US Air Force secretly develops missiles that could obliterate Iran’s nuclear facilities by zapping their electronics – without harming civilians

Ronald Kessler, a former investigative journalist for the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Secrets of the FBI,” “The First Family Detail” and the “CIA at War.”

The US Air Force has quietly deployed missiles that could destroy the electronics of Iran’s nuclear facilities with powerful microwaves, rendering them useless, without causing any fatalities, DailyMail.com has exclusively learned.

The missiles, known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), were built by Boeing’s Phantom Works for the US Air Force Research Laboratory and first successfully tested in 2012. They were deployed, that is, installed at various locations around the world. – and became operational in 2019.

This comes as Israel has carried out strikes in Iran in retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack earlier this week, ignoring the US president’s warning that more strikes could plunge the Middle East further into conflict.

While Iran could try to shield its equipment, U.S. officials say this would not be effective against the HPM missiles. The photo shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi

Mary Lou Robinson, then chief of the High Power Microwave Division of the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base, previously confirmed to DailyMail.com that 20 CHAMP missiles were operational and ready to neutralize any military target, including nuclear ones. facilities.

When asked for comment, Othana Zuch, a public affairs officer at the Air Force Research Laboratory, said that while “operational security prevents us from discussing specific operational applications for our technologies,” the CHAMP missiles were considered a demonstration program and ‘we have since continued to discuss specific operational applications for our technologies’. developing advanced HPEM (High Power Electromagnetic) technologies, building on the original demonstration.

Mary Lou Robinson, then head of the High Power Microwave Division, previously confirmed to DailyMail.com that twenty CHAMP missiles were operational and ready to neutralize any military target, including nuclear facilities.

The microwave weapons are placed in an air-launched cruise missile and delivered by B-52 bombers. With a range of 700 miles, they can fly into enemy airspace at low altitude and emit sharp pulses of powerful microwave energy (HPM) that burn computer chips, disabling any electronic devices targeted by the missiles without causing any collateral damage.

The missile is equipped with an electromagnetic pulse cannon. This uses a super-powerful microwave that generates a concentrated beam of energy. The energy causes voltage spikes in electronic equipment, rendering them unusable before the surge protectors have a chance to respond.

The project has been progressing in secret since the Air Force successfully tested a missile equipped with HPM in 2012.

During the test, the CHAMP missile flew over a two-story building on the Utah Test and Firing Range.

The building in the western Utah desert was filled with computers and security and surveillance systems. The microwaves shut down the compound’s entire spectrum of electronic systems, including video cameras set up to film the test, without damaging anything else.

“We achieved every goal we set out to achieve,” Boeing’s CHAMP program manager Keith Colman said in a company news release at the time. ‘Today we have turned science fiction into science fact.’

Until the announcement of the successful test, the project was top secret. When it was announced, the story was only carried by a few trade publications.

Since then, apart from a few dozen stories in December 2017, when the missiles were still not operational, the media outside DailyMail.com have ignored the story.

Due to sequestration budget cuts, the CHAMP missiles did not become operational under the Obama administration.

But after I emailed then-Trump National Security Adviser HR McMaster in August 2017 information about CHAMP that I was about to include in my book “The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game,” McMaster thanked me for informed him of the possibility of which he was unaware, agreed to an interview and ordered a briefing at the Pentagon.

The beauty of the HPM missile is that the microwave beam can penetrate bunkers where facilities are hidden without harming the people inside

Trump’s National Security Advisor, HR McMaster, thanked Ronald Kessler for alerting him to the capability he was unaware of

As a result, the Pentagon funded the program and ordered air force training around the world to deploy and operate the missile systems.

The beauty of the HPM missile is that the microwave beam can penetrate bunkers where facilities are hidden without harming the people inside.

Even if a bunker is buried in a mountain, HPM penetrates the facilities through connections to power lines, communications lines and antennas. Thus, HPM can penetrate any underground military or nuclear facility and destroy its electronics.

Targeted at command and control centers, the missile could disable any country’s military. And one missile can hit multiple targets in succession.

While Iran could try to shield its equipment, U.S. officials say this would not be effective against the HPM missiles.

In addition to underground bunkers and command centers, HPM can quickly disable fighter planes, tanks, ships and missile systems. And it could wipe out facilities for developing and testing nuclear weapons.

The High Power Microwave Division of the Air Force Research Lab is located at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Most astonishing of all, the missile disables any radar that might detect it as it flies to and from a target. So a country can’t eliminate CHAMP before it hits and can’t know why its facilities are suddenly dead.

The U.S. National Labs, managed by the Department of Energy, have been working on HPM capabilities for decades. Over the years, HPM devices have been deployed on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq to neutralize improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and drones.

The HPM missiles are completely different from cyber warfare designed to confuse computers. Unlike a cyber attack, electronic equipment is permanently fried.

HPM missiles also differ from an electromagnetic pulse attack (EMP) which is created by detonating a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere. Because it is a target, HPM leaves intact the civilian facilities necessary to sustain life.