Indian Defense Lab Making Electromagnetic Bomb

(Aviationweek) : India’s top defense and military research institute will soon develop an electromagnetic bomb, or “e-bomb,” to help strengthen the country’s defense, space and internal security system.
The technology will leave electronic gadgets useless and effectively neutralize the enemy’s command, control and communication capability, A.P.S. Sodhi, a senior scientist working on the program at Terminal Ballistic and Research Laboratory (TBRL), tells Aviation Week. Located on the outskirts of the northern Indian city of Chandigarh, the TBRL is the lone ballistic laboratory of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
Sodhi says the e-bomb “produces a strong electromagnetic field that generates powerful electricity surges that can cause huge damage to electronic circuits within a specified area, without affecting humans.” The specific idea of the weapon is to convert the explosive’s chemical power into electrical power, he says.
“We are using explosive-driven, high-energy pulse-power technology, which can produce a pulse current of peak value of 1.4 mega ampere from chemical energy released by 2.8 kg [6 lb.] of high explosives,” he says. The explosive is a mixture of RDX and TNT.
The electromagnetic bombs can be deployed against nonmilitary targets like banking and civic utility networks, as well as communications and power-generation networks, destroying gadgets and networks.
“The objective is to win the war without killing people,” Sodhi says.
Development of the weapon has been under way for two years, and the TBRL hopes to finish the research and development work within the next five years. “Our main purpose is to equip the Indian armed forces with the e-bomb soonest,” Sodhi says.
The bomb will have four major parts: a compressed flux generator, a pulse-shaping device, a power microwave source and an antenna.