CHAMPS

Courtesy Google Images

I missed this … it’s an item from October 2012. Boeing and the USAF are developing a missile that will disable all the electronic circuits in a building. The CHAMP (Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project) emits a microwave pulse that causes electronics to stop working.

DVICE reports that CHAMP was test flown over a building chock full of electronic equipment at a Utah testing range. The missile fired a microwave beam at the structure and disabled all the electronics in the building, including the cameras monitoring the test.

Courtesy Google Images

It’s intriguing to think the military has the ability to disable an enemy’s response capability without a loss of life or destruction of a building’s infrastructure. It certainly seems much cleaner than say a bunker buster.

The U.S has always had the ability to jam an enemy’s electronic equipment. When I was stationed at MCAS Cherry Point my A4 squadron, VMA-223, was situated next to an EA-6B Prowler squadron. According to joebaugher.com Marines flew the Northrop Grumman A6 Intruder in Vietnam. The Intruder Association states the A6 was developed to meet the Navy’s need for an all-weather aircraft that could attack land and sea targets.

Courtesy Google Images

The EA-6B was the electronic jamming counterpart to the Intruder. Instead of a bevy of bombs, it carried an array of electronic jamming equipment. Many of us in VMA-223 were led to believe (but I had no way of confirming) that it was capable of causing a blackout in New York City.

I think if the U.S. is able to deploy this technology it could be a huge game changer for the U.S. in terms of how our country conducts combat operations. Assume an enemy doesn’t figure out how to defend against the CHAMP, then anything they have that uses electronics could be rendered useless leaving them virtually defenseless.

Does anyone else think CHAMP will have a profound effect on modern warfare?

Please follow the link to view a simulation on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=O-BukbpkOd8

Marines in Sci-Fi

Thursday, November 10^th was the 236^th anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps.  Though it’s been several years since I was an active duty member of the Corps, I still carry that esprit de corps.  Many countries have had a military organization designated as Marines but there’s only one United States Marine Corps.

Once a Marine, always a Marine.

I remember when I enlisted, people thought I was crazy.  One of my brothers, a Vietnam era Navy veteran actually told me he’d rather have a sister in a brothel then a brother in the Marine Corps.  Nice!  Others thought that the boot camp drill instructors would beat my ass on a daily basis because of my temperament.

I will admit, the day I left for Paris Island, I was scared.  What the hell was I thinking?  The farthest I’d ever been from home was a three day school fieldtrip to Fort Ticonderoga.

I was only 19 and had been working as a Pension Trust Analyst at a large insurance company when I decided to join.  I was bored to tears so I figured, why not.  It’s not as if I gave it a whole lot of thought.  Hell, the reason I chose the USMC was because their dress uniforms were sharper than those of the other military branches.

I never said I made an informed decision.

I think joining the Marines was hardest on my mother.  One of my brothers recalled a time when a Marine recruiter called the house sometime during my Junior or Senior year of high school.

Recruiter:  May I speak with Derek, please.

Mom:  May I ask who’s calling?

Recruiter:  Staff Sergeant Somebody.  I’m a Marine Corps recruiter.

Mom:  Did he enlist?

Recruiter:  No, Ma’am.

Mom:  I’ll kill him if he did.

Click.

Needless to say, I never got another call.  To be fair, Mom had already endured the military service of three sons; each of whom served in or around Vietnam.  (She actually had someone tell her that if one of her boys was lost during the war, at least she had four others.)  Her lack of objectivity was understandable.

She had this little American flag lapel pin that she wore every day I was on active duty.  It is the same pin she donned when each of my older brothers was on active duty.

I make light of my motivation for enlisting in the Marines, but ultimately, it was an experience that shaped my character.  I learned the value of teamwork, I visited places I would never have and I met people who were very different from me.  It was a time in my life that I would gladly repeat.

Why this trip down memory lane?  I started to ponder the presence of Marines in fiction, particularly Science Fiction.  I’m most familiar with the Marines in the television series Enterprise and the most recent incarnation of Battlestar Galactica, as well as the Space Marines in the movies Aliens and Starship Troopers.

My own science fiction novel, Refuge, currently in revision, has a contingent of Marines.

Why are Marines such interesting combatants for Science Fiction writers?  I think it has to do with the mystique surrounding the Corps.  I believe there is an aura of, dare I say it, invincibility that makes the Marines an ideal and integral part of many science fiction campaigns.  And, there seems to be one constant … they are dangerous sumofabitches.

There’s a perception, by civilians at least, that a Marine is a rough, tough warrior who can be called to action at a moment’s notice.  When I was in boot camp, we were always told we were the President’s Own and did not require a declaration of war for deployment.

Maybe the mystique is greater because there are fewer Marines then sailors or airmen/women or soldiers.  The number of active duty Marines is less than any of the other branches of the military.

Writers are able to build upon an established, recognized brand.  Most people who aren’t living under a rock have a notion of what a Marine is and does.  A writer has readymade base from which to build; they need only add the weapons and armor.

For me, it was a matter of using what I knew – the readymade brand.  What do you think?