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Boeing 'CHAMPS' EMP Missile

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  • Boeing 'CHAMPS' EMP Missile

    http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...se-weapon.aspx

    A CHAMP-ion idea
    The weapon in question: Boeing's "CHAMP," short for Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project. It's essentially the old nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapon that we used to worry so much about -- but without the nuclear part. CHAMP carries a small generator that emits microwaves to fry electronics with pinpoint accuracy. It targets not nations or cities but individual buildings, blacking out their electronics rather than blowing up physical targets (or people).

    What makes CHAMP even more interesting is that, unlike a nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapon, which fires once, blacking out entire nation-states, CHAMP can fire multiple times, pinpointing and blacking out only essential targets. This would permit, for example, taking down radar defenses in a hostile state, while saving the electrical grid that supports the civilian population. In a 2012 test flight in Utah, a single CHAMP was reported to have blacked out seven separate targets in succession, in one single mission

    'Even back then, a Boeing representative was able to boast: "We hit every target we wanted to," predicting further that "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." Three years later, that future has arrived. Air Force Research Laboratory commander Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello says CHAMP is "an operational system already in our tactical air force."'

  • #2
    Sounds like Raytheon is pitching the idea of a ground based CHAMPs system to use in the short range air defense role and have demoed a system knocking down UAVs.

    https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...efence-426549/


    CHAMPs seems like an ideal system to put into a stealthy drone since it could presumably be recovered and reused after a mission.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by SteveDaPirate View Post
      Sounds like Raytheon is pitching the idea of a ground based CHAMPs system to use in the short range air defense role and have demoed a system knocking down UAVs.

      https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...efence-426549/


      CHAMPs seems like an ideal system to put into a stealthy drone since it could presumably be recovered and reused after a mission.
      if you can fit it into a cruise missile.... what about an F-35?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by bfng3569 View Post
        if you can fit it into a cruise missile.... what about an F-35?
        You know, there might be something to that. Adding CHAMPs to it's already very potent electronic attack capabilities would make it one hell of a Wild Weasel platform. Anything you can zap with microwaves is one less target you need to expend munitions on.

        I assume that since the F-35 is intended to be used for the nuclear delivery role that it is already shielded against EMP effects, so in theory it could use a system like CHAMPs without frying itself in the process.

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        • #5
          If it's that powerfull... won't the emiting platform have to be pretty heavily shielded? If so, I doubt a regular fighter would be able to carry it.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by jlvfr View Post
            If it's that powerfull... won't the emiting platform have to be pretty heavily shielded? If so, I doubt a regular fighter would be able to carry it.
            They are apparently planning to fit the thing into an JASSM-ER, and the CHAMPs system is allegedly good for up to 100 shots per sortie.

            CHAMPs can't be that large if it can fit into a cruise missile, and if it is designed to engage multiple targets it can't fry the guidance system on the missile after the first shot either. That leads me to believe that it could potentially be integrated into a fighter without zapping the fighter along with the target.

            My thought is that they've found a way to get an extremely focused beam of power, since I can't imagine anything that could fit in a cruise missile would have the juice for more than a single omnidirectional shot.

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            • #7
              When can they fit it to police cruisers to shut down a vehicle they are pursuing? Or maybe use it to shut down vbieds?

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              • #8
                If it's designed to take out military vehicles and installations that are 'hardened' against EMP surely there would be risk of taking out your own EMP hardened delivery vehicle? Unless it is s very tightly focused beam weapon as had been mentioned. Even then if you were using an F35 it would have to be mounted in some kind of external pod as far from the main fuselage as you could get it?

                A recoverable cruise missile or drone might be your best shot rather than risk having your pilot walk home.
                Last edited by Monash; 04 Nov 16,, 07:06.
                If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Monash View Post
                  If it's designed to take out military vehicles and installations that are 'hardened' against EMP surely there would be risk of taking out your own EMP hardened delivery vehicle? Unless it is s very tightly focused beam weapon as had been mentioned. Even then if you were using an F35 it would have to be mounted in some kind of external pod as far from the main fuselage as you could get it?

                  A recoverable cruise missile or drone might be your best shot rather than risk having your pilot walk home.
                  My impression is that it will fry unshielded electronics, taking out power in a specific building or zapping a radar station. I doubt it can cause serious harm to anything designed to operate in a nuclear environment with the EMP effects that entails. The F-35's AESA radar can put out a tight enough beam for standoff jamming without blasting itself or causing fratricide. I think CHAMPs probably uses similar beamforming techniques but is designed for short bursts of raw power to maximise electromagnetic flux in the target rather than going for the kind of fidelity a radar is build around.

                  With regards to integration into a fighter, I don't think distance from the fuselage would provide any meaningful protection, but good directional emissions control and a faraday cage probably would. A podded solution still might be the best bet since fighters don't have a ton of extra space internally to pack something like this in, and it may be a niche capability you don't feel like bringing on every sortie.

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