The GoldenEye of Persia

Remember "GoldenEye?" It was a typical James Bond action movie. The premise is fairly simple: Russia invents and puts in orbit a weapon capable of causing an ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) which can damage or shut down cars, computers, electrical grids and all sorts of electrical devices. In the movie, it is a directed energy weapon which dramatically shoots a beam of energy from space, but that isn't the way EMP weapons are expected to work. The concept of the EMP weapon was derived from high-altitude nuclear burst tests in the early years of nuclear weapon development. EMP weapon research has developed many differentvariations of both conventional and nuclear bombs.

Pundits have long been concerned that Iran, which is the modern name for Persia, has been developing nuclear weapons for both strike weapons and for EMP purposes. Iran has undertaken in the past few months several efforts to confront U.S. warships and otherwise threaten attacks against America, including recent proclamations that some great event is going to occur.

While Iran has long claimed to be the enemy of America, military strategists have not been terribly concerned with Iran's ability to directly attack American soil, due to the distances between the two countries. Iran has, however, beeninvolved in building rockets capable of launching satellites.  Such rockets might well have the range to function as ICBM launch platforms for directly attacking the U.S. An attempt to launch even a handful of ICBMs against the U.S. is a tremendously expensive and involved undertaking. Also, since the inception of the cold war, the U.S. has kept a watchful eye on the world for such launches, and the U.S. may well have sufficient defensive capability to deal with a direct attack.

The United States, among others, is developing small missiles which can be launched fromcontainers.  Such missiles are not only difficult for military intelligence and counter-terrorist agencies to find, but can also carry nuclear and EMP weapons.  Some have suggested that Iran is also seeking this capability. This raises the frightening specter of a missile suddenly erupting from a seemingly innocuous container on a container ship somewhere, for example, in American waters. On the other hand, such a scenario demands a missile system capable of operating on demand without maintenance or upkeep for several months, as well as some kind of communication system to control the launch timing and targeting of the missile.

There is another way, and one wonders whether Iran is not already on that path. If the EMP weapon were loaded into a satellite and placed in earth orbit, it would be virtually ready to use. As a weapon of surprise, it would be difficult to detect; after all, communication with a satellite is expected, as is a modest propulsion system to allow station-keeping control of a satellite. The satellite could be de-orbited with little warning from low-earth-orbit to high-altitude detonation point; there would be no ICBM give-away launch, just a satellite dropping altitude. It doesn't require particularly elaborate guidance, since the area covered by an EMP blast can be quite large. And Iran has already launched satellites.

Hopefully the "GoldenEye of Persia" is just an exercise of the imagination, a silly impractical idea. Hopefully, on the other hand, someone in the military is keeping an eye on Iran's satellites. Iran would like to strike America; America does not need to give it the chance.