WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH PETER JENNINGS (06:30 PM ET) - ABC February 18, 2003
A CLOSER LOOK IRAQ ATTACK
PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS
(Off Camera) The Pentagon said today that another 28,000 troops have been ordered to the Middle East. That's 182,000, now, who are somewhere on or near the borders with Iraq. We're going to take "A Closer Look" this week at what might constitute the opening phase of an attack on Iraq, if it comes to war. Here is our Pentagon Correspondent, John McWethy. graphics: if it comes to war
JOHN MCWETHY, ABC NEWS
(Voice Over) Military sources say any war with Iraq will begin with an intense, unrelenting bombardment. At the cutting edge, weapons guided by satellite, dropped from the B-2 Stealth bomber, both new since the last war with Iraq 12 years ago. And beyond that, a few weapons drawn from the government's most secret research programs.
JOHN MCWETHY (CONTINUED)
(Off Camera) One is called the e-bomb, described by some as a lightning bolt on a cruise missile. It's designed to shut down all electronic devices over a wide area, while doing minimal damage to buildings and people.
JOHN MCWETHY (CONTINUED)
(Voice Over) The warhead of the e-bomb generates a massive pulse of microwave energy hundreds of times more powerful than a lightning bolt.
ANDREW KOCH, JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY
The energy would travel down the antenna and the wire cabling that command and control facilities use, it would burn out the electronics in them, and they would be literally useless. They'd be literally blind and deaf.
JOHN MCWETHY
(Voice Over) The e-bomb, in theory, could black out an air defense complex, silence a phone system, neutralize an underground bunker.
JOHN PIKE, DIRECTOR, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG
Meaning that you can black out any command post hidden in a large palace complex without having to completely pulverize the entire palace with thousands of bombs.
JOHN MCWETHY
(Voice Over) The same idea was explored in the movie "Ocean's Eleven," when a microwave generator shut down the power grid in Las Vegas. On the battlefield, e-bombs may have drawbacks, because they affect whole neighborhoods. Electronics in hospitals, for example, would be crippled along with everything else. Other weapons that would be used in the opening days of war, so-called "thermobaric bombs," warheads that penetrate a bunker, fill the air with explosive gas, then, when ignited, creates a deadly firestorm and concussion. And the Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, guided by satellite, it can be dropped in bad weather without the pilot having to see the target.
MIKE HATCHER, JDAM PROGRAM DIRECTOR
It really has taken high-altitude bombing to a new level of capability.
JOHN MCWETHY
(Voice Over) Compared to the Persian Gulf War, today's war planners believe they will be destroying far more targets in much less time with just a fraction of the bombs and airplanes they used then. But the e- bomb, for one, has never been used before, and it is unclear what impact it and other new weapons may have. John McWethy, ABC News, the Pentagon.
PETER JENNINGS
(Off Camera) Tomorrow, if it comes to war, what would a ground attack look like and where might it come from? And all the time, of course, if there is a war, you can look for details at abcnews.com, political and military.
PETER JENNINGS (CONTINUED)
(Voice Over) When we come back, the 23-year-old baseball player who died in spring training. Was he on a medicine that a lot of people use?
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Copyright © 2003, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
