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Interceptor missiles armed with high-yield nuclear warheads had flight ceilings of hundreds of miles (such as the Spartan interceptor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIM-49_Spartan) Given that a single warheads of a few hundred kilotons detonated at ~200 miles in altitude over the United States would have a severe effect on the power grid of the entire country, isn't it likely that the US would actually be severely damaged by its own anti-ballistic missile interceptors causing an EMP effect?

user204468
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    From what I recall the optimal EMP effect requires specific warheads and detonation altitudes. This would be a much better Q on the physics or engineering stack. – the gods from engineering Aug 06 '22 at 09:49
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    Ref. to "interceptor missiles armed with high-yield nuclear warheads" - this sounds strange. Aren't these interceptor missiles against missiles high with -yield nuclear warheads? Also, unless it is linked to a political decision/process, this question is more appropriate on Engineering.SE, I guess. – Alexei Aug 06 '22 at 09:51
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    This is a very interesting question, but has not much to do with politics and should be moved to a diferent SE comunity. – convert Aug 06 '22 at 10:14
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    This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network: https://engineering.stackexchange.com/ – convert Aug 06 '22 at 10:15
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    @Fizz a bit about EMP phenomenon here https://space.stackexchange.com/a/41554/12102 and https://space.stackexchange.com/a/43504/12102 I wish there was a "Warfare and Military Technology Stack Exchange for this kind of stuff :-) – uhoh Aug 06 '22 at 12:18
  • FYI: the Spartan used a special warhead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W71 that was optimized for X-ray output to reduce the EMP/blackout effect. As they were withdrawn after one year of service in the 1970s, the Q may be also suitable on history SE. – the gods from engineering Aug 06 '22 at 13:09
  • As I read that latter article, it would have been more of a problem if the attacker detonated a conventional nuclear warhead at that (outer space) altitude at it would have blinded the defense, despite them using special warheads. – the gods from engineering Aug 06 '22 at 13:16

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