Aircraft could be brought down by DIY 'E-bombs'

New Scientist:

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Aircraft could be brought down by DIY 'E-bombs'

01 April 2009 by Paul Marks

ELECTROMAGNETIC pulse weapons capable of frying the electronics in civil airliners can be built using information and components available on the net, warn counterterrorism analysts.

All it would take to bring a plane down would be a single but highly energetic microwave radio pulse blasted from a device inside a plane, or on the ground and trained at an aircraft coming in to land.

Yael Shahar, director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, and her colleagues have analysed electromagnetic weapons in development or used by military forces worldwide, and have discovered that there is low-cost equipment available online that can act in similar ways. "These will become more of a threat as the electromagnetic weapons technology matures," she says. [Full Article]

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i love media... tell EVERYONE how to do it why don't ya. [/sarcasm]

and this is my issue with NextGen...

You easily alter the accuracy of GPS, but you can't jam every freq in the 108-118Mhz band...

Scary.

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Originally Posted by mmedford

and this is my issue with NextGen...

You easily alter the accuracy of GPS, but you can't jam every freq in the 108-118Mhz band...

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Altering or jamming the frequencies isn't the issue here...these things would physically damage the circuits, rendering useless everything from the control systems to the radios to the IFE.

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Originally Posted by mmedford

You easily alter the accuracy of GPS, but you can't jam every freq in the 108-118Mhz band...

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i gotta agree with you there. GPS approaches are flexible and cheaper, but iMO an ILS is easier to fly as i only have to look at my six pack instead of the radio stack on the side of the panel. that and i've been flying them longer... =D