An Air Force EMP weapon that uses electromagnetic pulses to both target and destroy “digital weapons” is in the works. Boeing and the United States Air Force have confirmed that they are testing an EMP weapon that is reportedly so accurate it can target even a specific building.

The Air Force EMP weapon is called CHAMPS, or Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project. The U.S. Air Force EMP weapon would reduce an enemy’s high-tech weapons to nothing more than a heap of metal if hit with an electromagnetic pulse – the same is true for effect on American weapons should an enemy possess the same technology.

An EMP weapon used against the aging and overly-taxed United States power grid could quickly wreak havoc and ultimately cause millions of deaths in America.

United States EMP Commission statement about the domino effect an EMP attack would have on the United States.

“The primary avenues for catastrophic damage to the nation are through our electric power infrastructure and thence into our telecommunications, energy, and other infrastructures. These, in turn, can seriously impact other important aspects of our nation’s life, including the financial system; means of getting food, water, and medical care to the citizenry; trade; and production of goods and services. The recovery of any one of the key national infrastructures is dependent on the recovery of others.”

“We’re not quite up there with Star Trek and Star Wars movies, but this is definitely advancement in technology to give us an opportunity to do things we couldn’t do before,” Air Force Research Laboratory CHAMPS Leader Peter Finlay said during an interview with CNN.

In 2012 Boeing announced that the company had its first successful test for the CHAMPS EMP weapon. A test conducted at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico reportedly successfully disabled electronics in a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range. Boeing also maintained that the weapon also permitted them to make “multiple selective high-frequency radio wave strikes” against several targets during the same mission.

“This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare,” Boeing Phantom Works CHAMP Program Manager Keith Coleman said. “In the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy’s electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive. We hit every target we ever wanted. We prosecuted every one. We’ve made science fiction, science fact.”

A report on the website Foxtrot Alpha claimed that a similar EMP weapon was “secretly used” to destroy electronics in enemy vehicles, by the United States Military during hostilities in Libya.

What do you think about the Air Force EMP weapon – CHAMPS?

[Image via: Chris Parypa Photography/Shutterstock.com]