Quote: (01-20-2018 08:29 AM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:
They don't even need EMP weapons to have you sitting in the dark. These days they flip the switch on a few select intrusion viruses and before you know it the computer systems in every major utility brick themselves.
You wouldn't even get the privilege of tracking a missile into your airspace for a few seconds to determine who hit you. Power, internet, gas, water, cellular service and phone lines would all go out damn near simultaneously. Government would be left to use battery/generator powered shortwave radios and what few satellite phones they'd distributed in order to mount a response.
Other nations would be able to track Russian military movements but for a time there would be little they could do about it.
Cyberwarfare is the new M.A.D. scenario. Most systems are so vulnerable it's a running joke. Of course such a large scale attack could only be used as a preface to total war. If peace remained after such an attack then the digital trails would inevitably be traced and either the perpetrator or a suitable proxy would have some serious hurt put on them.
You forgot the destruction of satellites as the US and the Chinese have already done (did it on their own satellites that were old and out of service as a practice run.). US did it from a ship; China did it from an aircraft.
**poof**. No more GPS or cellular communications, not to mention the implications on the cyber side.
Imagine all your soldiers in the field that lose their GPS ability... They'd have to go "Old Skool" and that's just breezed over in training these days, it seems. Unless you're the actual point man (navigator) or the actual officer himself of the platoon/unit/whatever, but there are usually 2 or less of those guys (Point Man and Rear Security which are interchangeable) in a combat platoon. Most would be lost as fuck because they don't understand this capability of destroying satellites--hardly bothered to learn how to properly use a map and compass to navigate.. God forbid the platoon gets completely split up. Same thing would apply similarly to tank commanders and pilots (pilots will be able to navigate, but the dudes on the ground would have a hard time directing him). It would be dudes that have fought in Iraq and AFG who had come to depend on that small piece of equipment so much and it's suddenly taken from them. "Oh, remember that map and compass we did 14 years ago?" "No, not really." "Well break it out."
Can't call your higher command by secure SAT PHONE or SAT RADIO, that's out the window. Can't use your cell phone. You'd have to go find a land line and call your higher ups or resort back to old radio comms UHF/VHF, which is also breezed over, unless you're the actual communicator of the platoon/unit/whatever, but there are usually 2 or less of those guys in a combat platoon. And these radio comms have limited ranges and are not very reliable calling really long distances without some solidly-skilled radio operator. It would suck. Take a bunch of kids that rely on their iPhones, video games, drones, ISR and GPS, then drop them into Vietnam in that era of warfare. Be a fucking disaster.
LOL. **knock, knock**
"Yes Ma'am may I please use your phone?"
"My phone isn't working for some reason..."
"No, Ma'am, not your cell phone, your 'home phone?'
"What's a 'home phone?'