Fear of a new weapon.(National Security)

Michael Abrams, "Dawn of the E-Bomb," IEEE Spectrum, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, November 2003 (spectrum.ieee.org)

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. military used a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon to knock out an Iraqi television station. In so doing, Abrams contends, the U.S. ushered in a new era of warfare.

An HPM weapon or, as he terms it, "E-bomb," uses a blast of electromagnetic radiation so strong that it overloads electrical circuitry. (Nuclear weapons also generate electromagnetic pulses.) These microwaves can pass through steel, concrete, and most other building materials, but the types of metallic conductors used in computer chips and electrical systems absorb them and are often melted as a result. An attack with a microwave weapon would cause only brief pain when used against people but would entirely destroy computer circuitry.

Two major types of HPM weapons exist: ultrawideband and narrowband. Ultrawideband weapons are the types of bombs the U.S. military already stockpiles: They go off ...