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.