In my fictional universe energy disruption weapons are very prevalent. I call them that because they can disrupt energy shields, nano machine clouds, and most things powered by energy. However, should I rather use the more common Electromagnetic Pulse term for this? I am a bit unsure of the abilities of EMP weaponry, that's why I opted to use Energy Disruption tech since that may fit a broader usage. What is your opinion?
Current technology for a man made EMP. Requires a high altitude nuclear blast, the higher the burst the wider the affected area. There are ways to harden electronics against an EMP. EMP program status report
Thanks @w. bogart I suppose my own version of energy disruptors are better for my universe, since they are not as defined as regular EMP. And such can be made to have greater usage. I also read that EMP is often portrayed wrong in fiction, a trend I do not want to follow.
First, I wonder about the expertise of saying things are portrayed wrong. That could be opinions opposed to expertise. Second, what type of EMP, are we talking about? There will be differences between the affects of a CME and a nuke. A CME, coronal mass ejection, is a solar flare that hits the Earth. So the affects hit the side of the Earth facing the sun, when the flare arrives at the Earth. A nuke by contrast can be more targeted by a combination of height and location of the detonation. The Carrington event was a CME. What makes an EMP dangerous to modern electronics is the current it induces in circuits, in ways that those circuits weren't designed for. A Faraday cage, and some types of automatic circuit breakers.
@w. bogart That EMP is often depicted wrong is something I read on the Wikipedia page of EMP. I'm thinking something far smaller scale than nukes and solar activity. But not exclusively small. Grenades that can take out a personal energy shield or an android, or nano-swarm. That or bombs and also tank projectiles that can disable larger energy shields. There will also be spaceship energy disruptors that can disable whole or parts of other ships for a time.
In the classic Gundam series the belligerents will release "Minovsky particles" before battles, which have some EMP-like effects, radar-jamming, disrupting missiles, etc. Which essentially was a way to justify a space-faring civilization fighting close battles with giant robot suits.
Two points. First any enemy that encountered these weapons would develop a counter to them. Second this sounds like it has the potential to be over powered. I would suggest building in a limitation to this weapon type. The power requirements might be a good place to put the limit.
