EMP bomb

Notionally, such a weapon might consist of several staged flux compression generators driving either some sort of antenna directly or a high-powered microwave source like a virtual cathode oscillator. A bomb of this type in the 2,000-lb class would devestate electronics over a radius of hundreds of yards.

Popular Mechanics had EMP weapons as their August 2001 cover story.

The article stated something to the effect that an EMP weapon of moderate yield could be built for about $400, including a GPS guidance system. Eliminate that, and the cost drops to somewhere around $100-$200. The rest of the device (both as mentioned in the article and shown in the cutaway diagram) consists of batteries, a capacitor bank, and a single, large (appprox. 3 ft long and 6 inches in diameter) copper flux compression generator. They are supposedly tuned to frequencies that somehow get through Faraday cages.

It is disturbing how easily anyone with $200, the basic electronics knowledge taught in any high school physics class, and soldering skills could build one of these.