Air Force Warns of 'Coordinated Physical Attacks' on Electric Grid
Washington Examiner, March 2016 -
Electromagnetic pulse attacks on the energy grid, a topic that used to prompt eye-rolling in Washington, is now a top concern for the U.S. Air Force. Officials have raised new worries that “determined adversaries” want to attack the grid, either with a physical hit or a potential EMP attack. Experts have suggested that North Korea, for example, is testing missiles to launch a nuclear weapon from a ship off the U.S. coast into the atmosphere where an explosion could shut off electricity for months through an atmospheric EMP explosion.
In an Air Force briefing provided to the Examiner, the service raised concerns about “aging infrastructure,” a “growing number of cyber attacks” on the grid, “coordinated physical attacks on key grid components” and “risks from state and non-state actors,” presumably such as the Islamic State or North Korea.
"We have been warning Americans about this for months and now the U.S. Air Force has made a shocking warning about an area that we are extremely vulnerable…our energy grid. If even part of the U.S. energy grid were to go offline in a major city, it would be mass hysteria, because the attack would most likely mean Americans would be without power for weeks or even months depending on how severe the attack."