EMP security

WHITE HOUSE RELEASES NATIONAL EMP STRATEGY

President Donald Trump has directed the federal government to enhance the country’s preparedness for EMP attacks and “space weather” events, such as solar storms and flares.

In announcing the release of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan, the White House noted the historical record that firmly establishes the dangerous impact these phenomena can have on Earth:

“In 1859, the largest solar storm on record created a dangerously powerful electromagnetic pulse event, or EMP, that short-circuited telegraph wires and started fires. In 1989, the Earth again experienced a major space weather event, resulting in a nine-hour power outage in Quebec and causing damage to power grid components in the United States. More recently, in Sweden, space weather events in 2003 and 2015 resulted in electric power blackouts, rerouting of commercial flights, and closure of Swedish airspace for more than an hour.”

The National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan will better prepare the nation’s critical infrastructure and security for future space weather events through three main objectives:

• Enhancing the Protection of National Security, Homeland Security, and Commercial Assets and Operations. In order to protect against space weather events, we must first understand how these events might affect critical infrastructure and national security assets. This understanding can inform the development and deployment of technologies and other approaches to limit the consequences of these events. Activities to increase the resilience of homeland and national security critical assets and systems are key to protecting the Nation from the most potentially devastating effects of space weather...