Do you remember in the Matrix movie when the crew was getting chased down by those flying squid-like sentinels? Do you remember how they said their only weapon against their mechanized foes was an EMP, or an electromagnetic pulse? Well, now Boeing has developed a missile with electronic-killing EMP-like capabilities, knocking out computers and electronics as it flies overhead.

The good news is that the microwave pulses being blasted out from the missle are non-lethal, so it’s really just the computers and other electronic equipment that it’s killing. Boeing calls it the CHAMP, which stands for Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile (I’m not really sure where the P fits into that). Considering how everything relies on electricity and electronics, knocking out the defense systems and computers of your enemies can be positively crippling.

“In the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy’s electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive,” said Keith Coleman, program manager on CHAMP for Boeing Phantom Works. In the real world test, the CHAMP was able to not only knock out banks of PCs, but even the cameras that were being used to record the test. “We took out everything, it was fantastic.”

[Source via Boeing]

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According to North Korea, the Taepodong-2 missile was carrying a weather satellite when it was launched at 7:39am local time this morning. The trajectory had it flying over the Yellow Sea, with the first stage landing in the sea 165km west of Seoul. Sometime thereafter, according to South Korea, the rocket was disintegrated into about 20 pieces. Boom. No more.

Yes, the official word from North Korea was that this was a peaceful rocket for the purposes of launching a satellite into orbit, but skeptics will tell you this was a “poorly-disguised missile test.” This “Unha” classification of carrier rocket reportedly has the same delivery system as the Taepodon-2 long-range ballistic missile.

To make matters worse for the new North Korean leader, this is the third failure in as many attempts to launch a long-range missile. Now, we just have to question whether these attempts are really for peaceful purposes or if they have a military-minded objective.

[Source]

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