Backyard RF Weapon

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Excerpt from congressional hearing on RF weapons:

      Mr. David Schriner is the Principal Engineer directed energy studies 
with Electronic Warfare Associates and a recently retired engineer with the 
naval weapons testing facility at China Lake. He has numerous patents, has
received superior service awards, and given technical presentations over 42 
years of civil and military service. He will discuss the difficulty in 
building a RF weapon and the terrorist threat.

[Excerpt]

      In support of the information presented in this testimony and taking 
advantage of the winter's need to work indoors, a unit that uses oil spark-gaps 
was designed, built, and tested. The materials for it were mail-ordered at a
cost of about $500 and about one week was needed to fabricate the mechanical 
hardware. It use two ignition coils and a battery for power, an automobile fuel 
pump and filter for the oil circulation, and commonly available transformer
oil. 
An additional week was required to work out all of the electrical wiring, the 
oil lines, and the general finishing details. This unit was ready for testing 
in two weeks after starting the effort. 

      The signal radiated from the unit was measured and found to be a very 
significant power level that can be compared against available vulnerability
and 
susceptibility levels of military equipment. When the weather permits, this
unit 
will be tested against a set of infrastructure targets at an official test
range. 
>From the measurements and known signal levels, this unit is expected to be 
consistently deadly to many types of infrastructure items at ranges suitable
for 
terrorist usage. 

      This quickly-developed low-cost system could easily be placed in a small 
van and used in a parking lot or directed at buildings that the van was driven 
past. It is highly likely that this type of device would be a very effective 
terrorist system and the findings of its design could be factored into another 
either a larger, higher powered device, or a more advanced design each with 
significantly greater effectiveness. 

      The net result of all of this design, experimentation, fabrication and 
measurement proves that such a weapon system could be made by anyone with an 
engineering degree or even a bright technician with good hardware experience. 
The technical information required can be found in open sources, if not just 
from good common engineering sense. The materials needed are nothing special
and 
if the effort is made, advanced concepts can be made using everyday hardware
such 
as automotive ignition systems. The testing to date has been very limited but
the results of this testing have provided considerable insight to just what is 
vulnerable in infrastructure systems. This insight and work leads to a firm 
opinion that a terrorist would have little trouble developing such technology
and that he would have a high probability of success in the use as an RF weapon 
against our infrastructure elements found in any city or near facilities around 
the country. 

      This work has been done within the proper security guidelines since: 

      1.The models made in my home laboratory/workshop used off-the-shelf
materials 
        and open-source references.
      2.The laboratory tests of this hardware were made in a controlled
environment 
        with the proper security in place.
      3.The results of these tests, the data capabilities, and the target set 
        identities are kept in a facility cleared for classified storage.
      4.The development of any of this hardware is reported on a regular
basis to 
        those with whom I relate at a classified level to assure that they are 
        informed of the work and are able to apply this to their interests and 
        efforts if necessary. Any of this hardware can be used by them for any
        determination of utility to military interests. 

      Work in this area will be continued and an aggressive test and
evaluation of 
these "back yard" techniques and methods will be accomplished. This process
will be 
done in cooperation, and if requested, under the direction of agencies with an 
interest in this non-military weapon related process. The author of this
report will, 
if requested, provide to the Committee further details at a classified level
in the 
proper security environment. 

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Full hearing testimony: http://jya.com/rfw-jec.htm