Iran's Unspoken Threat

My father must get the credit for pointing this one out:

The launch of a domestically made Iranian satellite is a dangerous thing in and of itself.

"Omid" ('Hope' in Farsi) is a satellite. What kind it is has yet to be specified (Corrections Welcomed).

"So what? Sputnik just beeped; we all lived through that, right?"

Yes we did, however, what Sputnik didn't have was over half a century of space exploration behind it. The things that can be done now are very interesting.

The main concern here is not an ICBM. They don't have the accuracy to make the claim and they know we know it. No guidance, no nuke.

So what worries me? What about this makes me cringe? What can be accomplished with their technological level of sophistication (with some assistance from the, say, Chinese)?

A low earth orbit EMP Nuclear Detonation.

Who needs accuracy when you could take out (not just "switch off", but destroy) the electronic infrastructure of a whole state or larger area. Blow a nuke in low earth orbit (100 - 1240 miles above sea level) and you would have wide-spread technological devastation.

Think instant neolithic period with REALLY bad acid rain...

I could give credence to an argument that that would have worse long-term effects than a traditional concept "ground-zero" style of nuclear attack. The economic effects would be crushing with widespread panic, no communication, no power (not even your car would work), no government infrastructure. Oh, yeah, and REALLY bad acid rain...

Yet no one has ventured to broach this on ANY network, paper, or even blog (again, C/W).

As soon as my father said that the satellite could have a nuke on board, I knew where he was going with it.

Now you do too...

H/T: Global Security, Fox News, Wikipedia