So many useful idiots, so little time. EMPs can only be triggered by high altitude nuclear detonations. You can't use a bomb to do this. It has to be a missile.
If, and that's a big IF, someone wanted to do this, they would use a ballistic missile. There's no reason to deploy an aircraft. and if they did, they would still have to use a missile.
My first sentence is referring to Pepe Escobar, not fellow commenters.
Even without watching Ryan's video , it is basically an impossible claim.
1) nobody sends ONE plane over two potentially hostile airspaces -- you need a whole team: escort planes, refuelling, electronic warfare, you name it. It is a whole moving circus, not a lone wolf enterprise. Why such big enterprise?
2) because if anything engages the plane carrying the ordnance to be used, said plane will need to drop said ordnance to fight/flight
3) F35 are 100% fly-by-wire toys, if you drop a nuke in the atmosphere they stop flying and drop down to the ground like a stone, unless they are far far far far far far far away from the blast site/EM wave. The end. To the best of my knowledge the only plane the IDF has that has mechanical controls is the F15. And to be honest, if an F15 drops the bomb, frizzing all elecriciy in Irand and inside itself, then the pilot has a flying plane that needs flying back to Israel over a whole lot of hostile space using map and compass (if that did not get fritzed too). You go ahead and do that.
I believe that’s why they used this totally idiotic idea. Most people who have read the book (or watched the movie) will have a passing memory of that being “possible,” and if they are already Anti-Israel more believable.
Even without watching Ryan's video , it is basically an impossible claim.
1) nobody sends ONE plane over two potentially hostile airspaces -- you need a whole team: escort planes, refuelling, electronic warfare, you name it. It is a whole moving circus, not a lone wolf enterprise. Why such big enterprise?
2) because if anything engages the plane carrying the ordnance to be used, said plane will need to drop said ordnance to fight/flight
3) F35 are 100% fly-by-wire toys, if you drop a nuke in the atmosphere they stop flying and drop down to the ground like a stone, unless they are far far far far far far far away from the blast site/EM wave. The end. To the best of my knowledge the only plane the IDF has that has mechanical controls is the F15. And to be honest, if an F15 drops the bomb, frizzing all elecriciy in Irand and inside itself, then the pilot has a flying plane that needs flying back to Israel over a whole lot of hostile space using map and compass (if that did not get fritzed too). You go ahead and do that.
Wish I caught this live. A couple things to note, though they don’t really change the conclusion:
1: When the military says a plane is “capable” of carrying a weapon, what they really mean is certified. A lot of jets that aren’t certified to carry nuclear weapons are indeed capable as most normal people would use the word, and they are actually built with that in mind. There is some additional hardware we’d have to install which is basically a physical “are you absolutely fucking sure” check, but if the situation devolved to the use of nukes that hardware could be installed very quickly.
2: I saw someone else mention it, but if they did actually use a nuke as an EMP it would be a missile. Depending on how good their hypothetical nukes are, it could be launched on a missile small enough on a jet. We’d be talking about a single warhead which can be surprisingly small, and we have already proved that a jet could shoot down a satellite with a missile. All the pieces are there so it’s doable, the issue however is that it’s an EMP and physics doesn’t give a shit about what side you’re on. We lose satellites every time the sun sneezes, an EMP would turn a significant chunk of Starlinks into orbital toasters. We can also say from our previous experiments in the dark ages that the EMP effect isn’t just a one time flick of the switch, that energy lingers in the upper atmosphere for quite some time disrupting all sorts of signals, and more importantly, moves.
Gumba, I received my notice today indicating that my subscription ends tomorrow. Assuming you are still a paid contributor to NewsMax, an outfit known to produce/condone Russian propaganda, I will not renew. That is a shame because you do good work. However, I have no choice. Steve
It would be great to hear your take on Nordstream.
The Russian narrative started with "The SBS did it" because 1. it is illegal for Biden to order special forces attack without informing the Senate and 2. the Nordstream attack was extremely difficult and the Russians believe that the SBS are so much better than Americans, that it is better to let them handle it.
Later, it seems that the Russians accepted Hirsch's narrative that Biden hired retired Americans as mercenaries to do the attack, side-stepping the War Powers Act.
The American narrative started with "Russia did it" and later changed to "Ukrainians did it using Andromeda". Cynics say that the Andromeda is too small to hold enough explosives and the required decompression chambers.
First, it isn't exactly correct to say that all Israel and Iran can do is lob missiles at each other.
Israel is reportedly active in supporting anti-Mullah forces in Iran for many years and that seems to have been Netanyahu's main weapon to neutralize Iranian nukes and why he convinced Trump to impose punishing economic sanctions on Iran.
Iran has Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and forces in Jordan and the West Bank to mount actual ground attacks and invasion of Israel, look at October 7. These ground forces are highly effective, just Hamas and Hezbollah launching continuous aerial attack on Israel from the north and south west, at least 100,000 internal refugees and Hamas has managed to keep fighting for 6 months including the October 7 invasion.
- The only reason that we talk in terms of nuclear capable aircraft is because THE U.S. uses what is calls a Permissive Action Link (PAL) to prevent unauthorized arming and detonation of its nuclear weapons. So, the aircraft needs to have its part of the PAL system as well as any other specialized communications interface installed. But a third party need not conform to our PAL system. They could put a nuclear warhead inside what looks like a MK84 2000lb bomb with or without JDAM both in external dimensions (for fit) and electronic interface with an F-35. If you take PAL out of the question, every aircraft is nuclear capable.
- With the F-35 now certified to carry (and drop) the B61-12 it is clear it has the ability to exit the danger area in normally trained nuclear weapons release mission profiles. Let's just remember we did this with "slow", definitely unshielded, B29s. That you are speculating on a not realistic weapons release profile does raise the survival question. If we assume a 150kt warhead, at Mach 1.6 it takes less than a second to put enough distance from the weapon to escape the fireball. It takes about 10 seconds to escape the area of any serious damage threat, and 20 seconds to escape even the 1 PSI light damage area. How long was it from weapons release to detonation? You can derive distances of nuclear warhead effects using Nukemap.
- If the pilot goes to afterburner on that range mission they aren't getting home. Even if they have F-35 external fuel tanks (which Israel has acknowledged they've developed without actually saying that). Even if they have a tanker waiting over Jordan. I'm not sure worrying about their ability to escape the bomb is even that important, it is a suicide mission.
- The F-35, like all U.S. military aircraft, has to be shielded against EMP. It's MIL-STD-3023. Now to what exact level it is protected I have no idea, but Mission Critical Systems are supposed to survive a High-attitude EMP.
- If Israel wanted to do this, they could avoid all the implausibility of using an F-35 and just throw a Jericho 3 at the problem. No issue with range. No issue with altitude.
It's a dumb scenario, and I note the Pepe Escobar tweet is no longer on X (but it had the "desired" effect of being echoed like crazy on social media and the web). If Israel were to use a nuke on Iran it would be specifically for the purpose of hitting Iran's deeply buried nuclear weapons infrastructure. Assuming Israel has nuclear weapons of course.
I think if Israel actually tried, they would succeed.
They would have used an F15
Why not an F35?
So many useful idiots, so little time. EMPs can only be triggered by high altitude nuclear detonations. You can't use a bomb to do this. It has to be a missile.
If, and that's a big IF, someone wanted to do this, they would use a ballistic missile. There's no reason to deploy an aircraft. and if they did, they would still have to use a missile.
My first sentence is referring to Pepe Escobar, not fellow commenters.
Even without watching Ryan's video , it is basically an impossible claim.
1) nobody sends ONE plane over two potentially hostile airspaces -- you need a whole team: escort planes, refuelling, electronic warfare, you name it. It is a whole moving circus, not a lone wolf enterprise. Why such big enterprise?
2) because if anything engages the plane carrying the ordnance to be used, said plane will need to drop said ordnance to fight/flight
3) F35 are 100% fly-by-wire toys, if you drop a nuke in the atmosphere they stop flying and drop down to the ground like a stone, unless they are far far far far far far far away from the blast site/EM wave. The end. To the best of my knowledge the only plane the IDF has that has mechanical controls is the F15. And to be honest, if an F15 drops the bomb, frizzing all elecriciy in Irand and inside itself, then the pilot has a flying plane that needs flying back to Israel over a whole lot of hostile space using map and compass (if that did not get fritzed too). You go ahead and do that.
Also, this is the basic premise of Sum of all fears, just updated a little.
I believe that’s why they used this totally idiotic idea. Most people who have read the book (or watched the movie) will have a passing memory of that being “possible,” and if they are already Anti-Israel more believable.
Even without watching Ryan's video , it is basically an impossible claim.
1) nobody sends ONE plane over two potentially hostile airspaces -- you need a whole team: escort planes, refuelling, electronic warfare, you name it. It is a whole moving circus, not a lone wolf enterprise. Why such big enterprise?
2) because if anything engages the plane carrying the ordnance to be used, said plane will need to drop said ordnance to fight/flight
3) F35 are 100% fly-by-wire toys, if you drop a nuke in the atmosphere they stop flying and drop down to the ground like a stone, unless they are far far far far far far far away from the blast site/EM wave. The end. To the best of my knowledge the only plane the IDF has that has mechanical controls is the F15. And to be honest, if an F15 drops the bomb, frizzing all elecriciy in Irand and inside itself, then the pilot has a flying plane that needs flying back to Israel over a whole lot of hostile space using map and compass (if that did not get fritzed too). You go ahead and do that.
So silly. It was really the lizard aliens, right?
Wish I caught this live. A couple things to note, though they don’t really change the conclusion:
1: When the military says a plane is “capable” of carrying a weapon, what they really mean is certified. A lot of jets that aren’t certified to carry nuclear weapons are indeed capable as most normal people would use the word, and they are actually built with that in mind. There is some additional hardware we’d have to install which is basically a physical “are you absolutely fucking sure” check, but if the situation devolved to the use of nukes that hardware could be installed very quickly.
2: I saw someone else mention it, but if they did actually use a nuke as an EMP it would be a missile. Depending on how good their hypothetical nukes are, it could be launched on a missile small enough on a jet. We’d be talking about a single warhead which can be surprisingly small, and we have already proved that a jet could shoot down a satellite with a missile. All the pieces are there so it’s doable, the issue however is that it’s an EMP and physics doesn’t give a shit about what side you’re on. We lose satellites every time the sun sneezes, an EMP would turn a significant chunk of Starlinks into orbital toasters. We can also say from our previous experiments in the dark ages that the EMP effect isn’t just a one time flick of the switch, that energy lingers in the upper atmosphere for quite some time disrupting all sorts of signals, and more importantly, moves.
Gumba, I received my notice today indicating that my subscription ends tomorrow. Assuming you are still a paid contributor to NewsMax, an outfit known to produce/condone Russian propaganda, I will not renew. That is a shame because you do good work. However, I have no choice. Steve
I would think you would want Ryan to be on that news site, to set them straight.
Why would anyone detonate an EMP bomb when they could just mount a high power microwave weapon on a drone?
The F-35 is an Electronic Attack aircraft, so using its previously claimed EW capabilities would be much more believable.
#5, Pepe Escobar is a serial liar, and the primary reason why i stopped reading ANYTHING from the Asia Times.
It would be great to hear your take on Nordstream.
The Russian narrative started with "The SBS did it" because 1. it is illegal for Biden to order special forces attack without informing the Senate and 2. the Nordstream attack was extremely difficult and the Russians believe that the SBS are so much better than Americans, that it is better to let them handle it.
Later, it seems that the Russians accepted Hirsch's narrative that Biden hired retired Americans as mercenaries to do the attack, side-stepping the War Powers Act.
The American narrative started with "Russia did it" and later changed to "Ukrainians did it using Andromeda". Cynics say that the Andromeda is too small to hold enough explosives and the required decompression chambers.
How do you think it happened?
First, it isn't exactly correct to say that all Israel and Iran can do is lob missiles at each other.
Israel is reportedly active in supporting anti-Mullah forces in Iran for many years and that seems to have been Netanyahu's main weapon to neutralize Iranian nukes and why he convinced Trump to impose punishing economic sanctions on Iran.
Iran has Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and forces in Jordan and the West Bank to mount actual ground attacks and invasion of Israel, look at October 7. These ground forces are highly effective, just Hamas and Hezbollah launching continuous aerial attack on Israel from the north and south west, at least 100,000 internal refugees and Hamas has managed to keep fighting for 6 months including the October 7 invasion.
Knowing that the Anti-Israel & “Jewish Space Laser” crowd is going to eat this up, and use it to prop up their hatred, is just sad.
audio seems to cut out sometimes (E.g. around 14:57 when Ryan zooms out to a globe view).
Do we really to have to pull a story as stupid as this apart? Anyone with a 1/10 the brain capacity of slug, KNOWS this is utter bullshit.
Sorry Ryan, but this one was painful to watch.
A few points.
- The only reason that we talk in terms of nuclear capable aircraft is because THE U.S. uses what is calls a Permissive Action Link (PAL) to prevent unauthorized arming and detonation of its nuclear weapons. So, the aircraft needs to have its part of the PAL system as well as any other specialized communications interface installed. But a third party need not conform to our PAL system. They could put a nuclear warhead inside what looks like a MK84 2000lb bomb with or without JDAM both in external dimensions (for fit) and electronic interface with an F-35. If you take PAL out of the question, every aircraft is nuclear capable.
- With the F-35 now certified to carry (and drop) the B61-12 it is clear it has the ability to exit the danger area in normally trained nuclear weapons release mission profiles. Let's just remember we did this with "slow", definitely unshielded, B29s. That you are speculating on a not realistic weapons release profile does raise the survival question. If we assume a 150kt warhead, at Mach 1.6 it takes less than a second to put enough distance from the weapon to escape the fireball. It takes about 10 seconds to escape the area of any serious damage threat, and 20 seconds to escape even the 1 PSI light damage area. How long was it from weapons release to detonation? You can derive distances of nuclear warhead effects using Nukemap.
- If the pilot goes to afterburner on that range mission they aren't getting home. Even if they have F-35 external fuel tanks (which Israel has acknowledged they've developed without actually saying that). Even if they have a tanker waiting over Jordan. I'm not sure worrying about their ability to escape the bomb is even that important, it is a suicide mission.
- The F-35, like all U.S. military aircraft, has to be shielded against EMP. It's MIL-STD-3023. Now to what exact level it is protected I have no idea, but Mission Critical Systems are supposed to survive a High-attitude EMP.
- If Israel wanted to do this, they could avoid all the implausibility of using an F-35 and just throw a Jericho 3 at the problem. No issue with range. No issue with altitude.
It's a dumb scenario, and I note the Pepe Escobar tweet is no longer on X (but it had the "desired" effect of being echoed like crazy on social media and the web). If Israel were to use a nuke on Iran it would be specifically for the purpose of hitting Iran's deeply buried nuclear weapons infrastructure. Assuming Israel has nuclear weapons of course.