In-flight explosions that terminated several tests of Iran's Shahab-3 ballistic missile might indicate that Iran is developing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warhead. Testifying before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security on 8 March 2005, Peter Pry, a senior staff member of the Congressional EMP Commission, said that these flights were reported to have been terminated by a self-destruct mechanism on the missile. "The Western press has described these flight tests as failures because the missiles did not complete their ballistic trajectories," he told the subcommittee. "Iran has officially described all of these same tests as successful. The flight tests would be successful if Iran were practising the execution of an EMP attack."
While Israel probably needs to worry about this if it works--perhaps an EMP attack would precede a nuclear attack in the hopes of derailing an Israeli counter-attack--I worry more about where Iran got this stuff.
Given the links between the unsavory Iranian regime and the totally morals-free Chinese dictatorship, I worry that whatever Iran is playing with is already in the Chinese arsenal. I mentioned that EMP strikes could be part of a Chinese attack on Taiwan. Is this an Iranian test or a Chinese test?
Or does it matter?
Our enemies prepare to defeat us. They aren't impressed by our power. They think they know our weaknesses and they believe they can exploit them. Even if they are wrong, it means war will come eventually. We need to stay alert even as we are on the path to victory in Afghanistan and Iraq.
