Nuclear attack on US satellites

Nothing would remain in space for either side. No one can control space because each side can easily use an EMP close to space. In WW II, air superiority and supremacy allowed us to see all from directly above and to drop bombs on assets we saw. Before heavier than aircraft, the advantageous spot in battle was the high ground. The air is the high ground.

.

There may be a way to EMP-proof satellites. When we tested an EMP in 1962 in HI, it did not destroy all electronics as everyone seems to assume.

.

“...the U.S. government had set off a 1.4-megaton nuclear warhead at a height of 248 miles above Johnston Atoll in an operation the military named "Starfish Prime." The test caused radio disruptions in Hawaii, California, and Alaska, and knocked out six satellites above the Pacific.” Military.com

.

.

Note they say SIX satellites, NOT ALL satellites.

.

My impression is that EMP is a physically long wave. As such, it cannot fit through the little holes in your microwave oven window.

.

Another issue is a nuclear blast in space does not affect distant objects the way blasts transmit through water or air on earth. Force in an explosion in water or air pushes waves through the fluid. The best way to sink a ship with a bomb is to detonate it in the water next to the ship, not to hit the ship.

.

In space, aside from EMP, a nuclear blast would not affect a satellite some distance away unless something physical from the blast traversed the space between the nuke and the satellite. The sun is a nuclear explosion and we can feel its heat here on earth 93 million miles away. That is infrared energy. How much a momentary nuclear blast in space could affect distant satellite with infrared energy I do not know. But again, it would be momentary, not continuous like the sun.

.

Intelligence/communications equipment on the moon could be protected as here on earth. Satellites in orbit cannot be protected.

.

But satellites designed to not be hurt by EMP long waves would force enemies to individually attack satellites with lasers or to hit the front end of the satellite physically. That slows the satellite down and if you slow it down, it falls into the atmosphere and burns up.

.

I have done some research on EMPs and nuclear weapons for a speech I made to FreedomFest. My one-sentence thesis was that nuclear explosions are finite, not infinite. A nuclear WW III does not turn the planet into a cinder. Roughly speaking, accurately delivered ICBMs devastate a 6 sq. mile circle. Devastating the city limits of Los Angeles, for example, which is 502 sq. miles would require 84 nuclear warheads.

.

Russia could not devastate IA. That would take 9,379 warheads. I do not believe they have that many. And if they fired all they have, they would have none and China could easily take over Russia without firing a shot.

.

We already had one nuclear war which made a mess out of central Hiroshima and central Nagasaki. Neither destroyed all of the target city. And each city was in habitable in terms of nuclear radiation if not rebuilt within about a month. Both are thriving cities now. The trains were still running in and out of the Hiroshima main RR station the day after the atomic bomb.

.

Finite. The conventional fire bombings of Tokyo and Hamburg and Dresden did more damage and killed more people.