Now imagine that YOU are the annoying neighbor who has managed to tick off — oh, let’s say the Iranians or the North Koreans. (I know, it’s hard to provoke those peace-loving peoples, but we’re just pretending here.)
And let’s further imagine that those cruise missiles have nuclear (instead of HE) warheads, and that they perform a zoom climb just before they reach their targets. (If they were ballistic missiles, they would follow an opposite trajectory.)
What would happen when those warheads explode? No, they won’t dig a radioactive crater in the ground — but they would dig an electromagnetic crater in the American economy that could take decades to recover from.
Such would be the effects of an EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) on the unshielded, electronically-dependent United States economic infrastructure. America would spin backwards from the Space Age into the 18th century in just a few minutes. The results of such an attack would be far more devastating and far-reaching than simply blowing up cities.
Moscow markets cruise missiles launched from a freight container — Russia’s Club-K Freight Container cruise missile.
This relatively cheap, extra-smart, easy-to-use Club-K Container Missile System, which Moscow has put on the open market (Iran is the first acquirer), allows cruise missiles or Shehabs [ballistic missiles] to be concealed in freight containers which can then be launched from a sea platform container ship. I have warned of this spear threat for over a year now, with no response from the powers-to-be. It is virtually undetectable by radar until activated. No wonder, Iran and Venezuela were keenly interested when the Club-K was put on the market at the Defense Services Asia exhibition in Malaysia for $15 million.
That’s quite a tradeoff: $15 million to effect trillions of dollars in economic damage — a lot of “bang for your buck,” as they used to say. Vallely continues:
Many countries and agencies are increasingly concerned about the intelligence that Iran continues to work secretly on developing and completing a nuclear payload for a missile (the Shehab system) and other components of a nuclear weapons program. [We believe] strongly that Iran now possesses low yield nuclear warheads that can be mounted on the Shehab missile and deployed on the oceans in container ships with the Russian provided Club K missile launch systems.
Artist's conception. (Click to enlarge.)
The primary goal of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is to launch EMP weapons on U.S. coastal cities and freeze our national grid systems. Iran for the first time has recently deployed ships to the Atlantic Ocean on maneuvers.
In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said “many member states” are providing evidence for that assessment, describing the information it is receiving as credible, “extensive and comprehensive.” The restricted 9-page report was made available last week to The Associated Press, shortly after being shared internally with the 35 IAEA member nations and the U.N. Security Council. It also said Tehran has fulfilled a pledged made earlier this year and started installing equipment to enrich uranium at a new location — an underground bunker that is better protected from air attack than its present enrichment facilities.
Modern military technology has upset the usual parameters of conflict. Now a technologically-awkward nation like Iran can seriously consider “taking down” the “Great Satan” (the United States) as a prelude to eliminating the “Little Satan” (Israel). Just a few years ago such a scenario was considered laughable, but not any more.
One more thing: There has been a relentless push to build a high-speed, high-capacity rail- and roadway from Mexico through Texas all the way to Minnesota. Chinese container ships would offload in Mexico’s Pacific ports; the containers would pass uninspected through America’s heartland by train or truck until they get to Kansas City, which would be designated an “inland port.” Only then would the containers — concealing who-knows-what — be subject to inspection.
This relatively cheap, extra-smart, easy-to-use Club-K Container Missile System, which Moscow has put on the open market (Iran is the first acquirer), allows cruise missiles or Shehabs [ballistic missiles] to be concealed in freight containers which can then be launched from a sea platform container ship. I have warned of this spear threat for over a year now, with no response from the powers-to-be. It is virtually undetectable by radar until activated. No wonder, Iran and Venezuela were keenly interested when the Club-K was put on the market at the Defense Services Asia exhibition in Malaysia for $15 million.
