The Threat of EMP Attack by America's Adversaries Can Not Be Overestimated

As the threat of World War III has never being greater as tensions continue to rise with the Sino-Russian alliance, US leaders must act quickly to harden America's electrical power grid

(Author’s Note: This article was originally published in The National Interest on December 15, 2019.)

As we commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, which heralded America’s formal entry into the Second World War, we must remember that the threat of a far more devastating surprise attack upon the U.S. homeland remains very real. The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, also known as the Congressional EMP Commission, comprising the foremost experts in the Free World, warned in 2004 that “Several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication…It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructure and thus to the very fabric of U.S. society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power.” This author previously warned about this catastrophic threat to the U.S. in an article entitled “America’s Achilles’ Heel: An EMP Attack” published in the National Interest back in June 2018.

Over the past decade, support for protecting America against the existential threat of EMP attack has been overwhelmingly bipartisan. For example, in 2010, the Democrat controlled House of Representatives passed the GRID Act by a unanimous vote, which, had it been approved by the U.S. Senate, would have provided $2 billion to harden our nation’s electrical power grid against the twin threats of EMP attack and super solar-storms. The subsequent Critical Infrastructure Protection Act also passed in 2017 with strong bipartisan support.