Well didn't the USA test their EMP armed cruise missiles during the last Gulf war? Now they know they work, the penny has finally dropped that they can be used against the USA! Doah!

My one has ARP* on the back!

* To non UK readers, it was used in WW2 by Air Raid Precaution's staff.

This has potentially been a problem for years with radar and comms gear being vulnerable to nuclear generated EMP.

The only difference with the 'pulse bomb' would be that the power would be much lower, and probably not spread over such a range of frequencies.

One assumes that existing countermeasures (technical or *cough* having some spare bits ready on the shelf *cough*) will still be adequate to deal with any new threats.

Of course civil equipment is less likely to be in a position to deal with this than military, though I guess that civil stuff would be covered by a similar design philosophy to that used in at least some military hardware: the scenario is extremely unlikely to happen, and if it does there would be other effects anyway, so it's not even worth bothering to introduce countermeasures.

Not a bad concept, really. Isolate the part of the works that *must* be exposed to radiation from the rest of the works (which would of course have its own shielding). Sorta like an inline surge suppressor. If things really hit the fan, only the exposed part should go, leaving the heart of the outfit "blind" but otherwise intact.

Rail DARPA all you like, but this could be considered an honest step forward in safeguarding important electronics.

A spare radio in a tin box in case the first one gets fried. Can I have my $500M development budget now please?

Bring back the thermionic valve I say!

Oh and radar T/R cells have been doing this sort of task for years, maybe not to quite the vicious amounts imagined, but they do work.

"the scenario is extremely unlikely to happen"

see 9/11

Recently, man (dutch) refused bankloan, walks into bank later - joins queue - *puts attache case down* all bank PC's 'stop'. Confusion/reboots/BSOD. Man goes home!

Six months later, security expert analysing CCTV frame by frame notices the *attache case*. man visited at home, many capacitors and other items of terror, is arrested. Maybe urban-myth, maybe current amateur SOTA cross-over from .mil technology?

Then there was the...

9/11 was an inside job, a supreme scare tactic intended to lubricate the passing of many un-just laws, so as to strip away most all civil rights.

So DARPA has just discovered opto-isolation? How much did it cost them to find out about one of the simplest and long-standing principles in modern electronics?

Sometimes I'm glad it's not UK tax-payers forking out for DARPA ... yet ...

I know this is a bit of a stretch, but if someone tried to knock out my electronics I know I'd want a big "Faraday Umbilical Countermeasures for Kilowatt Yield Offensive Undesirable" ready to go.

So the geniuses have found out about optocouplers, serious high end tech there(!) i imagine that must be a real skunkworks sort of component to obtain, oh wait

http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?MenuNo=12418&FromMenu=y&doy=28m8

so what they are saying is put receiver out in open, put signal processor in sheilded box, have a screened cable run between the 2, and use idiot proof (XLR, BNC etc.) plugs

massive slow hand clap for DARPA there

What about the ole' strategically-placed special-gas ultra-fast reacting spark-gap that will-cause-a-dead-short to all incoming enegy trick? Before you poo-poo the concept, don't forget that many run-of-the-mill comm system are designed to survive a direct fricken hit from a rather large lightning bolt. And the protection devices that do they job are small and rather cute. I'm very surprised that it's considered to be an unsolved problem.

I think I still have a couple knocking around in the attic - offers?

"....is all that I need some foil on the walls, ceiling and floor, a surge protector on the mains (my UPS should do this) and to receive internet only via a fibre link?"

Err... no

According to http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp/toc.htm

you need a "layered sheet-steel wall built with two thin layers of steel separated by plywood or other core material". However calculations are hairy. Just add more steel, get rid of the ventilation shafts and cut those cooper power lines.

you only know see what they want you to see

Countermeasures Utilizing Nine Terrawatt Flaming Lightning Armour Package System?

...the which quasi-URL I just pulled outa' me Nether Regions:

Um, "Countermeasures Arresting Most Electrical Labs' Totally Obscene Electomagnetick /Scheiss/ " might do...

Because, Doctor Evilord, the hired help just always borrow the labs' portable hard drives on weekends "to do our telework from home on the Interpipes", and just leave them lying all about the trailer-park... At least the ones they don't punt on eBray...

E-e-e-a-w-w-w. (snort)

I'll get me coat now. 'Twas the acronym that diddit...

How about

Big Anti-Terrorist SHIny Thing

Satellites etc. during Solar Flares?