CHAMP, a first-day-of-war electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon that destroys an enemy army's means to command and control its forces without inflicting collateral damage, has passed operational trials and should see service with the U.S. Air Force in 2020.

CHAMP, the acronym for "Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project," will be mounted on a specially modified AGM-158B JASSM-ER (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range), a low observable standoff air-launched cruise missile currently in Air Force service.

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It's basically an EMP cannon that destroys individual targets as it zooms over the battlefield. The Air Force describes CHAMP as an air-launched directed-energy weapon in a multi-shot, multi-target, high-power microwave (HPM) package.

CHAMP destroys instead of jams enemy electronic warfare equipment and electronic systems. It's especially potent against and command and control centers in buildings totally dependent on electronics to do their job.

The EMP pulses generated by CHAMP overload electronic equipment faster than circuit breakers or surge protectors can respond to the massive surge of power. CHAMP is capable of up to 100 shots per sortie. Future iterations of CHAMP will see it mounted on hypervelocity missiles.

The CHAMP cruise missile can be launched at stand-off distances by manned fighters such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Northrop Grumman B-2 strategic stealth bomber, or by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or aerial drones.

"The capability is real ... and the technology can be available today," said Major General Thomas Masiello, the Air Force Research Laboratory. "That's an operational system already in our tactical air force."

Boeing successfully tested CHAMP in late 2012 during which the weapon destroyed computers at the Utah Test and Training Range that were its target.

 CHAMP fired EMP bursts at seven targets, destroying their electronics. It even destroyed the digital cameras recording the tests.

Boeing claims CHAMP opens a new era in modern warfare by destroying an enemy's electronic and data systems even before the first troops or aircraft arrive.

Russia is also said to testing its equivalent of CHAMP. It claims its unmanned sixth-generation drone fighters will be armed with an EMP cannon capable of destroying the electronics on enemy aircraft at long-range.

Russia intends to deploy this EMP weapon by 2025 when its first sixth generation aircraft take flight. That deadline is suspect, however, since Russia only plans to take delivery of its first operational fifth generation PAK FA stealth fighters in 2025.

The Russian EMP gun can "hit targets within a radius of tens of kilometers," claims Vladimir Mikheev, a director of state-owned Russian electronics firm KRET. Mikheev said the gun will only be mounted on unmanned sixth generation drones since there is no adequate way of preventing a pilot from either being disabled or killed by the deadly EMP burst.

TagsCHAMP, Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project, U.S. Air Force, AGM-158B JASSM-ER, electromagnetic pulse, EMP, Russian EMP gun