Cyberstrike, James Barrington [short story to read .TXT] 📗

That would produce a fluctuating electric current, which would in turn induce a very powerful magnetic field. This became known as the Compton Effect.

Nearly three decades later, in 1951, a Soviet physicist named Andrei Sakharov came up with a variant of this idea. He suggested that a non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse could be produced by using an explosively pumped flux compression generator, basically employing an explosive charge as part of a weapon to create fluctuating electric and magnetic fields. His work, and all parallel work on NNEMPs, remained classified for some years.

The idea surfaced again in September 2001 in an article in Popular Mechanics magazine which covered the design and concept of a flux compression generator bomb or FCG, a relatively simple but potentially devastating weapon that wouldn’t even be particularly expensive to manufacture. Such devices would be short-range weapons, with only about one millionth of the power of the EMP produced by a nuclear blast, but because of their comparatively small size they could be positioned close enough to their intended targets to ensure that they were effective.

It is known that the American military includes certain types of EMP weapons in its arsenal, and of course it is well known that very powerful EMPs are associated with the detonation of nuclear weapons. However, it is also well established that for some years the United States has concentrated on what are known as HPMs, high-power microwaves, weapons that have a similar effect to a NNEMP but use a different mechanism to achieve the same result.

The HPM, as its name suggests, is essentially a kind of hugely scaled up and focused microwave oven, the idea being that the device could be carried as part of the weapon load of a drone or cruise missile and the beam of microwave energy could be focused on ground targets, again disrupting or completely destroying electrical and electronic systems. This would allow the weapon to be reused, whereas an E-bomb only produces its EMP when it explodes, so it’s a one-shot device.

Acknowledgements

With thanks to Dame Janet Trotter CVO, Nicola Whiting MBE, Richard Berry, Cameron Rogers, Hal Evans, Angela Edwards and Barbara Spooner MBE.

The Ben Morgan Thrillers

Cyberstrike: London

Cyberstrike: DC

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About the Authors

James Barrington is a trained military pilot who has worked in covert operations and espionage. He has subsequently built a reputation as a writer of high-class, authentic and action-packed thrillers. He lives in Andorra, but travels widely. He also writes conspiracy thrillers under the pseudonym James Becker.

Richard Benham is best known globally as a pioneer in the world of Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Warfare. As an academic in 2014 he created the first MBA in Cyber Security that was launched at a cross party event at The House of Commons and received the personal support of the Prime Minster. In 2016 he formed the charity The Cyber Trust to help protect vulnerable groups using technology. In 2017 he was nominated for the UK Digital Leader of the Year for his Cyber4Schools initiatives which has been adopted nationally by the National Police Chiefs Council. He is a council member of The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, an Ambassador for The Diana Awards and the co-author of the Cyberstrike series.

Also by James Barrington and Richard Benham

The Ben Morgan Thrillers

Cyberstrike: London

Cyberstrike: DC

First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Canelo

Canelo Digital Publishing Limited

31 Helen Road

Oxford OX2 0DF

United Kingdom

Copyright © James Barrington and Richard Benham, 2021

The moral right of James Barrington and Richard Benham to be identified as the creator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Ebook ISBN 9781788639576

Print ISBN 9781800323940

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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