Nuke strike could plunge US into blackout like Spain at ANY minute – weapon Trump needs now to protect 340million people
AMERICA must install a missile defence shield before the country's electrical grid is wiped out in a nuke strike, an expert has warned.
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to construct a futuristic "Golden Dome" to banish threats from countries including Iran.
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But with both Tehran and North Korea rapidly accelerating nuclear development, military historian William R. Forstchen has warned the US needs a defence system sooner rather than later.
Trump has long been fascinated by Israel 's technological marvel that is the Iron Dome and wants to build something much more complex and expensive.
While the Iron Dome effectively intercepts short-range missiles and rockets, the Golden Dome would need to shoot down much larger and powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Forstchen told The Sun: "Golden dome is designed as a ballistic defense system for intercontinental.
"It is a strategic defence that would prevent any enemy attack from coming across the Pacific Ocean to hit our facilities with an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) hit, which would wipe out our electrical infrastructure.
"The big fear I've always held is that North Korea has the capacity to launch an ICBM with a nuclear warhead on top.
"When it's detonated above the continental United States, it sets up something called the Compton effect, which blows out the electrical grid of the United States.
"This is a system designed to defend against that."
But right now, Forstchen warned America will be "screwed" if North Korea or Iran unleashes just three small nuclear on the US - making it more vital than ever that Trump sees through his plan.
It could see the US plunged into darkness like Spain and Portugal last Monday.
Trump says Iran deal is 'well on its way' - as regime builds ring of steel around deeply buried nuclear fortresses
Forstchen said: "I grew up in the 60s and 70s. It was called mutually assured Destruction.
"The big fear back then was the Soviets would launch hundreds of missiles at us.
"We would launch at them. Everybody blows up. Nobody wins the game. Well, it's a different paradigm now.
"Third world players, in particular North Korea and Iran, if it ever achieves nuclear capability, they just have to launch three small warheads about four times the size of a Hiroshima bomb.
"Get it up there 200 miles out. When the weapon blows, it sets up an electrostatic discharge called the Compton effect.
"That shorts our grid off. The grid is not going. It doesn't self-repair. It does not come back online. And basically, to put it in common terminology, we're screwed."
European power outage
by Patrick Harrington, Foreign News Reporter
MILLIONS were left without power when blackouts struck Spain, Portugal and parts of southern France on Monday.
Spain says it is focusing on "overcoming the worst" and identifying the cause of what was the continent's largest power outage.
At the worst point on early Monday afternoon, airports and hospitals shut down and trains screeched to a halt.
Footage showed people queuing outside grocery stores and ATMs to stockpile essentials amid fears the mayhem could last for days.
Roads in Spain, Portugal and parts of France were left snarled up with traffic as lights and signals went blank - with emergency officers drafted in to tackle the bedlam.
Some hospitals cancelled all surgeries for Monday amid fears for patient safety in the region's most severe blackout for years.
Spain's train service came to a complete stop, leaving huge crowds stranded at stations, and Madrid's underground network was evacuated.
Air traffic was slashed to "half capacity" as flights were cancelled from a number of airports - with Lisbon turning away all arrivals for hours.
And a major tennis tournament, the Madrid Open, had to be suspended, with Brit Jacob Fearnley's match interrupted by a huge "bang".
Investigators are still determining the cause of the mass blackout.
Spain's top court has launched a bombshell probe into whether sabotage was behind the sudden power loss after it is revealed that "unusual activity" hit the UK grid hours before Europe.
Forstchen - a leading authority on EMP technology who has given guidance on its potential impact to federal and state governments - warned the Dome would be America's only hope against an EMP attack.
An EMP is a burst of electromagnetic energy produced by a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere, that could cause widespread damage to power lines, telecommunications, and electronic equipment.
"EMP distorts the grid off and you lose your electricity," he said.
"The devastation ultimately would be a hundred times worse because the grid is gone. You can't pump water, get food, all the other things we depend upon."
It comes as Trump's Golden Dome hopes gather pace - with his billionaire pal Elon Musk understood to have won the contract to build the incredible missile defence shield.
Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX is partnering with software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril to build key parts.
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Plans include building and launching more than 1,000 satellites circling the globe to sense incoming missiles and track their movement, sources told Reuters.
A separate fleet of 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers would then bring enemy missiles down.
SpaceX is understood to be pitching for the part of the Golden Dome initiative called the "custody layer".
It would work as a constellation of satellites that would detect missiles, track their trajectory, and determine if they are heading toward the US.
However, the rocket company is not expected to be involved in the weaponisation of satellites.
Overall cost for the Dome could hit hundreds of billions of dollars, experts say.
Trump previously warned a missile attack is "the most catastrophic threat facing the United States" - and is in a race to strike a deal with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
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Iran's accelerates nuclear development
Exclusive by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
IRAN is believed to have accelerated its nuclear weapons development and is building terrifying nuclear warheads for solid-fuel missiles with a range exceeding 1,800 miles (3,000km).
A powerful blast from Iran could impact on several continents due to the chilling capability of the warheads.
Italy, Ukraine, Sudan, India and even large swaths of Russia would all potentially be in the firing line.
They are being developed at two sites in Shahrud and Semnan, which were previously pinned as rocket or space satellite launch sites.
A third site, Sorkheh Hesar, is also said to be carrying out projects, including research on nuclear power and underground explosions.
Nukes are being quickly created under the watchful eye of the regime's nuclear weaponization entity, the Organization for Advanced Defense Research (SPND).
Bosses are developing nuclear warheads for the solid-fuel Ghaem-100 missiles, which are equipped with mobile launch platforms at the Shahrud site.
Iran's rocket designers have used North Korea's missiles as a guide to develop the Ghaem-100 missile.
When the missile was in a very early testing stage in 2011, dozens of missile experts were killed at the Modarres site in Tehran.
Personnel vehicles are banned from entering the Shahrud site and are forced to park at a checkpoint before people are transported in.
Meanwhile, they are using the liquid fuel missile Simorgh to develop nuclear warheads in Semnan.
Iran has staged three successful Ghaem-100 missile launches over the past two years, enhancing the regime's capability to deploy nuclear weapons.
The US president vowed "there will be bombing" if Tehran's regime fails to negotiate an agreement.
National security adviser Mike Waltz has said that Trump wants the "full dismantlement" of Iran's nuclear programme.
He added: "That's enrichment, that is weaponisation, and that is its strategic missile programme."
But Iran hopes a deal to limit, but not dismantle, its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Fears of a devastating strike comes as both Iran and North Korea ramp up their nuke schemes.
The Sun previously revealed how Iran's tyrannical regime has been secretly building nuclear warheads for missiles that can fire more than 3,000km.
Satellite pictures uncovered three sites that Iran's leaders claimed were being used as part of a space initiative.
Tehran is building terrifying nuclear warheads for solid-fuel missiles with a range exceeding 1,800 miles (3,000km).
North Korea meanwhile is understood to have around 50 nuclear weapons and sufficient production of fissile material for six to seven nuclear weapons per year.
Tyrant Kim Jong-un has continued arms build-up in response to what Pyongyang claims is threats from the US and its allies in the region.
Trump is said to be planning to kick off fresh talks with Kim over his alarming nuclear advances.
Earlier this month, Kim unveiled North Korea's largest naval destroyer that could house a vertical launchpad capable of firing nuclear missiles.
The extent of North Korea's nuclear and missile programme has long been shrouded in mystery - with stations scattered across the hermit kingdom.
But The Sun last month revealed how scheming Kim had constructed a new missile base disguised as a private golf course.
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The Sun's visit to an Iron Dome battery
By Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
THE Sun this month got a rare look at an Iron Dome battery system in southern Israel.
Tucked along a track away from prying eyes close to a city of around 33,000, a group of highly trained IDF soldiers work tirelessly to repel missiles fired by Hamas from Gaza.
Fenced off from the public, the batteries sit on a concrete base ready to be put into action at the drop of a hat.
Firing units are primed and ready to go, with the launchers always pointing towards the sky as incoming threats can come at any moment.
An IDF commander walked us through exactly how the remarkable system works and proudly told how they had successfully wiped out around 96 per cent of missiles fired their way.
Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, this exceptional kit is essential to Israel's defence.
During my time in Israel last week, I saw first hand the devastation Hamas caused on October 7.
Kibbutz Nir Oz was decimated by callous terrorists and around a quarter of its residents were either brutally killed or taken hostage.
Hamas also unleashed a barrage of more than 5,000 missiles against Israeli targets that day in a bid to overwhelm its robust defence system.
Since then, the terror group has continued to repeatedly blitz Israel - but thanks to systems like the Iron Dome it has managed to limit casualty numbers
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