“Grid Jihad”: What If You Had a Week to Prep for the End of the World?

[Hogwylde]

What capabilities, exactly, does ISIS have to travel to the United States and disable a sizable portion of the power grid (let alone the entire thing) for more than a year?

Disabling the power grid is quite easy............for those of us who have seen the maps that hang around inside the power plants nationwide. They show how all the power plants are connected and where the major nodes are. Taking out one or two nodes drops the entire power grid offline..............IF you know where to hit it. And, its not that hard to find out where the weak points are.

Just drive around and look for major power lines in your area. Once you find a transformer substation....take a look at the security around them. They get hit for their copper content all the time. Just think what kind of damage a terrorist can cause by knocking it out. Now, think BIG and what kind of time it would take to repair all those transformers at a major node on the grid.

Take out a few key bridges on major interstate highways, and you have the transportation system down too.

 

[churchmouse]

That dogfight would probably look something like this: Skip to about 2:35.

[video=youtube;NkOsXNF_ZoM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkOsXNF_ZoM[/video]

There is no plane more impressive to me than the F-14.

 

[DurangoUSMC]

I would love to see a dog fight between those stolen aircraft and anything we launch from a carrier deck.

Wouldn't be much to see. Just some smoke, a little fire, and a debris field. I like it. And yes, the F14 was awesome. Too bad I heard we had mothballed all of the remaining ones a couple years ago.

Got a friend who is at Bliss waiting to shipped for 18X (Green Beret Selection) and he has confirmed hightened security.
I am FT. Lee right now finishing up AIT and the NCO's have been getting increasingly touchy on the subject.
The article about Bliss is all over Fox news as well as other supporting articles.

Now we are finidng out that ISIS has adopted air and sea warfare using the gunboats in Iraq and stolen aircraft from the syrian air force.

Thanks for the update I do appreciate it.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

I understand that the big transformers aren't readily available should the need arise. They have to built overseas IIRC. Looong lead times.

 

[OneShotFOGE]

I understand that the big transformers aren't readily available should the need arise. They have to built overseas IIRC. Looong lead times.

Correct. They are made in China, of course. And it would take 12 to 24 months to have them sent here. Whether its terrorists, rogue states or just too much stress on an old power grid, this might be the greatest threat facing our nation.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Wouldn't be much to see. Just some smoke, a little fire, and a debris field. I like it. And yes, the F14 was awesome. Too bad I heard we had mothballed all of the remaining ones a couple years ago.

F14's have been gone since the mid-90's. Towards the end they were so old that they required like 4 hours of maintenance for each hour of flying or something like that.

I've always said we should skip the F22 and F35 boondoggles and just make new F14, F15, and F16's. Think how cheap they'd be.

 

[Thor]

After they got through our Byzantine acquisition system they'd probably cost just as much...don't get me started.

The F14 was an interesting aircraft to dogfight as the wing sweep was automatic and based on airspeed...get into a turning fight and those huge energy indicators would sweep forward to let you know he was probably in his last turn of the fight. Course, they weren't made for that; they were made to carry that huge radar in the nose and throw Phoenix missiles WAY out there in defense of the fleet. In their environment one of the best tools in the tool box.

But yeah, carrier life is real hard on airframes.

 

[VN Vet]

My Squadron, RVAH-12, NAS Key West was the host Squadron for the Tomcat. We flew with them off the Enterprise on their inaugural around the world cruise in 1974. However, we never made it around the world; a frigging typhoon hit Thailand and we were sent to help.

Oh yeah, the Jihad/ISIS/ISIL or who the heck they are at my age and physical condition, I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying put in my wheel chair.

You jihad thugs, jihad gangsters and those who just want to be a jihad and has the ability to may read this, please send me a pm for my address and the hours of the day I'll be alone and likely asleep. Come on over and bring some Chile. I love Chile with lots of meat and beans. Oh yeah, I forgot, my dogs love fresh meat; the fresher the better. Know what I mean, jelly beans. I know you guys "love" Goats, so a fresh Goat meat with me and my Dogs. :>)