Taking a page from Hollywood movies, the Air Force and Boeing confirmed they are testing a weapon that uses electromagnetic pulses to target and destroy digital weapons and systems right down to a specific building.
The weapon is called CHAMPS – Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project – and is something akin to what Hollywood screenwriters dreamed up for "Ocean's 11" and "The Matrix," which could knock out electrical grids and electrical supplies to the enemy without harming humans,
according to CNN.
The electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, weapons would make the opponent's targeted electronic devices useless.
"We're not quite up there with 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' movies, but this is definitely advancement in technology to give us an opportunity to do things we couldn't do before," Peter Finlay, the Air Force Research Laboratory CHAMP lead engineer, told CNN.
Boeing had publicized some of its first successful test for the weapon back in 2012.
Boeing said then that a test at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico successfully disabled electronics in a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range.
Boeing said that the weapon allowed them to make multiple selective high-frequency radio wave strikes against several targets during a single mission.
"This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare," said Keith Coleman, CHAMP program manager for Boeing Phantom Works. "In the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy's electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive."
The website
Foxtrot Alpha reported that a similar weapon had been secretly used by the United States in Libya, destroying the electronics in vehicles that left them inoperable.
Coleman told CNN that past testing proved quite promising.
"We hit every target we ever wanted," Coleman said. "We prosecuted every one. We've made science fiction, science fact."
Lulu Chang of
Digital Trends said the ability to destroy the enemy weapons without collateral damage makes the weapon desirable for the military.
"Indeed, it is this capacity to target individual buildings and not cities at large that makes the new weapon so effective, as it would allow military members to cut off electricity supplies to enemy parties while keeping civilians out of the melee," Chang wrote.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.