News

Subject:      Nuking LEO: DNA chief comments
From:         thomsona@netcom.com (Allen Thomson)
Date:         1995/05/04
Message-Id:   <thomsonaD82rz2.26J@netcom.com>
Newsgroups:   sci.space.policy

     Some months ago we had a brief exchange concerning the 
possibility that a Wicked Entity possessing one or a few 
nuclear bombs might use them to wipe out all or most 
satellites in LEO/MEO by increasing the population of trapped 
electrons in the Van Allen belts.  This option could be 
attractive to the W.E., as it avoids a homeland attack 
against a country which might itself possess a significant 
nuclear arsenal and be inclined to retaliate in kind. 

     Although not directly fatal to anyone, such a "Van 
Allen" attack could be extraordinarily disruptive of the 
world's economy, and cause widespread loss and suffering. I 
think of it as being a really effective version of what 
Saddam Hussein tried to do when he released oil into the 
Persian Gulf and torched the Kuwaiti oilfields. 

     Apparently El Jeffe del DNA agrees, as this item 
appeared in the latest issue of AWST: 

   Doomsday Scenario
   Aviation Week and Space Technology, 1 May 1995, p. 21
   
   Rogue nations with only a few nuclear weapons could 
   choose to attack their larger, better armed foes 
   indirectly, according to Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth 
   Hagemann, director of the Defense Nuclear Agency.  He 
   claims a 50-kiloton nuclear weapon exploded 62 mi. 
   above the Earth would "pump up the Van Allen radiation 
   belt[s]" to the extent that increased exposure would 
   cause satellites to "die in hours, days or weeks. The 
   effects could last for months."  Hagemann warns that the 
   loss of satellites could wreak havoc, for example, with 
   the ever more important information highway and with 
   the world banking system.  He also points out that 
   satellites are becoming more vulnerable to various 
   kinds of radiation.  As electronics are miniaturized, 
   they require less power and thus are susceptible to 
   smaller disruptions, according to the DNA boss.  And as 
   satellites stay aloft longer, radiation effects on them 
   accumulate.