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environmental effects of the )ulf War seven years earlier"
What the team found was very different from the surreal
inferno of %urnin oil wells that had %een the scene in
1991 a -uiet desert, reen with wavin rasses" #s theteam wrote in its report, however, .other pro%lems are
literally %elow the surface and one needs only to scratch the
desert to find the remains of the continuin environmental
damae./for e!ample, spilled oil that continued to
percolate throuh the porous soil and threaten +uwait0s
meaer freshwater a-uifers"
everal recent wars in varied environments and different
parts of the world reveal that the ecoloical conse-uences
of war often remain written in the landscape for many
years" ut the story is not always straihtforward or clear"
'nstead, the landscape is li$e a palimpsest/a parchment
written on, scraped clean, and then written over aain/on
which the ecoloical effects of war may %e overlain %y
postwar reeneration or development" 3et loo$in carefully
and in the riht places can allow the history of past humanconflicts to %e read in the landscape"
4f course, wars are not the only events that leave their
sinature on the land" .This is essentially true of all impacts
on ecosystems,. says 5ohn 6art, a conservation scientist
%ased in the Democratic Repu%lic of the *ono/floods and
hurricanes, for e!ample" .o it really puts conflict into the
conte!t of natural history".till, warfare is not the same as other distur%ances that
%uffet natural ecosystems, and there are reasons to %e
concerned a%out the lonterm ecoloical effects of war,
particularly of the modern variety" 7or one thin, there is
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incredi%ly destructive, %ut not without precursors". 'n fact,
the 8"" sprayin proram was inspired %y an earlier
ritish effort to -uell an insurrection in alaya %y
chemical sprayin to destroy ?unle crops planted %yre%els"
#nd the environment has %een war0s victim, %oth deli%erate
and incidental, at least since the %einnins of recorded
history" 7ive thousand years ao, warrin esopotamian
city/states %reached di$es to flood the fields of their
enemies =a tactic that resonates with recent events in that
part of the world>" The 6e%rew i%le records in the oo$
of 5udes that +in #%imelech salted the fields of
hechem@ the Romans did the same after they sac$ed
*arthae"
3et the scale and destructiveness of the 8"" proram =code
named 4peration Trail Dust %ut %etter $nown as 4peration
Ranch 6and, which referred specifically to the #ir 7orce
component> was larely unprecedented" #n estimated AB
percent of southern ;ietnam0s inland hardwood forest was
sprayed at least once" ome areas/those %orderin roads
and rivers, around military %ases, and alon the forested
transport route $nown as the 6o *hi inh Trail/were hit up
to half a doCen times"
Two to three wee$s after %ein sprayed with defoliants, the
trees would drop their leaves, enerally remainin %are for
several months after" That was a %oon to the 8"" military%ut a disaster for these tropical forests, where the canopy
holds the reat reservoir of %iodiversity plants rowin on
plants, thousands of $inds of insects, hundreds of %irds"
7orest ecoloist #rthur Westin, who was instrumental in
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drawin pu%lic attention to the ecoloical conse-uences of
the ;ietnam War, wrote in 19
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would have e!pected hundreds of %irds representin
perhaps (& species" The only other verte%rate they saw was
a lone crocodile on a mud %an$" Ffeiffer later recalled .a
vast ray landscape, littered with the s$eletons ofher%icide/$illed manroves".
y some estimates, half of southern ;ietnam0s manroves
were $illed %y defoliants" 3et ironically, some of the
tareted forests owed their e!istence to an earlier conflict,
says environmental historian David is of the 8niversity
of *alifornia/Riverside" 'n the 8 inh pecial #rea of the
southwestern e$on Delta, e!tensive drainin and
clearin of manrove swamps had ta$en place in the early
decades of the twentieth century, as 7rench colonial
authorities carved out immense rice plantations" When the
;ietnamese strule for independence ot under way after
World War '', ;iet inh uerrillas esta%lished a %ase in the
area" They %reached di$es, reflooded the swamps, and
planted palms and manroves to provide them with cover"
.The re%els didn0t have any sort of Western conservationistattitude towards that environment/instead it was more of an
enineer0s attitude,. is says" 3et the result was the
dense tanle of native veetation that later %ecame the
taret of #ent 4rane"
#fter the departure of 8"" troops in 19
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always clear, and sortin out what environmental effects of
the war persist more than three decades later can %e
complicated"
'n many areas the invasive rasses and %am%oo thic$etsthat replaced inland hardwood forests are still present" #
mid/19(&s study %y ;ietnamese ecoloists documented ?ust
2E species of %irds and B species of mammals present in
sprayed forests and converted areas, compared to 1EB/1
5ohn ac+innon, a conservation scientist who has wor$ed
e!tensively in ;ietnam and elsewhere in #sia, says post/
war activities are to %lame .'n all cases the failure to
recover is %ecause there Jhave %eenK continued fires,
raCin, and wood harvestin that prevent proper
reeneration". 4n the other hand, clwee arues that
there are some areas where .it0s pretty clear that a chane in
forest composition is a direct result of the war,. citin ase!amples the a Da forest near 6o *hi inh *ity, where
the typical pattern of forest interrupted %y scru%%y %am%oos
and invasive rasses persists despite relatively little recent
slash/and/%urn ariculture, and the hard/hit # Luoi ;alley
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of central ;ietnam" .ome areas that were heavily sprayed
continue to %e very deraded in terms of the veetation,.
she says"
The picture is similarly comple! in the manrove forests"#n estimated 1&B,&&& hectares of manroves were lost to
defoliants durin the war" The ;ietnamese undertoo$
e!tensive restoration efforts durin the 19(&s, %ut many of
the replanted areas/a%out 1&1,&&& hectares, or one/third of
the manroves0 total e!tent/have recently %een cut down for
the development of a-uaculture enterprises" 'n other words,
the effects of the war ?ust a few decades ao are already
overlain %y multiple layers of ecoloical chane"
3et a new investiation %y ;ietnamese forester Fhun Tuu
oi offers some clarity" 6e has analyCed recent satellite
photos of ;ietnam, and found that imaes from %oth
hardwood forests and manrove areas show areas of altered
veetation/in lon, straiht strips that correspond precisely
to the fliht paths of the */12A caro aircraft that did most
of the sprayin" .There is no way all these veetation
chanes could %e attri%uta%le to locals settin fires or
cuttin forests iven these striped patterns,. clwee says"
Collateral Damage
Li$e the ;ietnam War, a ma?ority of conflicts worldwide in
recent decades have involved uerrilla forces, who may not
%e numerous or well/e-uipped %ut who find an advantae
in remainin invisi%le to their enemies, whether %y meltin
into the civilian population or %y ta$in cover in, for
e!ample, dense forests" 'n turn, the places where uerrillas
ta$e cover draw fire" o while scorched/earth tactics in the
ancient world fre-uently were directed aainst croplands,
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199E, %ecause of armed conflict"
'n a world already heavily shaped %y human hands, the
forests and other landscapes that can offer cover to uerrilla
roups often represent remnants of natural ecosystems, mayhave protected status, and fre-uently har%or endanered
species" That raises the sta$es when war %rea$s out, 5ohn
6art says .Frotected areas can %e depleted, species driven
to e!tinction, etc"""" #s conservationists, our Mvictories0 are
only temporary"""" ut our losses loom definitive"""".
The ;irunas represent all of these trends" The reion0s
forests/islands of natural ha%itat in one of #frica0s mostdensely settled reions and one of the last %its of a once/
vast forest ecosystem that %lan$eted mountains from the
Red ea to southern #frica/were used %y %oth reular army
units and re%el roups throuhout the recent conflicts in
Rwanda and the DR*"
#nd in turn, that made the forests a taret of military
attac$" 'n 1991, the Rwandan army cleared a swath ofveetation up to 1&& meters wide alon a $ey trail throuh
%am%oo forest, in order to reduce the threat of am%ush %y
re%el roups" 4n the *onolese side, in 1999 the army of
the DR* clear/cut a corridor alon the main road %etween
)oma and Rutshuru, which runs throuh ;iruna :ational
Far$" #lthouh carried out on a much smaller scale, these
events were motivated %y the same concerns as the 8""
her%icide proram in ;ietnam to deny cover to a forest/%ased enemy"
When civilian populations are swept up in and displaced %y
armed conflict, the effects on the environment can %e as
reat as those of direct military activities" 7or two years
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%einnin in late 199E, for e!ample, a%out
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painful series of events that are still unfoldin these days".
The lastin conse-uences of war in the ;irunas reion
may %e more su%tle, not necessarily alterin the ecosystem
as a whole %ut affectin the animal species in it,particularly lare mammals" The deforestation alon the
)oma/Rutshuru road disrupted a $ey ecoloical corridor
that crosses the road and lin$s two sectors of ;iruna
:ational Far$" mmanuel de erode, chief e!ecutive of
Wildlife Direct, says, .The clearin was not on a lare
scale, %ut the corridor is critical to elephant and other lare
mammal movements, such as %uffalos". 'n turn, disruption
of the elephants0 usual movement patterns %y deforestation
and other military activities has led to .increased tree cover
in the emli$i ;alley and on the Rwindi Flains".
Foachin %y armed roups, refuees, and local residents
around the par$ may also have lastin effects on a num%er
of mammal species" The daner is manified %y the fact
that armed conflict, especially civil conflict, leads to the
widespread possession of automatic weapons, which are
vastly more efficient and devastatin than traditional
huntin weapons such as snares and spears"
4ver the course of two months at the end of 199H, for
e!ample, ayi/ayi re%els $illed almost the entire
population of hippopotamus on the Rutshuru and Rwindi
Rivers" #ccordin to de erode, as a conse-uence of this
and other poachin episodes, .There has %een a massivechane in veetation assem%laes around La$e dward".
6e cites the collapse of the hippo population as one of the
most sinificant war/related events for the lonterm
ecoloy of the ;irunas reion, notin that it could lead to
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irreversi%le veetation chanes, ma?or declines in fish
production, and a conse-uent %low to the fisheries/
dependent economy of the DR*0s :orth +ivu reion"
ecause automatic weapons tend to remain in circulationafter hostilities end, poachin may continue and sometimes
even increase" 6art says that in the DR*, .the Mpost
conflict0 conte!t is provin even more of a challene to the
environment than the open declared period of war". 7or
e!ample, while the mountain orilla population in ;iruna
:ational Far$ emered larely unscathed from a decade/
plus of war, at least nine orillas have %een $illed in 2&& of nearly 2&& industrial
plants that had spewed effluent into the Tiris and
uphrates, he concludes, .)enerally spea$in"""this war0s
effect on the environment has %een positive".
What scientists $now a%out other environmental effects of
the current conflict in 'ra- remains larely speculative at
this point, and mostly %ased on studies of the 1991 )ulf
War, which involved similar actors, munitions, and
environments" The most vivid imaes of environmental
destruction durin that previous conflict came from
sa%otae of +uwaiti oil fields" Retreatin 'ra-i troops set
HA& oil wells aliht, eneratin a plume of to!ic %lac$
smo$e several hundred $ilometers wide and lon" .3ou0d
o to places downwind and it would %e covered with
spec$s of oil and car%on,. recalls atthew :aud, then an
environmental consultant wor$in on contract with the 8""
nvironmental Frotection #ency who spent si! wee$s in
audi #ra%ia and +uwait in 1991" oot and oil dropletscovered 9BA s-uare $ilometers of desert, damain the
fraile veetation and leadin to widespread deradation of
ranelands in audi #ra%ia"
:aud, who was also a mem%er of the )reen *ross
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'nternational team, recalls that in heavily oiled areas of the
+uwaiti desert .there wasn0t much sin of life. in 199(" 'n
less affected areas, where annual desert rasses had larely
recovered, perennial plants were still mostly a%sent" #ndwhere saltwater was used to put out the flames, native
veetation has %een replaced with salt/resistant coastal
species" .y impression is that damae to arid
environments is often loner lastin, simply %ecause of the
fact that plant reeneration is so slow,. Gahler says" .The
effects can last for decades and decades" *enturies".
Despite fears that widespread oil/well fires would occur
durin the current conflict, ?ust nine well/head fires in
'ra-0s southern Rumallah oil fields were identified in the
early days after the 8"" invasion" 6owever, oil/filled
trenches set aliht in ahdad to interfere with satellite
surveillance and taretin of laser/uided munitions would
create the same sort of contamination %y soot and oil mist
in ecosystems downwind" #nd sa%otae of pipelines and
other oil infrastructure %y insurents would lead to oil spillssimilar to those that now threaten +uwait0s a-uifers"
Ferhaps a reater worry is physical damae to the desert,
particularly the millimeter/thin layer of microoranisms
that forms a crust at the top of the soil, protectin it from
erosion" .'f you don0t distur% that, the amount of dune
formation is limited,. e!plains :aud" .#nd what you learn
-uic$ly is if you have tan$s and truc$s and vehicles li$ethat drivin all over a desert, you0ve %ro$en up this crust".
Remote sensin analyses led %y 7arou$ l/aC of oston
8niversity showed that the )ulf War resulted in an increase
in sandstorms and dune formation in the reion" l/aC
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reports that today .sand continues to accumulate on dunes,
which also continue to move down/wind". 'n fact, the
effects of physical disruption of the desert can %e a lot
loner lastin than that trac$s from World War '' tan$s arestill visi%le in some areas of the :orth #frican desert, and
one study in #riCona suested that desert crusts miht ta$e
a thousand years to fully recover from the movements of
heavy vehicles"
5effrey c:eely points out that warfare is li$ely to have
the most severe, lonest/lastin effects on protected areas
that har%or endanered species, and slow/to/recover
ecosystems such as deserts" ven in the most fraile
environments, sometimes nature/and people/can surprise
us, as the esopotamian marshes0 recovery shows" ut turn
and loo$ in another direction and you are li$ely to see
warfare0s endurin scars" #ccordin to l/aC, dust storms
and sand dune formation, similar to what occurred in the
wa$e of the )ulf War, are also li$ely effects of the
movements of military vehicles throuh the desert durinthe current 'ra- war" 4f the dunes, l/aC says, .These
would continue to move for as lon as the wind %lows".
!uclear Weapon Effects
:uclear detonations are the most devastatin of the
weapons of mass destruction" To ma$e this point one
need only recall the pictures from 6iroshima or the
international furor over the accidental %ut enormous
radiation release from the *herno%yl power plant" The
contamination from *herno%yl was sinificantly
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larer than would have %een e!pected from a nuclear
detonation of a%out 2& $T at round level, %ut was
compara%le in e!tent to what miht result from a small
nuclear war in which a doCen or so weapons ofnominal yield were e!ploded at altitudes intended to
ma!imiCe %last damae"
# nuclear detonation creates a severe environment
includin %last, thermal pulse, neutrons, !/ and
amma/rays, radiation, electromanetic pulse =F>,
and ioniCation of the upper atmosphere" Dependin
upon the environment in which the nuclear de/vice is
detonated, %last effects are manifested as round
shoc$, water shoc$, %lueout, craterin, and lare
amounts of dust and radioactive fallout" #ll pose
pro%lems for the survival of friendly systems and can
lead to the destruction or neutraliCation of hostile
assets"
The enery of a nuclear e!plosion is transferred to the
surroundin medium in three distinct forms %last@
thermal radiation@ and nuclear radiation" The
distri%ution of enery amon these three forms will
depend on the yield of the weapon, the location of the
%urst, and the characteristics of the environment" 7or a
low altitude atmospheric detonation of a moderate
siCed weapon in the $iloton rane, the enery is
distri%uted rouhly as followsB&P as %last@
ABP as thermal radiation@ made up of a wide
rane of the electromanetic spectrum, includin
infrared, visi%le, and ultraviolet liht and some
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soft !/ray emitted at the time of the e!plosion@
and
1BP as nuclear radiation@ includin BP as initial
ioniCin radiation consistin chiefly of neutronsand amma rays emitted within the first minute
after detonation, and 1&P as residual nuclear
radiation" Residual nuclear radiation is the haCard
in fallout"
*onsidera%le variation from this distri%ution will
occur with chanes in yield or location of the
detonation"ecause of the tremendous amounts of enery
li%erated per unit mass in a nuclear detonation,
temperatures of several tens of million derees
centirade develop in the immediate area of the
detonation" This is in mar$ed contrast to the few
thousand derees of a conventional e!plosion" #t
these very hih temperatures the nonfissioned parts ofthe nuclear weapon are vaporiCed" The atoms do not
release the enery as $inetic enery %ut release it in
the form of lare amounts of electromanetic
radiation" 'n an atmospheric detonation, this
electromanetic radiation, consistin chiefly of soft !/
ray, is a%sor%ed within a few meters of the point of
detonation %y the surroundin atmosphere, heatin it
to e!tremely hih temperatures and formin a%rilliantly hot sphere of air and aseous weapon
residues, the so/called fire%all" 'mmediately upon
formation, the fire%all %eins to row rapidly and rise
li$e a hot air %alloon" Within a millisecond after
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detonation, the diameter of the fire%all from a 1
meaton =t> air %urst is 1B& m" This increases to a
ma!imum of 22&& m within 1& seconds, at which time
the fire%all is also risin at the rate of 1&& mQsec" Theinitial rapid e!pansion of the fire%all severely
compresses the surroundin atmosphere, producin a
powerful %last wave"
#s it e!pands toward its ma!imum diameter, the
fire%all cools, and after a%out a minute its temperature
has decreased to such an e!tent that it no loner emits
sinificant amounts of thermal radiation" The
com%ination of the upward movement and the coolin
of the fire%all ives rise to the formation of the
characteristic mushroom/shaped cloud" #s the fire%all
cools, the vaporiCed materials in it condense to form a
cloud of solid particles" 7ollowin an air %urst,
condensed droplets of water ive it a typical white
cloudli$e appearance" 'n the case of a surface %urst,
this cloud will also contain lare -uantities of dirt andother de%ris which are vaporiCed when the fire%all
touches the earth0s surface or are suc$ed up %y the
stron updrafts afterwards, ivin the cloud a dirty
%rown appearance" The dirt and de%ris %ecome
contaminated with the radioisotopes enerated %y the
e!plosion or activated %y neutron radiation and fall to
earth as fallout"The relative effects of %last, heat, and nuclear
radiation will larely %e determined %y the altitude at
which the weapon is detonated" :uclear e!plosions are
enerally classified as air %ursts, surface %ursts,
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su%surface %ursts, or hih altitude %ursts"
Air "ursts" #n air %urst is an e!plosion in which a
weapon is detonated in air at an altitude %elow A& $m
%ut at sufficient heiht that the fire%all does notcontact the surface of the earth" #fter such a %urst,
%last may cause considera%le damae and in?ury" The
altitude of an air %urst can %e varied to o%tain
ma!imum %last effects, ma!imum thermal effects,
desired radiation effects, or a %alanced com%ination of
these effects" urns to e!posed s$in may %e produced
over many s-uare $ilometers and eye in?uries over a
still larer area" 'nitial nuclear radiation will %e a
sinificant haCard with smaller weapons, %ut the
fallout haCard can %e inored as there is essentially no
local fallout from an air %urst" The fission products are
enerally dispersed over a lare area of the lo%e
unless there is local rainfall resultin in localiCed
fallout" 'n the vicinity of round Cero, there may %e a
small area of neutron/induced activity which could %ehaCardous to troops re-uired to pass throuh the area"
Tactically, air %ursts are the most li$ely to %e used
aainst round forces"
Surface "urst" # surface %urst is an e!plosion in
which a weapon is detonated on or slihtly a%ove the
surface of the earth so that the fire%all actually touches
the land or water surface" 8nder these conditions, thearea affected %y %last, thermal radiation, and initial
nuclear radiation will %e less e!tensive than for an air
%urst of similar yield, e!cept in the reion of round
Cero where destruction is concentrated" 'n contrast
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with air %ursts, local fallout can %e a haCard over a
much larer downwind area than that which is affected
%y %last and thermal radiation"
Su#surface "urst" # su%surface %urst is an e!plosionin which the point of the detonation is %eneath the
surface of land or water" *raterin will enerally
result from an underround %urst, ?ust as for a surface
%urst" 'f the %urst does not penetrate the surface, the
only other haCard will %e from round or water shoc$"
'f the %urst is shallow enouh to penetrate the surface,
%last, thermal, and initial nuclear radiation effects will
%e present, %ut will %e less than for a surface %urst of
compara%le yield" Local fallout will %e very heavy if
penetration occurs"
$igh Altitude "urst" # hih altitude %urst is one in
which the weapon is e!ploded at such an altitude
=a%ove A& $m> that initial soft !/rays enerated %y the
detonation dissipate enery as heat in a much larer
volume of air molecules" There the fire%all is much
larer and e!pands much more rapidly" The ioniCin
radiation from the hih altitude %urst can travel for
hundreds of miles %efore %ein a%sor%ed" inificant
ioniCation of the upper atmosphere =ionosphere> can
occur" evere disruption in communications can occur
followin hih altitude %ursts" They also lead to
eneration of an intense electromanetic pulse =F>which can sinificantly derade performance of or
destroy sophisticated electronic e-uipment" There are
no $nown %ioloical effects of F@ however,
indirect effects may result from failure of critical
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medical e-uipment"
#lthouh some nuclear weapons effects =:W> such
as %last and craterin have analos in the effects of
conventional weapons, many :W are uni-ue tonuclear use" 'n addition, %last and other common
weapons effects are li$ely to %e much more powerful
in the nuclear case than in the realm of conventional
weapons" :W are so severe that com%inations of two
or more simultaneously =as in a real event> may not
add linearly, complicatin the desin and construction
of physical simulators or the writin and validation of
computer simulation codes"
#lthouh thermal radiation, F, and ioniCin
radiation from a nuclear %last are all damae
producin, at yields %elow a%out a meaton the %last
and shoc$ produced %y a nuclear weapon are the
predominant means of damain a taret" 7or some
tarets, such as underround %un$ers and missile silos,
%last and shoc$ are virtually the only effective
destructive mechanisms"
The intensity of thermal radiation decreases only as
the inverse s-uare of the distance from a nuclear
detonation, while %last, shoc$, and prompt ioniCin
radiation effects decrease more rapidly" Thus, hih/
yield weapons are primarily incendiary weapons, a%le
to start fires and do other thermal damae at distanceswell %eyond the radius at which they can topple
%uildins or overturn armored vehicles"
:uclear effects on electromanetic sinal propaation,
which affects command, control, communications,
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computers, and intellience =* E '>, are of concern to
countries e!pected to use nuclear weapons,
particularly those which intend to e!plode a weapon at
reat altitudes or those which e!pect to have to defendaainst such a nuclear attac$" *A' technoloy is
primarily affected %y hih/altitude nuclear effects that
could interrupt satellite/to/satellite communications,
satellite/to/aircraft lin$s, or satellite/to/round lin$s"
ost nations will hope that sinals from )lo%al
Fositionin ystem =)F> satellites and round/%ased
differential )F transmitters will %e usa%le shortly
after a nuclear e!plosion, as well as traditionalcommunications channels which must %e protected"
The electromanetic pulse enerated %y the detonation
of a sinle nuclear weapon at hih altitudes can %e a
threat to military systems located as much as a
thousand miles away" 6F can disa%le
communications systems and even power rids at
enormous distances from the %urst" This type of threatcould %e used %y a third world country that has the
capa%ility to launch a roc$et carryin a hih/yield
device =a%out 1 meaton or more> a few hundred
$ilometers into the upper atmosphere and a few
thousand $ilometers from its own territory =to avoid
damain its own systems>"
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