Tag Archives: war at the speed of light

What Would Happen If The US And Russia Engaged In A Full-Scale Nuclear War?

July 1, 2021Categories, War, War At The Speed Of Lightlouis del monte, nuclear war, war at the speed of light, What Would Happen If The US And Russia Engaged In A Full-Scale Nuclear Waradmin

This is an excerpt from my new book, War at the Speed of Light. Enjoy!

According to the US Congress’ Office of Technology (OTA) study in 1979, immediate deaths in the United States could range from 70 million to 160 million (35 to 80 percent of the population). Russian fatalities would be approximately 20 to 40 percent lower. Many more in both countries would die from injuries, cancer-related deaths, and psychological trauma. If we update these numbers to reflect the populations as of 2018 and the urbanization of the US, the death toll would even be higher. For example, in 1979, the US had a population of about 225 million, in 2018, 327 million. Much of the growth occurred in urban areas. Today, approximately 80 percent of the US population lives in urban areas. By contrast, Russia’s population has only grown modestly. For example, in 1979, Russia had a population of about 137 million, in 2018, 144 million.

On the surface, even with the increased urbanization of the US, it would appear to suggest that the world and even the combatant nations could survive a full-scale nuclear exchange. However, that is not the case. In addition to the immediate deaths and destruction of cities by nuclear blasts, the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms, widespread radiation sickness from the bombs and radioactive fallout, the loss of modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses (EMPs), and a nuclear winter resulting in worldwide famine.

Deaths from the nuclear blast, firestorms, and radiation are relatively easy to grasp. Deaths from the effects of an EMP blackout and a nuclear winter are more challenging to understand. Therefore, let us discuss each.

We will start by understanding the deaths associated with an EMP blackout. A nuclear detonation causes an electromagnetic pulse, which produces rapidly varying electric and magnetic fields. Those fields cause electrical and electronic systems to experience damaging current and voltage surges resulting in a blackout. [Note: In physics, a current generates a magnetic field, and a magnetic field generates a current.] How severe would an EMP blackout be? A 2017 report, written by EMP expert Peter Vincent Pry, concludes in a widespread EMP attack, “Nine of 10 Americans are dead from starvation, disease, and societal collapse.”

Reading the last line is chilling. Even if portions of the US are not affected by the blast, radiation, and firestorms, “The United States of America ceases to exist” due to the effects of EMPs causing the death of ninety percent of the US residents. According to Pry, Russia calls EMP a “revolution in military affairs.”

Let us discuss nuclear winter and its effects. If you are fortunate enough to survive the nuclear blast, radiation, fallout, and EMP blackout, you are still likely to perish in the coming years. Alan Robock and Owen Brian Toon, in their paper, “Self-assured destruction: The climate impacts of nuclear war,” hypothesized that a thermonuclear war could result in a nuclear winter that would be the end of modern civilization on Earth. The nuclear winter would result from the smoke and soot arising from burning wood, plastics, and petroleum fuels in nuclear-devastated cities. A recent study reported this would result in cooling by about 54–68 degrees Fahrenheit in the core farming regions of the US, Europe, Russia, and China. The cooling would reduce crop yields and lead to a “nuclear famine,” characterized by mass starvation due to disrupted agricultural production and distribution. The simple takeaway message is that modern civilization on Earth would cease to exist, and the remnants of humanity would find themselves struggling to survive.

Conclusion: There would be no winners in a full-scale nuclear exchange between the US and Russia.

Directed Energy Weapons

June 6, 2021Categories, War At The Speed Of Lightdirected energy weapons, louis del monte, war at the speed of lightadmin

This is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of my new book, War at the Speed of Light. Enjoy!

The devastation of war is always about energy. This statement is true historically, as well as today. For example, most of the massive destruction during World War II resulted from dropping conventional bombs on an adversary. To understand the role energy plays in this type of devastation, consider the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan launched 353 bombers and torpedo bombers in two waves from six aircraft carriers.^[i] Their bombs and torpedoes incorporated Trinitroanisole, a chemical compound.^[ii] The vast devastation caused by unleashing the energy in Trinitroanisole’s chemical compound resulted in sinking twelve ships and damaging nine others.^[iii] The attacks also destroyed one hundred and sixty aircraft and damaged another one hundred fifty.^[iv] Over two thousand three hundred Americans lost their lives during the attack.^[v]

A near-perfect example of energy’s devastation is the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. These bombs were different from those that preceded them. They derived their destructive force from nuclear fission or the splitting of atoms. In simple terms, it requires energy to hold an atom together. A fast-moving subatomic particle causes the atom to split into its subatomic particles, termed nuclear fission, releasing the energy binding the atom together. We know from Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalent formula E = mc² that even a small amount of mass (m) converted to energy (E) yields an enormous amount of energy. The reason for this is that mass is multiplied by the speed of light (c) squared (i.e., times itself). The velocity of light is a large number approximately equal to 186,000 miles per second. Doing the math yields an enormous amount of energy from a relatively small amount of mass. Examining the bombs demonstrates this point. Each used fissionable material measuring less than two hundred pounds yet unleashed the devastation of fifteen to twenty thousand tons of TNT.

I know it is unusual to think about destruction as related to energy, but that is a fact of war. From the first caveman that used a rock to kill an adversary to a sniper’s bullet, it all has to do with energy. In the case of the rock and bullet, their kinetic energy (a function of their mass and velocity) inflicts wounds. Think of any weapon, except biological and chemical weapons, from the earliest of times to the present, and you face one inescapable conclusion; it relies on some form of energy to carry out its mission.

If you are a Star Trek fan, you are aware that the Starship Enterprise and its crew did not use anything that resembled conventional weapons, such as guns or nuclear weapons. Also, the Enterprise did not have traditional armor plating. In the science fiction series Star Trek, we see the crew using handheld phasers, which could be set to kill or stun. The phasers, set to kill, are a fictional extrapolation of real-life lasers. When set to stun, the phasers are comparable to real-life microwave weapons that have a stunning effect.^[vi] In place of missiles, the Enterprise fired photon torpedoes. These are similar to the missiles military warplanes and warships fire, except the warhead is not a conventional or nuclear explosive. The photon torpedo warhead consisted of antimatter, which has the destructive property of annihilating matter (i.e., converting it to energy). Lastly, in place of armor plating, the Enterprise used a fictional force field to shield the ship, which is similar to the real-life Active Protection Systems^[vii] deployed to protect US military vehicles. In essence, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek exposed its viewers to directed energy weapons.

1 Mark Parillo, Why Air Forces Fail: the Anatomy of Defeat, (The University Press of Kentucky, 2006): 288

[ii] Mark Chambers, Wings of the Rising Sun: Uncovering the Secrets of Japanese Fighters and Bombers of World War II, (Osprey Publishing, 2018): 282

[iii] The Library of Congress, “The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941,” https://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/wwii/jb_wwii_pearlhar_1.html (accessed December 17, 2018)

[iv] Library of Congress, “The Japanese Attacked”

[v] Library of Congress, “The Japanese Attacked”

[vi] David Martin, “The Pentagon’s Ray Gun,” CBSN, February 29, 2008, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-pentagons-ray-gun

[vii] Allison Barrie, “’Force field’ technology could make US tanks unstoppable,” Fox News, August 2, 2018, https://www.foxnews.com/tech/force-field-technology-could-make-us-tanks-unstoppable (accessed December 18, 2018)

New Book, War At The Speed Of Light, Explains Mysterious Directed-Energy Attacks on US Government and Military Personnel

May 4, 2021Categories, War, War At The Speed Of Lightdirected energy attacks, louis del monte, low frequency microwaves, mysterious illnesses, war at the speed of lightadmin

This press release went live May 4, 2021, 8:00 PM EST, Minneapolis, Mn – May 4, 2021

According to CNN (Jeremy Herb, April 30, 2021), “The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned Friday [4/30/21] that mysterious invisible attacks that have caused debilitating symptoms appear to be on the rise against US personnel.” Politico reported (Lara Seligman, Andrew Desiderio, and Betsy Woodruff Swan, April 22, 2021), “Two Defense Department officials briefed members of the House Armed Service Committee about the phenomenon in a classified setting on Wednesday [4/28/21].”

These directed energy attacks are known in the defense industry as low-frequency microwaves, initially used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. As defense technology expert Louis Del Monte wrote in his new book, War at the Speed of Light (Potomac Books, March 2021), “Microwave weapons may sound like something new. They are not. During the Cold War, from 1953–1976, the US feared that the Soviets were attempting to use microwave radiation covertly as a means of mind control. US intelligence officials surfaced this concern in 1953 when they detected a low-frequency microwave signal at the US Moscow embassy, termed the ‘Moscow Signal.’”

According to Del Monte, “It’s well known that animals and humans subjected to low-level microwaves suffer significant impairment in cognitive function and brain damage. That’s the goal of these recent directed energy attacks. It’s intended to reduce the ability of US government and military personnel to function.”

Surprisingly, few analysts connect the current directed energy attacks to those by the Soviet Union during the Cold War on the US embassy in Moscow. Known as the Moscow Signal, it caused embassy personnel to experience numerous ill effects, including disorientation, headaches, dizziness, and hearing loss. In 2017, the US embassy in Havana experienced a similar attack with almost identical casualties, as reported by the New York Times (Gardiner Harris, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, and Ernesto Londoño, October 3, 2017). Although unable to determine the perpetrator, the US held the Cuban government responsible for what was termed the “Havana syndrome” and expelled twenty-seven Cuban diplomats.

Unfortunately, the directed energy attacks are becoming more frequent and bolder. For example, a potential incident near the White House involving a National Security Council staffer occurred in November 2020, one of several on US soil.

War At The Speed Of Light devotes an entire chapter to microwave weapons, including the type of directed energy attacks currently being perpetrated against the US government and military personnel. It presents US government studies of these attacks dating back to the 1953 “Moscow Signal” and the 2017 “Havana syndrome.”

War At The Speed Of Light is available at bookstores, from Potomac Books, and on Amazon.

Louis A. Del Monte is available for radio, podcast, and television interviews and writing op-ed pieces for major media outlets. Feel free to contact him directly by email at ldelmonte@delmonteagency.com or phone at 952-261-4532.

To request a book for review, contact Louis Del Monte by email.

About Louis A. Del Monte

Louis A. Del Monte is an award-winning physicist, inventor, futurist, featured speaker, and CEO of Del Monte and Associates, Inc. He has authored a formidable body of work, including War At The Speed Of Light (2021), Genius Weapons (2018), Nanoweapons (2016), and Amazon charts #1 bestseller in the artificial intelligence category, The Artificial Intelligence Revolution (2014). Major magazines like the Business Insider, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, American Security Today, Inc., CNBC, and the New York Post have featured his articles or quoted his views on artificial intelligence and military technology.

China’s Laser Weapons

April 17, 2021Categories, War, War At The Speed Of LightChina's Laser Weapons, laser weapons, war at the speed of lightadmin

This is an edited excerpt from my new book, War At The Speed Of Light.

Significant evidence indicates that China is developing laser weapons. Jane’s 360 reported, “Chinese media have reported that a prototype laser weapon is being tested by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). An article published on 5 April [2019] on the Sina news website contains several screengrabs taken from footage broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV) showing a trainable optical device mounted on a mobile chassis with a large main lens.”

China’s laser weapon appeared in a promotional video broadcast by state-run channel CCTV. The transmission shows it in a ground-based, vehicle-mounted application. According to Sina.com, China intends both land and sea deployment, including aboard its destroyers, as an alternative to their short-range surface-to-air missile. This last statement implies it has a range of about three miles. Beyond talking about potential applications, China provides no evidence of the laser’s capabilities.

China is using espionage to obtain any information it can on the US Navy’s developments. The Maritime Executive, a source for breaking maritime and marine news, reported, “[The] U.S. Navy has uncovered evidence of widespread and persistent hacking by Chinese actors targeting naval technology. According to a recent internal review ordered by Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, the service’s broader R&D ecosystem is “under cyber siege,” primarily by Chinese hacking teams.”

My view is that China is doing all within its capability to develop laser weapons. Given their tenacity to hack their way into the US’ most crucial intelligence information, combined with their government’s funding of advanced weapons, it is only a matter of time before they weaponize lasers. Indeed, according to ZeeNews, “The Indian and US satellites are vulnerable to China’s ground-based lasers as according to some analysts China has acquired the full capability to destroy the enemy’s satellite sensors through its lasers. China can cause great damage to Indian and US satellites during wartime.” If this last statement is true, it means China has become a laser power.

The Pace Of Warfare Is Increasing From Hyperwar To C-War

March 30, 2021Categories, Technology, War, War At The Speed Of Lightc-war, hyperwar, Pace Of Warfare, war at the speed of lightadmin

In my latest book, War At The Speed Of Light, I coined a new term, “c-war.” This is an excerpt from the book’s introduction and explains the rationale behind this term.

The pace of warfare is accelerating. In fact, according to the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization, “So fast will be this process [command and control decision-making], especially if coupled to automatic decisions to launch artificially intelligent autonomous weapons systems capable of lethal outcomes, that a new term has been coined specifically to embrace the speed at which war will be waged: hyperwar.”

The term “hyperwar” adequately describes the quickening pace of warfare resulting from the inclusion of AI into the command, control, decision-making, and weapons of war. However, to my mind, it fails to capture the speed of conflict associated with directed energy weapons. To be all-inclusive, I would like to suggest the term “c-war.” In Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalent equation, E = mc², the letter “c” is used to denote the speed of light in a vacuum. [For completeness, E means energy and m mass.] Surprisingly, the speed of light in the Earth’s atmosphere is almost equal to its velocity in a vacuum. On this basis, I believe c-war more fully captures the new pace of warfare associated with directed energy weapons.