Boeing Like You've Never Seen: Microwave Electronics Fryer

Perhaps there's nothing that catches the eyes of your MesaZona blogger more than a headline that starts off with 'dubious claim', includes the letters ICBM and the company name Boeing on a EMP missile with a sub-title LIKE A CHAMP:

Dubious claim of week: Air Force’s “EMP missile” could disable N. Korean ICBMs

An explanation is definitely in order and some more information, please . . . the revelation appeared in industry publication ArsTechnica yesterday along with the opening image here.

CHAMP microwave pulse can disable electronics, but “frying” ICBMs is a long shot.

Sean Gallagher - 12/7/2017, 3:45 PM

What's that all about when we usually think of only the iconic Apache Helicopters manufactured here in Mesa by Boeing, located in the northeast quadrant close by Falcon Field (a former World War II Air Force Training Base) and AZ Research Labs, both facilities owned by the City of Mesa, in a fast-developing Business Park area for the aerospace, defense/high tech/cyberwarfare industries.

"On Monday, NBC Nightly News broadcast a report claiming that White House officials had discussed using an experimental weapon to disrupt or disable a North Korean missile launch. The weapon in question, the product of the US Air Force's Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), uses bursts of microwave energy to disable electronic devices such as computers, communications and air defense radar systems.
Officials from Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) suggested CHAMP could be fully weaponized in a matter of weeks. But almost as a footnote, the NBC report noted that the weapon would have to pass very close to an ICBM before launch to affect it—which, despite CHAMP's classification as a non-lethal weapon, might be considered an act of war. . .
. . . The Air Force has conducted tests of CHAMP, a system designed to selectively beam high-energy microwaves to cause damage to electronic systems. . . Raytheon and Boeing have continued development under an AFRL contract. . . CHAMP remains a research project and has not been fielded yet by the Air Force or Navy as an actual weapon—at least not yet. But the US may not be the only country developing such a weapon, since the science behind CHAMP is fairly well-known. . . "
You are invited to READ MORE > https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017