons is alarming. The dependence of modern economies upon their information technology infrastructure makes them highly vulnerable to attack with such weapons, providing that these can be delivered to their targets. “
Therefore it is not a remote possibility that it can be improvised easily.It was claimed in that popular magazine that with few hundred dollars, it can be built.The technology is simple.It was claimed to be a topsecret device;but I believe it to be easier to improvise than a simple fission nuclear device.Knowing how sinister these EMP to communication lines it would be a perfect weapon for terrorist who can fabricate and use it against their targets.

[Mr Cool]

Yes cutefix, the technology is simple. But the technology behind hydrogen bombs is also simple, it only gets hard when you try to actually make one. You could not make an effective one in your shed, that's for sure. But yes, it is simpler than a fission device.
Basic electrical materials?! LOL! Maybe basic to research labs etc., but you couldn't pick the parts up at RS or Maplins!

[EventHorizon]

I seem to remember an article about a young, IIRC ~14, boy who had acquired a small amount of uranium 238 I think, and made a small nuclear reactor in his shed. Caused a big stink with the neighbors too. Apparently he had almost gotten it to work. Its been a long while since I read the story, but basically anyone who has the brains and knows what they want and how to ask for it can do quite a bit.

[cutefix]

I agreee with you event horizon,why would western governments are worried about weapons grade plutonium, that may fall into wrong hands -because the technology for making a simple nuclear device is available.There are also nuclear scientists from east bloc states that may have mercenary tendencies,.The other thing needed is definite purpose by a wealthy patron who have the necessary materials and tools to build one.I donot believe the impossibility of the idea of building an improvised E-Bomb.The time will come for the end of western arrogance. The west are flaunting their skill in applying information technology to modern warfare,yet if their adversary disabled their advanced electronic equipment through these devices ,they will become sitting ducks...
EMP hardening is still an imperfect art...

[Mr Cool]

I'm not saying that an E-bomb would be impossible to make, I'm just saying that it'd be expensive, and you'd need to do a lot of testing to get one to work efficiently. The cost of making dozens to test would put it well out of the reach of people like us.

Hmm... I read that story about the kid with the breeder reactor. He should've sticked to Americium, it's four times as radioactive as Radium. If the story was accurate he'd have been a long way from getting it to work.

[the freshmaker]

This is not a electropulse bomb but is has a litle to do with this topic. A high explosive charge fx. C4 surrounded by a big charge of grafite dust. When the bomb is detonated near fx. eletronic station the HE will throw the very fine grafitedust everywhere and and create a electriccircut between the eletronics and then short circuit and damage the whole system. This kind of bomb was used by the US against irac under the bombardements in 1991.

[BoB-]

The graphite would probably ignite since its touching the explosive.

[cutefix]

I heard this bomb too,but not familiar with its construction.If the HE is used to disperse the graphite,then the amount of it is just enough to scatter and not ignite it.If an HE is brisant enough and there is an absence of incendiary additive;combustion of graphite will not occur…
Yet the effect is selective an limited not mass destabilization of the surrounding electronic devices.Supposing these devices are armored or well protected so that the graphite particles will just slide on the protective surface.I think and admixture of high density tungsten granules will have some penetrating effect so as to enable the graphite to penetrate the covering....But the projectile construction as well as its explosive filler will have to be modified.The metal should be cast with the explosive for optimum effect..

[Fingerless]

graphite is very ignition-resistent.

[nbk2000]

It was carbon fiber on spools, not graphite dust explosively scattered.

------------------
"The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them"

Go here (http://members.nbci.com/angelo_444/dload.html) to download the NBK2000 website PDF.

Go here (http://briefcase.yahoo.com/nbk2k) to download the NBK2000 videos.

[cutefix]

I found the site www,infowar ,impressive.Thanks for that link NBK. I’m still starting to browse on it and I found the BLU-114 carbon filament bombs,I think that weapon works best with power pylons,I also found the Russian high power microwave bomb which was effectively tested .This weapon is man portable but expensive and sophisticated yet there is already an available market for it...It would need advanced skill in electronics to fabricate it,therefore not for improvisation..

[kingspaz]

not sure if this is of much use but i uploaded some text about EMP weapons. it was originally from www.abovetopsecret.com (http://www.abovetopsecret.com) but its gone under because of lack of funding.

http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/kingspaz/emp.doc

if it doesn't work copy and paste the link into your browser.

[cutefix]

Thanks,Kingspaz for this link.in angelfire..that clarify some info that perplexed me.

I think your file is similar to abovetopsecret website where they used a fast explosive containing 95%HMX,but they withheld some information how can a plane wave from an explosive lens occur without the presence of a slow explosive.I think It uses the same principle as the conventional explosive trigger in fission type weapons.I anticipate that their explosive lens is a combination of this fast PBX(VOD >8800m/s) and a slow explosive like plumbatol(60/40)TNT/PbNO3 (VOD >.4000m/s)combination.in order to form a suitable planar compressive force that will help activate the system..Fast explosive alone will shatter the device instead before it can achieve its task…Now that ratio of two explosive combination is to be optimized,for best effect.

Hello,NBK do you mind if I ask, what happened to www.infowar.com (http://www.infowar.com) I had difficulty accessing it recently.it is such an interesting and very informative site..and I’m still not halfway browsing its voluminous info…again, thanks for that link…

[Machiavelli]

Instead of discussing endlessly about how it might work and what you could do and possibly and maybe and probably and instead of consulting pseudo-scientific sources how about consulting the scientific literature?
Among the most important publications for us probably are the proceedings of the IEEEs conferences on pulsed power. These papers are talking about actual working devices and give you exact specifications.
Additional information should be available from www.ieee.org (http://www.ieee.org) and any university library should be able to get the stuff for you.
The whole research area of pulsed power generation and applications should be very interesting in this respect.
As soon as I get back to university I'll have a look at it, meanwhile, if anyone else can drag his ass to the university we might be able to continue the discussion on a higher level.

[nbk2000]

Here's video clips of an artist (yeah, whatever :rolleyes: ) who made an "I-Bomb" as in "Information Bomb". It uses a spark-gap with a huge coil to generate an EMP field. Check it out.

<a href="http://www.eiu.org/experiments/i-bomb/video.html" target="_blank">http://www.eiu.org/experiments/i-bomb/video.html</a>

Unfortunately, the dickheads didn't include schematics. But, from the pictures, you can see what it's going to take to build even a small EMP device.

[J]

Doesn't look too complicated at all. I'll take a guess at the circuit: A bank of HV caps are charged up through the coil, using a high voltage PSU. The PSU output current will determine the charge time.

The spark gap's in parallel with the coil, and it breaks down when the cap bank has a high enough voltage on the plates. For best results, the coil and caps must be matched (using equations found on many tesla coil websites) to maximise ringing.

This kind of device would have to be huge to be used as a large scale weapon, rather than just a demonstration project. A magnetic flux compression generator would be much more effective for a fraction of the cost.

[nbk2000]

An FCG is a one use only device, plus need attention drawing explosions to work.

Whereas, an EMP pulser (as shown) can be used infinitely, and quietly. Imagine it in the back of a van, driving along in a commercial/financial district. Silent e-death.

And fancy e-bombs and EMP are the only anti-tech weapons available. Airfloat graphite or carbon particles could be blown into an area, causing shorting and arcing of delicate electronic circuits when it makes a conductive path across the circuit boards.

And it's only a couple of dollars per pound in bulk.

[J]

True, a vehicle mounted device would be effective. But 'They' would probably work out what had happened by studying CCTV images of the blacked out van driving down the street slowly, pausing, then moving a bit further as all the lights went out in adjacent buildings <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

It would be extremely useful to have a directional device. This would have been great in my first year of uni for early morning 'music' lovers <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

I intend to go into the field (no pun intended) of electromagnetics and RF eventually. This is the kind of thing I'll be playing around with when I have more money and spare time.

[kingspaz]

wouldn't the EMP screw with the vans ignition and other circuitry?

[Anthony]

Shouldn't do if it's a diesel engine with no engine management junk:)

[nbk2000]

The good thing about an I-bomb is that it's adjustable too. You don't have to have it set high enough to vaporize circuitry. You can set it low enough to just cause glitching and errors. A "soft-kill" instead of a "hard-kill". This can be repeate as often as neccessary to drive the target crazy trying to figure out the cause of the problem.

I can also see using an I-bomb to nuetralize alarm or security systems. :) Or cause constant false alarms that eventually wears out the polices patience so they no longer respond.

Many cities have alarm ordinances that say, if you get more than 3 false alarms in a given time, the police won't respond any more. :D

I don't think EMP can be directed, being a magnetic field, but RF energy can be. The second edition of "Information Warfare" by Winn Schwartau (I have a copy) details all kinds of e-weapons. Good reading, highly recommended.

[Zambosan]

An EMP device is going to produce electromagnetic radiation over a wide spectrum, since it is "fired" by what is essentially an impulse of energy (look at at the Fourier series for an impulse). Since it is electromagnetic radiation, it can be focused by a waveguide like any other, e.g. microwaves. However, since the energy is not concentrated at any particular frequency band, it isn't possible to optimize a waveguide to make the total emission directed... you'll just focus some of it, while absorbing other components. However, it's the wide range of emissions that make it so devastating... inducing destructive (or at least problematic) voltages & currents in all sorts of conductors.

[J]

How deeply does Schwartau's book go into detail on the technical side? It's a book I've seen mentioned many times whilst searching for info on Tempest (I've decided this will be my next long term project when I'm in work and have space to set up a small lab).

Your right Zambosan, that's why it's so effective. But if your target was a specific device that you had technical knowledge of, it should be possible to construct a waveguide tuned to a certain frequency. If your target was a computer, the CPU clock frequency range of the particular motherboard would be a good one.

As computers are becoming faster, it's important to ensure the tracks on the motherboard are a certain size to allow correct transmission of data without reflections. Setting up a massive standing wave along one of these tracks wouldn't do the system much good <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[nbk2000]

It doesn't provide schematics, but it does give a lot of the operating principles and the applications for various e-war scenarios. Plus there's a good bibliography of technical articles to look up.

Check out the website at <a href="http://www.infowar.com" target="_blank">www.infowar.com</a> for more info.

[TheBicher]

Not to change the subject, but if anyone saw the movie Oceans 11 (the new version) they stole some kind of thing that wiped out the electricity in part of Las Vegas for about 30 seconds, after which all the power was restored. Do they really have things like this? I'm assuming if they are real it would be a lot harder to make than the other types of E-Bombs here.

[kingspaz]

i haven't seen it. but stuff in films is bullshit. EMP weapons can either dirupt power causing malfunctions of equipment or permanently destroy circuits.
everything pyro in films is bullshit, pure bullshit.

[Anthony]

Would probably be easier just to blow up an electricity sub-station if you want a black out and/or use the conductive fibre/dust idea suggested by NBK.

Powercuts don't make alarms switch off or bank vaults unlock though, important systems will be equipped with a UPS system.

[TheBicher]

Yea Kingspaz, I know that pyro shit in films is bulshit (same with most other controversial things depicted in films), but it is usualy based on something that is real, which is what I was wondering.

If you were going to try to take out power of a small area I would not try to take out the power sub-station because of the increased risk of getting caught/raising suspicion and because of the increasing popularity of people using their own solar/water power.

If you had some type of E-bomb device that could take out the power in a small area temporarly you could set it to go off remotly and be doing the job while the device goes off somewhere else nearby, and posibly the police would not have any idea what is going on untill much later. I see that you are talking about taking down the power in a larger area, Anthony, and if you were doing a job that you needed the power in a large area to go off I agree that it would be much more practical to take out the power sub-station.

Could you use a small E-bomb close to the power sub-station take that out temporarely? This seems like the most effective way of doing things, and I think would be a lot more practical than actually destroying a sub-startion. If this is posible you could even probably do this to key power plants during the peak usage hours to eliminate power to the whole city. So is this possible?

[PYRO500]

If you think about it all that EMP "I-bomb" is just a simple spark gap transmitter, the capacitors discharge through the air across a gap, the completed circuit goes through the inductor, the spark gap emits a RF pulse that is easily calculated by the length of the pulse the voltage, the gap where the spark arcs, and the inductance of the coil. Now just to warn all of you this is definitely illegal to run, spark gap transmitters were banned a very long time ago (I wonder why :cool: ) it should not be too hard to directionalize the cm field with a simple reflector, if I get around to it I may make some schematics of a possible transmitter and possibly a digital model.

[Anthony]

I don't get how that I-Bomb at <a href="http://www.eiu.org/experiments/i-bomb/video.html" target="_blank">http://www.eiu.org/experiments/i-bomb/video.html</a> is a weapon in it's current form (unless you meant that it could be adapted into being a weapon?). It's affect on electrical equipment is obviously minimal because there's a video camera a couple of feet from the spark gap that is completely unaffected.

[xoo1246]

Patent: 5,059,839 and 3,564,305 might be of some interest to you.
I wouldn't use a FCG to kill an alarm. That would be un-economical.

[kingspaz]

i just had an interesting thought. what are the pigs without their communications centre and walkie talkies? fucking useless. thats how they end up catching you in a chase. they can coordinate efforts to get you. so an EMP device planted outside a pig station would render the local forces almost useless = no piggies :p

[nbk2000]

The I-bomb is variable powered, so I'm sure they set it to the lowest setting. Plus, the EMP field comes from the coil, not the power supply, so there's distance too.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">I wouldn't use a FCG to kill an alarm. That would be un-economical.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">I'd say that depends on what the alarm is guarding. For the local stop-and-rob liquor store, no. But a plutonium storage facility or precious metals depository...YES! :D

Kingspaz, you're right about the piggies and their radios. Without them, they're back to being equal to cops of the Roaring '20s, only with nicer guns. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Though you wouldn't need a complicated EMP device, just a simple tear gas bomb in their communication center.

[xoo1246]

Imagine setting a bunch of FCGs off in the financial center om some major city, you enclose the FCGs in something blast reducing(whatever), thus no personal damage but only technological damage to large cooperations and institutes. Would it create some confusion? How do they store their data? I don't think they are EMP hardened, are they? The data are probably stored at several locations though. Still, it would make my day. No motive but poetic terrorism. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[TheBicher]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> I wouldn't use a FCG to kill an alarm. That would be un-economical. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">Of course I am only speaking theoreticly, of what you COULD do if the need arises. I only brought up the subject of Alarm Systems because it was mentioned in a similar post by someone else.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> If you think about it all that EMP "I-bomb" is just a simple spark gap transmitter, the capacitors discharge through the air across a gap, the completed circuit goes through the inductor, the spark gap emits a RF pulse that is easily calculated by the length of the pulse the voltage, the gap where the spark arcs, and the inductance of the coil. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">I was thinking about how easily it would be to trace an E-bomb, but it would probably still take the police a while to get the equipment ready (if they even have any), and that is after they realize what's going on (not sure how long that would take). If I were to use an E-bomb I would set it to go off remotly or by a timer. Unfortunately, if the cops did find your E-bomb you would have to abandon it, which could mean a lot of work lost and make it suitable only for big jobs.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> Imagine setting a bunch of FCGs off in the financial center om some major city, you enclose the FCGs in something blast reducing(whatever), thus no personal damage but only technological damage to large cooperations and institutes. Would it create some confusion? How do they store their data? I don't think they are EMP hardened, are they? The data are probably stored at several locations though. Still, it would make my day. No motive but poetic terrorism. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">I hope you're joking...

Am I the only one starting to realize that most of the things on <a href="http://www.eiu.org/experiments/" target="_blank">http://www.eiu.org/experiments/</a> are either fake or a joke? I mean really, a lethal biological pathogen vending maching? It is posible that the I-bomb is real, but it really wouldn't be that hard to fake (and a lot easier than making the real thing.)

[nbk2000]

Of course the "Dispersion Customized Pathogen Dispenser" is real. :rolleyes:

These are works of "performance" art. That means that they work (within sane limits). Thus I'm not worried about the I-bomb working.

But I did like the biological agent vending machine. Makes me think you could set one up as "art", give it a couple of weeks with harmless sugar or whatnot, then switch anthrax for the sugar for the last few days before disappearing with the machine.

By then lots of idiots would have opened up their vials to look at the "harmless" powder inside. <img src="http://assaultweb.net/ubb/icons/icon18.gif" alt="" />

[PYRO500]

for a FCG to work properly you need an extreme amount of current at high voltage for this you'll need at least a 50-130 pount capacitor as the priming voltage, then you'll need a very fast way of detonating your explosive lenghtwise, prefrerably an exploding foil detonator.the EMP weapon on their site is not only possible it WILL work, spark gaps from big cap discharges are very powerful and with the right inductor can put out EM all over the spectrum that will destroy electronics but are usually far from silent, the EM radiation is best directed though to increase power density in one direction. I am currently working on a 3d model of a spark gap emp and i'll post it when it is done.