China is plotting a first strike attack on the U.S., targeting America’s electric grid with a large electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would cause nationwide blackouts, according to an analysis recently released by the EMP Task Force on Homeland and National Security. The Task Force is an organization that works with public and private officials to guard the American power grid.
Beijing would hit the U.S. with an EMP weapon, sending the country into chaos that would then make it easier to conduct an all-out physical attack, according to the report.
EMPs use a less powerful version of nuclear warheads, designed to fire electromagnetic emissions into an area rather than physical destructive power.
China and Russia have both declared “No First Use” policies when it comes to nuclear weapons, but it is of note that China does not consider EMP weapons to be nuclear. They are instead considered part of the country’s cyber-warfare capability.
The EMP weapons was developed by China “based on design information stolen from the US nuclear weapon labs,” the report says.
Beijing has allegedly developed three methods that would deliver such a weapon to the U.S.: ballistic missiles that would detonate warheads in the air to produce an EMP wave, next-generation hypersonic missiles (which Beijing has reportedly successfully developed and tested), and space-based nuclear weapons.
The last option is considered futuristic, but the EMP Task Force says the reality may be here faster than we think.
President Trump commissioned the creation of the Space Force, a military branch whose jurisdiction will be outer space, last year.