22 February 2012
The government is 'complacent' about the risk to the UK
of an electromagnetic pulse attack which could cripple critical
infrastructure and make major cities 'unliveable' in days, the Defence
Select Committee has said.
Strong electromagnetic pulses, such as the type produced by the detonation of nuclear weapons, could render technological infrastructure, such as the national grid, telecommunications and GPS, useless.
Electromagnetic pulses from space weather events are also likely to result in civil emergencies which would see the armed forces called out, but MPs found that no one government department had been designated with the task of leading the response to EMP.
"It is not good enough to say that that will depend on where the greatest impact fell," the committee wrote. "The government must make clear exactly where lead responsibility in relation to EMP disturbances lies both nationally and within the MoD.
"Defence alone cannot protect against the threat of EMP. It must be a concern of the National Security Council and civil contingency planners, with proper standards of protection developed with the vital service industries most at risk."
Committee Chair James Arbuthnot wrote: "We are concerned that the government does not regard EMP from a nuclear blast as currently being a high risk and so we urge that more vigorous action should be taken to prepare for such an attack. Similarly, an urgent reassessment should be made of the risk from non-nuclear EMP attack on vital national facilities."
Even without military or terrorist activity, severe space weather events alone could take out the 'hardened' technologies used in satellites, which are designed to be more resistant to EMP.
Arbuthnot later told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the high altitude detonation of nuclear weapons to create a massive electromagnetic pulse was "quite likely".
"It is a comparatively easy way of using a small number of nuclear weapons to cause devastating damage," he said.
"The consequences if it did happen would be so devastating that we really ought to start protecting against it now. Our vulnerabilities are huge.
"It would have a far more devastating impact to use a nuclear weapon in this way than to explode a bomb in or on a city. It would, over a much wider area, take out things like the National Grid on which we all rely for almost everything. It would take out the water system and the sewage system. Rapidly it would become very difficult to live in cities - within a matter of days."
Arbuthnot recommended that systems which control national infrastructure should be routinely replaced with 'hardened' microchips which can resist electromagnetic pulses.
"The defence is to build up the resilience of the electronic infrastructure by gradually replacing the incredibly delicate and vulnerable systems and chips and connections with the more hardened systems that are available at a not very expensive price during your routine maintenance," he said. "I wish the government would address this with rather more energy, cohesion and focus."
A full response from the government to the report is due soon, and EMP threats are set to be discussed in the National Space Security Policy, which is set to be launched later this year.
www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=18942
Strong electromagnetic pulses, such as the type produced by the detonation of nuclear weapons, could render technological infrastructure, such as the national grid, telecommunications and GPS, useless.
Electromagnetic pulses from space weather events are also likely to result in civil emergencies which would see the armed forces called out, but MPs found that no one government department had been designated with the task of leading the response to EMP.
"It is not good enough to say that that will depend on where the greatest impact fell," the committee wrote. "The government must make clear exactly where lead responsibility in relation to EMP disturbances lies both nationally and within the MoD.
"Defence alone cannot protect against the threat of EMP. It must be a concern of the National Security Council and civil contingency planners, with proper standards of protection developed with the vital service industries most at risk."
Committee Chair James Arbuthnot wrote: "We are concerned that the government does not regard EMP from a nuclear blast as currently being a high risk and so we urge that more vigorous action should be taken to prepare for such an attack. Similarly, an urgent reassessment should be made of the risk from non-nuclear EMP attack on vital national facilities."
Even without military or terrorist activity, severe space weather events alone could take out the 'hardened' technologies used in satellites, which are designed to be more resistant to EMP.
Arbuthnot later told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the high altitude detonation of nuclear weapons to create a massive electromagnetic pulse was "quite likely".
"It is a comparatively easy way of using a small number of nuclear weapons to cause devastating damage," he said.
"The consequences if it did happen would be so devastating that we really ought to start protecting against it now. Our vulnerabilities are huge.
"It would have a far more devastating impact to use a nuclear weapon in this way than to explode a bomb in or on a city. It would, over a much wider area, take out things like the National Grid on which we all rely for almost everything. It would take out the water system and the sewage system. Rapidly it would become very difficult to live in cities - within a matter of days."
Arbuthnot recommended that systems which control national infrastructure should be routinely replaced with 'hardened' microchips which can resist electromagnetic pulses.
"The defence is to build up the resilience of the electronic infrastructure by gradually replacing the incredibly delicate and vulnerable systems and chips and connections with the more hardened systems that are available at a not very expensive price during your routine maintenance," he said. "I wish the government would address this with rather more energy, cohesion and focus."
A full response from the government to the report is due soon, and EMP threats are set to be discussed in the National Space Security Policy, which is set to be launched later this year.
www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=18942
