Iran has supplied its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, with electromagnetic bombs (“e-bombs”) that can paralyze communications and disable radar, according to report published this weekend by the Kuwait Al Jarida news outlet.
According to the report, the terrorist factions allied with Hezbollah and Iran are also planning to launch a campaign to seize Israel’s Golan Heights and the Galilee, if the IDF invades southern Lebanon.
A high-ranking source in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force confirmed to the news outlet that Hezbollah “now possesses bombs and missiles carrying ‘electromagnetic’ warheads” and that bombs were delivered to the terror group by the IRGC “a few days ago.”
Some of these EMP bombs are launched from fixed launchers and some are carried by drones.
The Iranian source added that Hezbollah “is betting on the simultaneous ignition of Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon.”
But the scenario described by the Iranian source, in which Israeli electrical, communications and radar systems would be disabled, is not quite that simple according to weapons systems expert Dr. Eyal Pinko, who spoke with the Jerusalem Press Club Monday morning.
Pinko, a former Navy commander with 12 years experience as a senior weapons systems engineer and a lecturer at Bar Ilan University’s Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, explained what a High Power Microwave (HPM) bomb may do, if Hezbollah deploys such a weapon.
“First, it’s very old news,” Pinko said. “Hezbollah and Iran are working on the HPM, “high power microwave” bomb, for at least a decade,” probably basing the technology on that of Russia and China.
“The main capability of this weapon that it’s aimed to shut down electronic systems” through an explosion about 1,000 meters above ground level, during which it creates a huge current a huge current pulse which burns all circuits and digital instruments like computers, cellular phones, etc.
“This is a strategic weapon because once you fire it, you shut down all the systems like radar and communications systems, and then you can penetrate to do the things that you want, much more easily,” such as a missile attack “or any kind of infantry or tank attack, he said.
Depending upon the height at which the bomb explodes, and how many explosives are used, the HPM bomb “does nothing to human beings, unless they are nearby — and then it can rip out all the internal organs,” Pinko said.
However, such a weapon is not specifically intended to cause damage to human beings — it is intended to completely disable digital systems, radar and communications, he noted.
“It’s not a new weapon and they are not the only ones to to have it,” Pinko said. “This weapon was revealed after the Second World War and many countries, such as the US, China, Russia and Iran possess those
capabilities.”
According to a July 2008 threat assessment report to the US Congress by the US Defense Technical Information Center, “Electromagnetic Pulse EMP is an instantaneous, intense energy field that can overload or disrupt at a distance numerous electrical systems and high technology microcircuits, which are especially sensitive to power surges. A large scale EMP effect can be produced by a single nuclear explosion detonated high in the atmosphere. This method is referred to as High-Altitude EMP HEMP.
“A similar, smaller-scale EMP effect can be created using non-nuclear devices with powerful batteries or reactive chemicals. This method is called High Power Microwave HPM. Several nations, including reported sponsors of terrorism, may currently have a capability to use EMP as a weapon for cyber warfare or cyber terrorism to disrupt communications and other parts of the US critical infrastructure.”
Obviously, such a weapon could be used against the State of Israel.
Pinko declined to comment on whether Israel also possesses an HPM bomb.
It’s not clear how many of these electromagnetic bombs Hezbollah has in its arsenal and which types.
But if indeed Hezbollah does have this weapon, Pinko added, then “This is a part of the doctrine that it is relevant to use it,” and predicted the terror group would indeed deploy it.
