Tapping Audio Signal Processing Tech, French Researchers Develop Long-Range 'EMP Bazooka'

EMP Cannons This older prototype for an EMP cannon by Canada's Eureka Aerospace can purportedly stop cars at 200 meters. Amplification on the level of what the French Ministry of Defense is funding could theoretically produce far more powerful EMP weapons. PopSci

Contolled, directional electromagnetic pulse weapons are usually the stuff of sci-fi (see: the Matrix trilogy), as creating an EMP strong enough to, say, disable a vehicle or larger infrastructure requires a significant conventional explosion. But work being pursued by the French Ministry of Defense says otherwise, claiming that an early prototype of an "electromagnetic bazooka" could produce weapons-worthy EMP from electricity alone, minus the chemical explosion.

The work taps an audio signal processing technique (also invented by a French physicist in 2004) called time reversal signal processing. Using what's known as a time reversal mirror, researchers found they could take a short pulse of electromagnetic energy fired from one antenna and bounce the exact signal back with its wave-form perfectly reversed (hence "reversal mirror"). This relies on yet another device, a arbitrary waveform generator, which can generate pretty much any waveform in a matter of milliseconds.

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Tags

Technology, Clay Dillow, defense, elecrtromagnetic pulse, emp, france, military, security

That could be a problem, of course, for militaries around the globe that rely on growing arsenals of electronic gear. There's also a security question; an EMP weapon placed with ill intent could disable an aircraft on approach or takeoff, or be used to throw economies or defensive systems into chaos by crippling key computer networks. Further, it doesn't appear that such a weapon would necessarily require highly technical know-how or hard-to-acquire hardware or materials. But on the bright side, such an EMP bazooka could prove quite effective in the upcoming war with the machines.

[Technology Review]