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Erica Fronse, host of Millennials Rock, introduces Dr. Peter Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and director of the US Nuclear Strategy Forum, both congressional advisory boards. Pry has served on the Congress’s EMP Commission, the Strategic Posture Commission, the House Armed Services Committee, and the CIA, and is the author of Apocalypse Unknown. Fronse asks Pry to address the grid vulnerability facing the United States and to explain what EMP is, what threats Americans should be aware of, and what represents a major security issue today.
Pry explains that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) can be generated by detonating a nuclear weapon at high altitude in outer space. He notes that such an event would not produce a visible blast or nuclear fallout, but would generate a super energetic radio wave known as an electromagnetic pulse. This EMP would destroy electronics across all of the Continental United States, leading to the collapse of the power grid, communications, transportation, business, and finance. He adds that under a year-long blackout scenario caused by a nuclear EMP attack, the Congressional EMP Commission estimated that nine out of ten Americans could die from starvation, disease, and societal collapse. He emphasizes that this devastation could be achieved with a single nuclear weapon.
Pry then references Iran, noting that Iran has written in its military doctrine that developing the bomb is tied to this kind of capability. He also mentions that Iran has demonstrated practices of launching missiles from short-range platforms on ships to simulate an EMP attack, illustrating a strategic interest in exploiting EMP-like effects or the threat they pose. The discussion underscores the perceived severity of an EMP threat as a major security concern, highlighting both the potential scale of disruption to critical infrastructure and the included risks to human life in the event of a prolonged outage.