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Saddam to be target of Britain's 'E-bomb'
By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 26/08/2002)
The Pentagon is planning to use a British weapon that
can disable electronic and electrical systems without killing anyone
to attack Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons sites.
The "radio frequency weapon", or E-Bomb,
developed at a secret site in south-west England, sends out a
high-intensity radio wave with similar effects to the
electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast.
It is also able to penetrate the underground bunkers
where Saddam's chemical and biological weapons are stored as
protection from allied bombing. The radio pulse will travel easily
down the bunkers' power and ventilation ducts.
One of the biggest problems facing allied troops if
they were sent into Iraq would be that, with any attack aimed at
removing him from power, Saddam knows he has nothing to lose in
using his weapons of mass destruction.
Bombing the sites would only spread the chemical or
biological agents, killing innocent Iraqi civilians and threatening
invading forces.
By using the E-bomb to cripple the plants'
refrigeration and computer systems, the allies would ensure that the
weapons could not be used in any effective way.
Although the weapon is still in the final stages of
development, American defence sources said they were interested in
acquiring it for immediate deployment in any attack on Iraqi
chemical and biological weapons sites.
The E-Bomb can be made to have a limited range and be
delivered by cruise missile, by smart bomb, or by one of the
unmanned aerial vehicles which proved their effectiveness during the
campaign in Afghanistan, one British official said.
As it approaches its target, an array of aerials
spring out and its capacitors discharge themselves, sending out a
burst of high-powered microwave energy to disable electrical and
electronic systems.
The weapon was developed by the novel technology
department of Matra BAe Dynamics. It gives credence to the nightmare
scenario of a high-technology war when the enemy could disable the
radio, radar, and computer systems on which modern defences depend.
The weapon can also bring civil infrastructure to a
standstill, closing national electricity grids, stopping telephone,
radio and television systems.
The discovery that Russia was close to producing the
E-bomb sparked a race to build similar weapons and counter-measures
to protect against them in which Britain has become the world
leader.
MI6 has told ministers that Iraq may still possess
tons of chemical warfare agents, the necessary materials to produce
thousands of litres of biological agents and as many as 10 Scud
missiles with which to deliver them.
Iraq has admitted that before the Gulf war it
manufactured 100 botulinum bombs, 50 anthrax bombs, and seven
aflatoxin bombs. Five missile warheads were filled with anthrax, 16
with botulinum, and four with aflatoxin.
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