How do these high tech weapons work?

[sao123]

Obviously everyone knows about the A bomb (atomic nuclear fission bomb), the H bomb (Hydrogen Fusion Bomb).
But what is the N bomb (Neutron Bomb) and the E bomb ?? see reference here... http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2051534/detail.html

What do the N and E bombs do and how do they work?
I had heard that the N bomb supposedly kills an enitre group of people within a city, but leaves all the buildings etc intact for the next group of people to move right in, but I dont know if theres any truth to that.

 

[Smilin]

A neutron bomb generates huge (read: deadly) amounts of radiation but not a significant blast. It's an illegal weapon.

The E Bomb as far as I know is simply an Electro magnetic pulse generator...either in the form of a nuclear device or a radar jammer on steroids.

 

[ResidentIdiot]

N stands for neutron. This bomb produces an intense blast of neutrons but a minimal thermal component. These neutrons cause severe damage to biological material but no damage to sturctures or electronic systems. The neutrons also dissapate within about a week leaving the target free for occupation.

E is for electrical. E-bombs or emp bombs cause an intense blast of microwaves which induce currents within circuits of electrical devices basically destroying them. These weapons once perfected will provide a significant advantage in battle due to the trend within the modern military towards more technologically advanced systems. Sheilding is available against emp bomb's however except in the cases of the most advanced sheilding systems the sheilding effect is minimal at best. E-bombs are deceptivly simple to produce. I will not go into it here but effectivly their construction only requires a small ammount of high explosive and a UHT power supply.

 

[Tweakmeister]

With these in mind...one should note that many of today's modern airplanes still use "old" technology because it is more resistant to damage.

I was onboard one aircraft that had many racks of equipment...it could all be replaced by a 1u box but that box is much more susceptible to failure in the event of a nuclear blast.

 

[everman]

In simplest terms: A neutron bomb will kill most biological life forms in an area but not severe structural damage. Such as if you wanted to kill all of the people in an area but did not want to destroy any machinery or structures.

The E bomb will destroy all electronic equipment within range. Also, any nuclear bomb has its own electromagnetic pulse.

 

[PowerMacG5]

Also, one other small note about the Neutron Bomb. A Neutron Bomb is essentially a Hydrogen bomb, without the second radioactive blast. A conventional Hydrogen bomb has 2 fission reactions, and one fusion reaction. The fusion core is basically wrapped in a neutron absorbant material (ie uranium and plutonium) so that the neutrons don't scatter. This causes a lot more radioactive fallout, and a very large blast radius. A neutron bomb removes this second layer of fissionable material. This causes a smaller blast radius, but a larger radius of death. It will allow the country that detonates it to kill all the people, but leave the resources intact. As previousely stated, they are illegal, but as all of you know that doesn't matter (US and Russia have neutron bombs). Also, neutron bombs aren't as exothermic as a Hydrogen bomb.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Tweakmeister
With these in mind...one should note that many of today's modern airplanes still use "old" technology because it is more resistant to damage.

I was onboard one aircraft that had many racks of equipment...it could all be replaced by a 1u box but that box is much more susceptible to failure in the event of a nuclear blast.

Most of that old stuff isn't particularly resistant to EMP. It's actually got that "old" look to it because it's resistant to shock, moisture and especially corrosion. You can take the ACP (armament control panel) box off a Naval aircraft and flip it down some stairs, put it back in and it will work. Try that with your PC Few aircraft are very resistant to EMP even with layers of copper mesh strung all over the place. The EA-6B prowler is one of the few exceptions to this. You could park that thing at a power substation and not even get so much as a flicker on a CRT display.

Also, most of today's "modern" airplanes aren't all that modern. Some of our fighters still date back to the 70's and 80's. Some still use analog computers.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: Smilin
Also, most of today's "modern" airplanes aren't all that modern. Some of our fighters still date back to the 70's and 80's. Some still use analog computers.

Heck, it hasn't been that long ago that the B-52s were finally upgraded with solid-state computers. "Upgraded from what?" you ask. Vaccum tubes, son. Their targeting and guidance computers throughout the cold war were vaccum tube tech.

Scary, huh?

 

[Smilin]

OK funny way off topic story time:

So I'm working on the flight deck and oftentimes before a launch the crew will bitch about comm system problems. I send a AE in to talk to the crew. He comes out a few minutes later, goes to the back of the plane and pulls out this electronics box about the size of a 21" monitor. He slams the thing on the flight deck two or three times and puts it back in. He goes and checks with the crew and comes back out all thumbs up. I launch the plane and everything's cool.

But I'm thinking WTF?? Is this how we fix 30 million dollar aircraft???

One day, after seeing this done I don't know how many times, I ask one of the AE's what the heck he's doing when he slams that thing. He responds that this particular box has some cards in it that come loose sometimes when the plane hits the deck. Slamming it on the deck re-seats the cards. Apparently this technique works perfectly for about 2 or 3 times and then they have to replace the whole box (at like $300,000 a pop!).

Our airframer's were known to use a coke can on occasion if they needed some aluminum to patch something. Ah the military...A bunch of make it happen kind of folks I tell ya.

 

[sao123]

Just remember... the most sophisticated computer on board the space shuttle is running a Pentium Pro 60 Mhz processor.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: sao123
Just remember... the most sophisticated computer on board the space shuttle is running a Pentium Pro 60 Mhz processor.

Wow, I am speehless. I wonder how much RAM too.

 

[Lonyo]

I think somehwere on Foxnews.com they have a WMD info page.

 

[f95toli]

I know a guy who did his military service in Russia about 5 years ago. He belonged to a a air defence unit and operated a surface-to-air system. The thing is the system is very old but has one big advantage: It can not be harmed by an EMP-blast, why? Because it does not use any electronic systems at all....Not even vacuum tubes.
And this system is still in use.

 

[sxr7171]

It seems to me that even though an E-bomb is not designed to harm people or living creatures that the microwave radiation would still kill people by causing heat buildup like a microwave oven would. Is this true?

 

[Kuroyama]

Think I read somewhere that E-bombs can briefly stun people, but I may be wrong about that.

 

[Oaf357]

E-bombs/E-cannons have been in development/use for a while now.

DEA have used similar devices to disable drug runners' boats by sending a high frequency pulse of microwave energy at the boat disabling all electronics on board. Cops can also use a similar device to disable a fleeing suspects engine.

An e-bomb or e-cannon can be highly lethal or increase a risk of cancer exponentially. Microwave is most often used in satellite transmissions and is typically avoided like the plague by satellite technicians.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Smilin
OK funny way off topic story time:

So I'm working on the flight deck and oftentimes before a launch the crew will bitch about comm system problems. I send a AE in to talk to the crew. He comes out a few minutes later, goes to the back of the plane and pulls out this electronics box about the size of a 21" monitor. He slams the thing on the flight deck two or three times and puts it back in. He goes and checks with the crew and comes back out all thumbs up. I launch the plane and everything's cool.

But I'm thinking WTF?? Is this how we fix 30 million dollar aircraft???

One day, after seeing this done I don't know how many times, I ask one of the AE's what the heck he's doing when he slams that thing. He responds that this particular box has some cards in it that come loose sometimes when the plane hits the deck. Slamming it on the deck re-seats the cards. Apparently this technique works perfectly for about 2 or 3 times and then they have to replace the whole box (at like $300,000 a pop!).

Our airframer's were known to use a coke can on occasion if they needed some aluminum to patch something. Ah the military...A bunch of make it happen kind of folks I tell ya.

Ahhh, "percusive maintenance..."

Actually, didn't a lot of older aircraft use gyroscopic navigation systems? One of my old bosses was a bomber-maintenance mechanic once, and I seem to recall him talking about beryllium gyro components that rode on air bearings and were analyzed using interferometry techniques to ensure near-flawless smoothness.

 

[Smilin]

They have inertial navigation systems that are fairly accurate if you get your start point right. That was always kinda tricky on the carriers. We had to run a data link cable from the ship's computers to the plane's so the INS could figure out it's starting point is actually moving.

Today's GPS systems are more accurate than aircraft based INS anyway..especially after a few hours of flight. Submarine/shipboard INS is a whole nuther league though - that stuff is accurate to inches after a few thousand miles I think.

The "percussive maintenance" was always done on the comm system which is actually a pretty complicated thing. Our planes had 4 crew and they all had to be able to talk, plus switch between channels so just the anti-sub guys could talk and the pilot and mission commander could be on a different channel. Then you add on the fact that there are like 4 radios plugged into the system. Yeah, it broke a lot.

Whatever system they used onboard the carrier is pretty cool too. It can actually transmit enough information to the plane that the plane can do a landing without the pilot. Our squad C.O. always had us remove the blue lightbulbs from the nosewheel indicators so that the Landing Signal officer couldn't tell when our pilots were "cheating" on their landings by using the computer.

Ok, I've rambled enough sea-stories for now. I've got tons more if anyone wants to hear another

 

[Oaf357]

Carrier landings... I'd cheat everytime.

 

[tranceport]

Originally posted by: Oaf357
E-bombs/E-cannons have been in development/use for a while now.

DEA have used similar devices to disable drug runners' boats by sending a high frequency pulse of microwave energy at the boat disabling all electronics on board. Cops can also use a similar device to disable a fleeing suspects engine.

An e-bomb or e-cannon can be highly lethal or increase a risk of cancer exponentially. Microwave is most often used in satellite transmissions and is typically avoided like the plague by satellite technicians.

You are correct. My grandfather worked in Marine Electronics for 40 years. The big Microwave dishes you see on top of towers and tall buildings that look like cones or big drums are not the job you want to go on. They are highly focused beams.

 

[Smilin]

I've heard that the microwave oven was invented as the result of a radio or radar repairperson having a fatal accident while working on equipment that got turned on. Anyone else heard this? The used to call them Radar Ranges.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Smilin
I've heard that the microwave oven was invented as the result of a radio or radar repairperson having a fatal accident while working on equipment that got turned on. Anyone else heard this? The used to call them Radar Ranges.

I thought it was because some engineers found that the chocolate in their pants had melted or something... and then they started using the waves to cook their hot dogs?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Smilin

I thought it was because some engineers found that the chocolate in their pants had melted or something... and then they started using the waves to cook their hot dogs?

That sounds like a more reasonable explanation. The one I heard was a bit more morbid and involved some worker who died from having his internal organs cooked.

 

[jasonroehm]

Yeah, the story I'd heard was that a certain scientist was carrying a candy bar in his shirt pocket and found that it melted during the course of his work.

 

[damonpip]

I'm not sure that e-bombs, or EMPs exactly create microwaves. From what I remeber, they just create one really powerful quick pulse that creates a voltage transient when it hits metal, ie power lines, circuit boards etc... I doubt that this extremely quick pulse is very dangerous to humans.