The reality of a nuclear EMP attack: Why the US needs to be prepared

A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strike could cripple the U.S. electrical grid, communications, transportation, and other critical infrastructure for months, an expert warned.

Historian William Forstchen, a New York Times bestselling author and an expert on EMPs, discussed with Fox News Digital how the U.S. – and everyday Americans – can prepare for the "existential threat" that the attack poses.

"This is a very real threat," he said. "EMP is generated when a small nuclear weapon, 40 to 60 kilotons or about three times the size of a Hiroshima bomb, is detonated 200 miles out in space above the United States. It sets up an electrostatic discharge which cascades to the Earth's surface, feeds into the millions of miles of wires which become antennas, feeds this into the power grid, overloads the grid and blows it out."

Forstchen, citing Congressional reports from 2002 and 2008, said that 80%-90% of Americans would be dead a year later if an EMP strike happened.

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While an EMP strike, at first glance, appears to be more science fiction than fact, Forstchen said that the potential for such an attack was recognized decades ago.

"The thread of an EMP was first realized during the 1962 Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test. What happened was that it blew about 500 miles away from Hawaii and 200 miles up," he said. "They were able to bring the system back within a matter of days, but what would it be like if it took a month, six months, a year, or five years to fix?"

The late Peter Pry, a nuclear weapons expert, and former staff director at the Congressional EMP Commission, agreed. Before his death in 2022, Pry warned that Kim Jung Un's launch of a high-altitude ballistic missile was a test of North Korea's EMP capabilities against the United States.

"Cars would be paralyzed," Pry told Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight in May 2017. "Airplanes could fall out of the sky. You'd have natural gas pipeline explosions, nuclear reactor overloads. And worst of all, if you had a protracted blackout, it would be a serious threat to the survival of the American people."

The threat of EMP propelled President Donald Trump, during his first term in 2020, to issue a study with the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

"Just within the last couple of days, the Trump administration is again talking about Israel's Iron Dome but in the United States," he said.

Forstchen shared three ways that the U.S. could prepare for a potential EMP attack.

Calling the current electrical grid "antiquated," Forstchen argued that it needs to be updated for the 21st century.

"It's scary to realize that almost all of our electricity is pumped on systems that are 30, even 40 years old," he said.

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Joseph J. Brettel, communications consultant and former energy spokesman, wrote in a Fox News Digital opinion piece that the electrical grid "is in desperate need of investment and modernization."

"This isn’t just an infrastructure problem; it’s an economic opportunity," he wrote. "By unleashing vast resources and problem-solving determination toward the grid, the President could solve a decades-long challenge while creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs."

Similar to Israel, the U.S. needs an Iron Dome, Forstchen said.

"Ronald Reagan proposed it in the '80s, it was known as Star Wars," he said. "But that was impossible back then, but with the technology we have today and guys like [Elon] Musk, it's very possible that we could make one for relatively minor cost compared to some other things."

Trump has ordered the construction of an advanced, next-generation missile defense shield to protect the United States from aerial attack. In January, he signed an executive order that tasks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with drawing up plans to build an "Iron Dome for America" that will protect Americans from the threat of missiles launched by a foreign enemy. 

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In doing so, Trump kept a campaign promise to prioritize missile defense.

"By next term we will build a great Iron Dome over our country," Trump said during a West Palm Beach event on June 14. "We deserve a dome…it's a missile defense shield, and it'll all be made in America."

Forstchen encouraged people to prepare for the potential threat by stockpiling necessities. 

"I urge every American citizen to take this seriously and prepare a little bit. I'm not talking about turning your home into a fortress," he said. "I am saying to have a month or two worth of emergency supplies on hand."

As a resident of Asheville, North Carolina, Forstchen said that the devastation following Hurricane Helene has been "horrific," leaving some still homeless months following the natural disaster.

"And this is a small regional event, imagine if it was the entire United States," he said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense for comment.