How Do Military Aircraft Adapt To Electromagnetic Pulse Threats?

Summary The US military takes the EMP threat seriously, hardening aircraft against potential attacks. The "Doomsday Plane" serves as the US airborne command center and is a top priority for EMP safeguarding. There are discussions of hardening the B-52 Stratofortress bomber against EMP attacks.

As I wrote in an op-ed for 19FortyFive published back on New Year's Day 2023 (and which in turn was an updated and super-condensed version of a research paper I wrote back in 2019 for my Masters in Intelligence Studies online degree program at American Military University [AMU] ), electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, if successfully employed by our adversaries, comprises an existential threat to the United States of America. Some may disagree, insisting that the EMP threat is all tinfoil hat conspiracy theory best suited to speculative fiction (such as William R. Forstchen's gripping bestselling 2009 novel One Second After ).

Still, while people are entitled to their opinions, the US Armed Forces take the threat seriously enough to take steps to harden at least some of their aircraft to prevent an EMP attack. Simple Flying now takes a closer look at military aviation EMP prep. EMP in a nutshell Before we discuss how military aircraft are hardened against EMP threat, it behooves us to examine the nature of the threat.

It is best explained by the following diagrams courtesy of Michaela Dodge, Ph.D., Katie Tubb, Thomas Spoehr (a retired US Army Lieutenant General), Jack Spencer and David In.