Malmstrom & Eagle Flight - Was this an EMP Test?

[Mendel]

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/ufo-us-disinformation-45376f7e

Article:

The barriers of concrete and steel surrounding America's nuclear missiles were thick enough to give them a chance if hit first by a Soviet strike. But scientists at the time feared the intense storm of electromagnetic waves generated by a nuclear detonation might render the hardware needed to launch a counterstrike unusable.

A model of an electromagnetic pulse testing site, shown in a 1978 Pentagon document.

To test this vulnerability, the Air Force developed an exotic electromagnetic generator that simulated this pulse of disruptive energy without the need to detonate a nuclear weapon.

When activated, this device, placed on a portable platform 60 feet above the facility, would gather power until it glowed, sometimes with a blinding orange light. It would then fire a burst of energy that could resemble lightning.

The electromagnetic pulses snaked down cables connected to the bunker where launch commanders like Salas sat, disrupting the guidance systems, disabling the weapons and haunting the men to this day.

But any public leak of the tests at the time would have allowed Russia to know that America's nuclear arsenal could be disabled in a first strike. The witnesses were kept in the dark.

Source: https://archive.is/7KsjM

AARO found it out, and it's expected to be in the upcoming volume 2 of their Historical Report.

 

[Mendel]

Here are excerpts from @James Carlson's "Echo Flights of Fancy" (attached to post #1) that corroborate that the Air Force knew an EMP test caused the outage:

The author of this article, James Carlson, is the son of Captain (Retired) Eric D. Carlson, the commander of Echo Flight on March 16, 1967. All of the details and descriptions of events and reports that his father would have been witness to have been confirmed by him as accurate.

USAF records indicate that the Echo Flight Incident occurred at 0845 on the morning of March 16, 1967, about two hours after sunrise. The events that occurred were summarized in September 1969 in Bernard C. Nalty's USAF Ballistic Missile Programs 1967-1968, a TOP SECRET NOFORN document discussing problems encountered by U.S. missile forces: "Another problem … appeared in March 1967 when an entire flight of Minuteman I missiles at Malmstrom went abruptly off alert. Extensive tests at Malmstrom, Ogden Air Materiel Area, and at the Boeing plant in Seattle revealed that an electronic noise pulse had shut down the flight. In effect, this surge of noise was similar to the electromagnetic pulse generated by nuclear explosions. The component of Minuteman I that was most vulnerable to noise pulse was the logic coupler of the guidance and control system. Subsequent tests showed that the same part in Minuteman II was equally sensitive to this same phenomenon."

"The effort at Boeing NRA was to determine the source and most likely path of noise Pulse to the Logic Coupler. The results of the Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) testing at the LF and Wing IV indicated that the Sensitive Information Network (SIN) were susceptible to noise of the type that could have caused the problem.
"The SIN lines go only from the LCC to all of the LF's in the flight, which could explain the flight peculiar aspect of the problem."

ICBM histories maintained as TOP SECRET NOFORN documents until 2004 confirm that measures to correct the susceptibility of the Logic Coupler to electromagnetic interference of this type were already scheduled in force modernization orders for the Minuteman II systems across the entire nation. These included the installation of electromagnetic filters at the incoming junctions of the guidance and control systems of Minuteman II. The same filters were expected to work equally well with any electromagnetic pulse travelling along the same lines, so the USAF rewrote the force mod orders to include the Minuteman I systems. That solved the problem.

The following pages contain illustrations and copies of referenced documents.

There's also a section detailing the investigation at the site. It shows the investigations were compartmentalized.

This older evidence dovetails nicely with the new revelations.

 

[NorCal Dave]

The electromagnetic pulses snaked down cables connected to the bunker where launch commanders like Salas sat, disrupting the guidance systems, disabling the weapons and haunting the men to this day.

From Mendel's source above. I'd have to go back and read again, but IIRC, Carlson's claim is that none of what Salas described over the years ever happened to him. It's all a confabulation mixed with hypnotically recovered (or more likely created) memories. He repeatedly changed the time, location and flight he was involved with, mixing a UFO sighting with Capt. Carlson's experiences at Echo flight. Again, going off my own memory at the moment, but I think the only documented shut down in the time frame discussed by Salas was Echo flight and Salas wasn't part of Echo flight. Having found the records for the Echo flight shut down, Salas and his handler/co-writer settled on a claim that the same thing happened at his flight, but it was kept secret.

I think the problem with AARO throwing out legitimately possible solutions to old cases, is it can give credence to false claims. Similar to the Air Force report on Roswell and the test dummies. NONE of the original stories or documents from 1947 make any mention of bodies. The recovered aliens claim is from a couple of dubious sources 30 years later in the '70s and made its way into the Charles Berlitz book in 1980 which reinvents the Roswell story as we now know it. The Air Force made the probably reasonable suggestion, that some people had confabulated real anthropomorphic test dummies from the '50s into the alien recovery claims.

Rather than explain the recovery claims, this just served to legitimize the poorly evidenced accounts from Berlitz's sensationalized book. The Air Force admits bodies were recovered, but then tried to cover it up with a silly story about test dummies is how it played out. IMHO, they should have said something like: There is no reliable evidence for any body recoveries prior to a poorly sourced 1980 book hyping this claim up. All other accounts of aliens and bodies were brought up after this book and are likely the result of tainted memories, confabulations and outright frauds. There was no mention of bodies in any sources from the time period, so there is nothing to explain.

Likewise here with Echo flight and Salas. Yes, these EMP tests might account for Echo flight going off line, but Salas was never at Echo flight. Now that AARO has offered a possible solution to Salas' claims, it's seen as validating those claims. It'll be spun as AARO saying Salas' claim of a shutdown by UFO was true and then tried to cover it up with a silly story about EMP tests.

Obviously AARO doesn't have the time to get into the weeds like Carlson did to discover if a claim has any merit before offering an explanation, so that's the way it is.

 

[Mendel]

All good points. But:

I think the problem with AARO throwing out legitimately possible solutions to old cases, is it can give credence to false claims.

First, we don't have the AARO report yet, so we don't know for sure what they did.

Secondly, the WSJ article doesn't claim the EMP testing explains the Echo Flight outage of March 17th, 1967.

Third, I have in the past hours perused "American, Credulous" by James Carlson, available via Mick's post at the top of this thread. What you say about Salas is correct.

Fourth, Carlson confirms the WSJ's depiction of how things worked. The susceptible logic coupler was located in the launch control center (LCC), and the signal would be sent from there to the 10 connected launch facilities (LF), where the missile silos were.

As Carlson tells it in "Echo Flight of Fancy" (and he has the sources to back it up), an electrical transient causes part of the logic coupler circuit to go into test mode while the other part does not, and then the system thinks "that's not right" and shuts down.
This is the known reason why Echo Flight shut down.

The WSJ suggests (but does not state) that this transient was the result of EMP testing at Echo Flight. Carlsen's material in "American, Credulous" suggests that is not the case. Technicians had to be flown out to gather data 2 days later:

Generally, Carlson's sources convey the impression that the March 17th incident led the engineers to start testing. It doesn't make sense that the March 17th event was part of a test.

However, it is conceivable that a test, such as described, was carried out later, and it would have been very secret, as it might have established how to take out the Minuteman ICBM installations from outside. Salas might have been present for such a test, and the electrical discharge described by the WSJ might have produced UFO reports.

We have no evidence of this.
But I wouldn't rule out that AARO found evidence, and prepares to include it in the upcoming volume 2 of the Historical Report.
We'll see.

 

[Mick West]

The "New Paradigm Institute" raises a technical objection:

Article:

The Wall Street Journal article, presents a partial admission of past Pentagon deception—acknowledging that the military fabricated UFO/UAP stories to conceal secret weapons programs like the F-117 stealth fighter.
However, it dismisses credible evidence, such as the 1967 Malmstrom Air Force Base incident where nuclear missiles went offline during a reported UFO/UAP encounter, attributing it to an implausible electromagnetic pulse (EMP) test. This explanation crumbles under scrutiny, as EMP effects are typically irreversible, yet the missiles returned to functionality shortly after.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/newparadigminst/posts/pfbid03rbLwHcqMqhWpQ41oJ2ps4nJiD5LGRPp9rMjHY6Xy6tqdca54Py8ucnTNWe5dMhbl

The claim there is "EMP effects are typically irreversible", which seem to be based only on the popular description of EMPs from a nuclear bomb permanently disabling electronics. This is simply not true, there's a wide range of possible effects

Article:

An energetic EMP can temporarily upset or permanently damage electronic equipment by generating high voltage and high current surges; semiconductor components are particularly at risk. The effects of damage can range from imperceptible to the eye, to devices blowing apart. Cables, even if short, can act as antennas to transmit pulse energy to the equipment

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse#Characteristics

The EMP test would obviously not have been a nuclear bomb level, but would have started low and ramped up, so the first effects would have been a temporary interference.

This does not mean the WSJ story is accurate, just that the NPI objection is invalid.

 

[Mendel]

Third, I have in the past hours perused "American, Credulous" by James Carlson, available via Mick's post at the top of this thread.

This thread: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/uf...mstrom-eagle-flight-skeptical-resources.3284/

 

[NorCal Dave]

Generally, Carlson's sources convey the impression that the March 17th incident led the engineers to start testing. It doesn't make sense that the March 17th event was part of a test.

I suppose it's possible if the testing was extremely siloed. I guess the test could have been done with few knowing about it and having caused a fault, they just yet the engineers go do their testing and waited to see what they came up with. A fault was found and was corrected without ever finding the original cause of the transient voltage that caused it in the first place. The fault being corrected, the EMP test people went on testing without ever telling anyone. Seems a bit speculative though.

I think more likely is just that it was a transient voltage irregularity from the grid or back-up generators. This was a rural gird in rural nowhere Montana, backed up by '60s era diesel generators that would kick in if the grid went down. The problem was found and corrected on those and the newer missals and IIRC it seemed the system had not been robust enough to account for rare but not unheard of transient voltages spikes or drops.

Again, the important part is if AARO is suggesting this as a possible solution to Salas' shutdown experience, which according to Carlson's very documented work, never happened. If it's about Sala's situation, it's a solution in search of a problem.

 

[Mendel]

Again, the important part is if AARO is suggesting this as a possible solution to Salas' shutdown experience, which according to Carlson's very documented work, never happened.

Carlson's documents show that there wasn't any other flight that went down in March for no reason. But if there was a top secret test that shut down the flight they tested, then that would a) be a known reason, b) not recorded in a place that was merely secret.
Carlson is very explicit what the military does when it doesn't want something talked about: they classify it, and then nobody can talk about it.
So it wouldn't be documented in the same place as the Eagle Flight outage.

Mind you, I'm just speculating about the possibility here.
I really want to get the official details first-hand from AARO, and not second-hand from a WSJ journalist.

Carlson also documents that Salas is a very unreliable witness, but it's possible that at the start of his journey there is in fact a memory of his flight having shut down, for a reason he was never told. He just forgot all of the details, and then reconstructed them badly.

 

[Mick West]

A more significant objection is that the document from which the article extracted two images says that the system only went into testing in 1973, and the Malmstrom incident was in 1967

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA013620.pdf

 

[Mick West]

There were EMP testing devices before TEMPS, (ALECS and ARES) but they were not portable. It would seem that if the EMP test story is accurate (which I have little confidence in), then it would have to be an unknown precursor to TEMPS.

 

[NorCal Dave]

The New Paradigm Institute, from Mick's Post upthread, has already spun this as anticipated (bold by me):

However, it dismisses credible evidence, such as the 1967 Malmstrom Air Force Base incident where nuclear missiles went offline during a reported UFO/UAP encounter, attributing it to an implausible electromagnetic pulse (EMP) test.

No. There is NOT credible evidence of Salas experiencing an offline event or of UFOs being involved in the actual offline event at Echo flight. AARO's possible EMT testing scenario only serves to muddy the already murky waters in this case.

Salas and Hastings claims are repeated for Congress, at various UFO conventions such as CID and are generally regarded as the official story of UFOs at Malmstrom. Meanwhile the extensively documented debunk of these claims is buried in assorted blogs on the WayBack machine.

 

[John J.]

It would seem that if the EMP test story is accurate (which I have little confidence in), then it would have to be an unknown precursor to TEMPS.

Another issue might be testing EMP against an active part of your nuclear deterrent, with a potential risk of damage to the Launch Control Center (LCC).

The Echo flight LCC was probably connected to miles of highly conductive communications cables, both to its 10 Minuteman 1 silos and its Squadron Command Post (SPC)- fibreoptic comms links were in their infancy in 1967

The first working fiber-optic data transmission system was demonstrated by German physicist Manfred Börner at Telefunken Research Labs in Ulm in 1965, followed by the first patent application for this technology in 1966.

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber

An argument could be made that the best "specimen" for a test of this sort is the missile system as actually deployed, but this seems a risky strategy considering that, by definition, the amount of damage done (if any) could not be accurately predicted- this, after all, would be the point of the hypothetical test.

Even if a portable EMP generator existed in 1967 (which seems unlikely reading @Mick West's post), and even if it was used to test the "hardness" of Echo flight, not advising the LCC or its Squadron Command Post, or the above-ground security troops, seems an absurd risk to take.
It could subvert the confidence that the men had in their equipment and in their own physical safety, with consequences for morale.
All that would be needed would be to brief the very small number of personnel in the LCC and its SCP that shift something along the lines of
"Our scientists are developing a way to disable Russian missiles by interfering with their electronics. To test their theories, they're going to run a small-scale experiment to see if it disrupts our systems, so there might be some disruption starting from ------ . There is no risk to yourselves, it's an electronics thing. This is secret; don't discuss this with the other flights, who are not involved, or with anyone else. Please go about your duties as you normally would this shift."

The LLC officers would be (hopefully!) trustworthy and reliable men, a briefing like the above gives away very little.

Similarly, not briefing the security troops that a big glowing thing was going to be hoisted up from a truck (or whatever) in the immediate vicinity of the LCC compound seems risky; they were defending a nuclear missile launch facility.

Robert Salas claimed,

A few minutes later, the security NCO called again. He was now agitated and distraught saying that a UFO was hovering just outside the front gate. I directed him to secure the fenced area. As we were talking, he had to go because one of the guards had approached the UFO and had been injured... ...I phoned my security guard. He said that the man who had approached the UFO had not been injured seriously but was being evacuated by helicopter to the base

Jim Klotz, Robert Salas, 27 November 1996, The Malmstrom AFB UFO/Missile Incident
(https://www.nicap.org/reports/malmstrom67-2.htm, appears to be a NICAP webpage).

-In the circumstances, with a man injured (how?) by the glowing thing, it might be surprising that the guards didn't seek permission to fire- or even just open fire (depending on their rules of engagement). They're at an isolated nuclear missile firing post, and they're under attack!
Not that I'm particularly won over by Salas' description of events.

Not directly connected, apart from demonstrating the scale of equipment needed to assess EMP effects on military equipment over 50 years ago:
ATLAS, Air Force Weapons Laboratory Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator, started construction in 1972.
The enormous wooden structure, "the Trestle", was built with wood, glue and fibreglass pegs:

ATLAS was built inside a natural landscape depression 600 feet across and 120 feet deep. A ramp 400 feet long by 50 feet wide led to test stand (115 feet above the depression floor) that measured 200 feet by 200 feet. On the other side of the platform was the transmission "wedge," spanning 250-feet long at a height of 240-feet. To test an aircraft, it was towed across the ramp to the large platform. Then, two large pulsers generated 200,000,000,000 watts of electricity, which was then discharged down transmission lines running on both sides of the platform, to a 185-foot terminating tower at the ramp entrance, forming a teardrop of electricity that would pass over the aircraft.

Mental Floss website, "The Largest Wooden Structure in New Mexico (And the World)", 08 December 2014, Rob Lammle
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article...largest-wooden-structure-new-mexico-and-world

(Not sure about the "teardrop" bit, but there you go.)

 

[Mendel]

Meanwhile the extensively documented debunk of these claims is buried in assorted blogs on the WayBack machine.

And on Metabunk.

 

[FatPhil]

ATLAS was built inside a natural landscape depression 600 feet across and 120 feet deep. A ramp 400 feet long by 50 feet wide led to test stand (115 feet above the depression floor) that measured 200 feet by 200 feet. On the other side of the platform was the transmission "wedge," spanning 250-feet long at a height of 240-feet. To test an aircraft, it was towed across the ramp to the large platform. Then, two large pulsers generated 200,000,000,000 watts of electricity, which was then discharged down transmission lines running on both sides of the platform, to a 185-foot terminating tower at the ramp entrance, forming a teardrop of electricity that would pass over the aircraft.

Mental Floss website, "The Largest Wooden Structure in New Mexico (And the World)", 08 December 2014, Rob Lammle
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article...largest-wooden-structure-new-mexico-and-world

(Not sure about the "teardrop" bit, but there you go.)

I'm more perturbed by the "200,000,000,000 watts of electricity".
Did the scientists have to travel hundreds of knots to get to the site?
Did some of them receive doses of tens of curies of radiation whilst they were there?
And did the experiment generate several gigabaud of data?

 

[Mauro]

I'm more perturbed by the "200,000,000,000 watts of electricity".

I guess it could be the peak power of a very short pulse, ie. a 200GW pulse lasting 10ns = 2000J of energy (not much, a 100uF capacitor charged at ~6400V, not that I would stay anywhere near one...).

 

[John J.]

I'm more perturbed by the "200,000,000,000 watts of electricity".

I won't pretend to know if this is a credible figure, or if it is best expressed in watts- GW seems more elegant (as used by @Mauro above) but the Mental Floss article is for a general audience, maybe the author thought "watts" was more relatable.

TBH it's all 5280 feets beyond my competency.

This might be more informative, Wikipedia, Atlas-1, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATLAS-I

The tray capacitors [50 in each of 2 Marx generators, John J.] were slowly charged such that each tray had up to 100kV of potential. When discharged through the plasma switches, the 50 trays in series could (ideally) produce up to 5 megavolts of electrical potential in a pulse with a rise-time in the 100 nanosecond range. The generators on either side of the wedge were charged to opposite polarities and fired into twin transmission lines (antennas) mounted on either side of the test platform. When triggered simultaneously the resulting EM waves from each generator combined at the sharp point of the wedge building, adding to a total electrical potential of 10 megavolts.[4]​ The transmission lines were terminated into a 50 ohm low inductance resistive load mounted on a tall wooden tower at the far end of the platform. The result was a fast 200 gigawatt pulse of electromagnetic flux powerful enough to reliably reproduce (at short range) the deleterious effects of a thermonuclear detonation on electronic circuitry as created by such examples as the HARDTACK I, ARGUS and DOMINIC I (Operation Fishbowl) high altitude nuclear tests.

(My bold).

Maybe what I was trying to say was, if, in 1972*, it took this

to assess the impact of EMP on USAF systems (and that's a real B-52 on the platform),
the idea that a mobile (and rapidly transportable**) EMP source could generate, at a distance, sufficient energy to compromise an underground LCC in 1967 looks shaky at best.
Again, the cables connecting the LLC to the silos and SCC might have been a vulnerability, acting as aerials for EMP, but I'm guessing they were buried at some depth (possibly in protective conduits- supposition); the whole complex was designed to survive the thermal/ blast effects of a nuclear near-miss.

Even if the Wall Street Journal's hypothetical EMP generator were a "one-shot" device, a refined or scaled-up technology might have practical defence applications- perhaps a last-ditch point defence against missile attack (soldiers in the field are told to disconnect aerials/ antennae/ field telephone lines etc. and turn off non-essential systems if a nuclear attack is imminent), at least groundbursts. Maybe -again, last-ditch- a ship-based countermeasure against sea-skimming missiles? Just musing.

Annoyingly, the WSJ article doesn't provide a reference for the 1978 document from which they took illustrations to support their claim of an

...exotic electromagnetic generator...

but we can be confident that such a generator was more substantial than a big aerial and/or a pair of inverse cones. A power source would be necessary, for a start.
And 1978 is not 1967. It's 6 years into the build of ATLAS-1. Which might raise the question, why build ATLAS-1 if there were effective, portable EMP generators with effect at a distance in 1967?

*The Mental Floss website says ATLAS started being built in 1972, and was operational 1980-1991.

** If the WSJ's EMP test theory is believed, and is used to explain both the claimed shutdowns and the reported glowing thing beyond the compound gate

When activated, this device, placed on a portable platform 60 feet above the facility, would gather power until it glowed, sometimes with a blinding orange light

(Wall Street Journal, 06 June 2025 The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America's UFO Mythology at archive.today)
there is a problem:

We have to accept a sizeable piece of kit (and powerful generators?) was driven to the perimeter of the Echo flight LCC compound, near the gate- to which the security troops might be paying some attention- and was erected/ hoisted up there.
After use, it was disassembled and driven away. And this was done without the guards noticing the (presumably large) vehicles required, close to the compound gate, or the personnel working around them. And not hearing anything.
Or, the USAF had, in 1967, a powerful but highly portable (compact and light) EMP generator that could be covertly deployed near the compound perimeter, and then stealthily spirited away. It is hard to understand why the USAF wouldn't develop such a capability into an air-deliverable weapon.

 

[John J.]

There were EMP testing devices before TEMPS, (ALECS and ARES) but they were not portable. It would seem that if the EMP test story is accurate (which I have little confidence in), then it would have to be an unknown precursor to TEMPS.

TEMPS, Transportable EMP System, entered service in 1973 as Mick said.

It might be a coincidence, but the height mentioned in the WSJ article (link above) is approx. that of the TEMPS rig:

When activated, this device, placed on a portable platform 60 feet above the facility...

The design of the antenna corresponds to the primary operational configuration, which is 300 meters long (from end dome to end dome) , with the system axis elevated at a height of 20 meters.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA013620.pdf, TEMPS (TRANSPORTABLE EMP SIMULATOR) FINAL REPORT. VOLUME I, H. Aslin et al., August 1973.


TEMPS might have been termed "Transportable", but these things are relative. As well as its command and control trailer, several sizeable truck loads would have been necessary, as well as load-lifting equipment/ cranes.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a reference to total system weight or dimensions, but quotes from the Final Report give us an indication of its scale:

4.1 OVERALL- ANTENNA SYSTEM

The TEMPS antenna shown in Figure 7 is a dipole configuration emanating from the centrally located pulser.
The antenna cage array consists of thirty-six 1/8-inch-diameter aircraft cables supported on three 30-foot-diameter hoops on each side of the pulser. From the outermost hoops the antenna wires taper down to the 6-foot diameter of the antenna end dome assemblies which include provision for adjusting the tension of individual wires. The end dome assemblies are connected with Dacron ropes to the end dome support structures located at each end of the antenna. Electric winches are mounted on the end structures to apply a preset level of tension...
... ...
The cylindrical antenna is a wire cage structure 30 feet in diameter and 1000 feet long.
... ...
The design of the antenna corresponds to the primary operational configuration, which is 300 meters long (from end dome to end dome) , with the system axis elevated at a height of 20 meters. The antenna can also be erected in optional configurations at intermediate heights down to 10 meters and/or shortened to either 200 or 100 meters by leaving out one or two 30-foot-diameter straight sections per side.
... ...
The 30-foot diameter of the antenna is formed by wires attached to aluminum hoops which are suspended from the support structures. There are three hoops on each side of the pulser spaced 47.6 meters apart. The hoops are made of 6 inch o.d. x 1/8-inch wall tubing rolled to 30 foot o.d., and each hoop is made up of four segments with welded circular connecting flanges that bolt together to form a full hoop. Each hoop can be disassembled into four segments for ease of transportability.
... ...
4.7 END DOME ASSEMBLIES

The end dome assembly is a 6-foot-diameter semi-elliptical
aluminum head with 36 winch assemblies and associated pulleys.
... ...
The end dome support structure is a triangulated structure which rests on three concrete blocks measuring 4 feet by 5 feet by 20 inches high. The vertical column is bolted to the concrete block and is supported and stabilized by four pipes called support and extender bars. The rear concrete blocks are connected by another support and extender bar. All such joints are made with single 3/4-inch-diameter bolts, washers, and nuts.
... ...
5.6.3 System Design.
The control console, located in theC&C trailer, has all the controls necessary for normal operation of the TEMPS system. Located within the trailer is an air compressor to provide dry filtered air for the controls. A vacuum pump is also included so that the gas in the Marx spark gaps and output switch can easily be removed when necessary.

The compressor, vacuum pump, control relays, warning lights, and warning horns will use 120-volt, 60-Hz line power, supplied either commercially or by a motor-generator set.
... ...
6 . 6 BICONES

The pulser bicones are constructed of a light tubular welded frame with 12-foot o.d. flanges, 1 inch thick, which bolt
to the end structures. The bicones extend from the 12- foot diameter of the end structure to a 23-foot diameter with an included half angle of 40.5 degrees and are covered by 0.050- inch-thick aluminum skin which is riveted to the welded framework. The bicones are made in four matched quadrant sections which bolt together and can be easily disassembled for transport.
... ...
6.11 MARX GENERATOR ASSEMBLIES

The TEMPS Marx generator, shown in Figure 58 on the handling dolly, weighs approximately 1 ton and is 34 inches in diameter by 111 inches long. The 3.5-MV Marx contains 35 stages of energy storage capacitors with associated rail gap switches, resistors, insulators, and hardware to form a complete unit.
Two such Marx generators are employed in the pulser.
... ...
7 . 4 SUPPORT COLUMNS

A typical support column is made up of four pipe sections which are filament wound epoxy-fiberglass structures 24 feet long, 14 inches in i.d. [internal diameter?] with 1/2-inch walls. The section has a male and female end, except the bases, which have a female coupling on each end. When assembled, the sections form a column 90 feet long. Bolts are used at the joints to preclude any separation during the erection sequence. Lag bolts are used to fasten the top section to the wood beam. The 90-foot-long columns weigh approximately 1840 pounds with each section
averaging 460 pounds.

It isn't conceivable that TEMPS- or a secret (and improbable) 1967 prototype or similar forerunner- could be covertly erected near (or within several hundred metres of) the Echo flight LCC compound gate without guards noticing.
Even at its smallest configuration, with antenna at lowest elevation, a 100 metre (328 feet)-long horizontal wire cage, approx.
9 metres (30 feet) in diameter, with its axis 10 metres (nearly 33 feet) off the ground, might be noticed.

Assembling and disassembling TEMPS must have been quite an involved process.

I'm wondering if the WJS article's description of a 60-foot high portable platform to generate EMP is a garbled interpretation of material referring to TEMPS.
If so, it must be extremely unlikely that a TEMPS-type system was present, but unnoticed, near Echo flight LCC in 1967, and the WSJ theory must be equally improbable.
If not, it implies there was a portable (and more discrete) EMP generator with effect at range in 1967, of which we can find no evidence. If such a device existed, it's hard to understand why TEMPS was developed.

 

[FatPhil]

I won't pretend to know if this is a credible figure, or if it is best expressed in watts- GW seems more elegant (as used by @Mauro above) but the Mental Floss article is for a general audience, maybe the author thought "watts" was more relatable.

TBH it's all 5280 feets beyond my competency.

The wrong units are never more reliable. The wrong units are a surefire way of making an argument entirely meaningless in a gigahertz (hahaha, I'm funny, me!)

It's entirely possible that 200GW (whether expressed as 12 digits or 3 and a prefix is irrelevant) was *how* the energy was released, but it is not a measure of the total energy being released - which was what the journalist was trying to express.

However, capabilites of EMP devices aren't even measured in GW, they're compared based on the field they generate, which is measured in V/m - volts per meter - as it's that difference in voltage that makes different - even nearby - bits of the target feel a desperate need to shift its electons elsewhere. It's the same unit used to measure the breakdown voltage of air (or any other insulator) - in other words to create a spark, or lightning, by ripping the electrons off the atoms, thereby ionising them, and creating a conductor from the ex-insulator. An equivalently-dimensioned unit is N/C - newtons per coulomb - which might give a better feeling for its relevance as it's how much force each affected unit of charge will induce.

 

[Mauro]

They are discharging a capacitor charged at 10MV (reference from post #16) through a 50Ω resistor. The peak current (discarding parasitic elements) is 10MV/50Ω = 200kA, from which the peak power in the circuit is the famous 10MV * 20kA = 200GW. Impossible to say what's the stored energy in the capacitors without knowing the current pulse length and shape, but with a rise time 'in the order of 100ns' I could imagine an approximately triangular pulse say ~500ns to say ~2000ns long, for a total stored energy of 200GW * 500/2000ns * 1/2 = 50kJ to 200kJ (which is sizable). A fraction of this energy will be converted to electromagnetic radiation: this very much depends on the transmission lines, the antenna (and I know almost nothing about antennas), resulting finally in a time-varying EM field (measured in V/m, as @FatPhil said). The rest of the energy will be dissipated by the resistor.

 

[Mendel]

They are discharging a capacitor charged at 10MV (reference from post #16) through a 50Ω resistor. The peak current (discarding parasitic elements) is 10MV/50Ω = 200kA, from which the peak power in the circuit is the famous 10MV * 20kA = 200GW.

It's off by a factor of 10. (I did the same calculation in my head before I saw yours.)

 

[Mauro]

It's off by a factor of 10. (I did the same calculation in my head before I saw yours.)

Uh damn I dropped a zero from 200 to 20kA