Wonder how long before this bit of sci-fi is copied and used on the West?

In the not so distant past military hardware was hardened against EMP threats.  Even to the point of testing whole planes.  Not now as the nuke threat has hit the back shelves with all the wowsers about too scared to hit the button.  Buying off the shelf has been the way to go in recent decades.

The endless savage cuts to military spending everywhere has left those that fight the good fight in times of dire need with non-hardened COTS equipments.  Which as proven this week, is rendered useless in the face of a short blast from such a device, long touted to be from the realms of sci-fi fantasies.  

No need for a dirty nuke anymore, just hitch the EMP device to a semitrailer and tow it through the main centres of a country.  Instant and total comms failure.  Dead as a doorknob, including the Internet.

Won't be long before it is copied and used against the West by some crank state hell bent on our destruction.  And there's plenty of them, even ones that have free trade agreements with us.

No physical damage, just the electronics utterly rooted, but easily replaced.  I can well imagine a Mr Huawei making a leisurely call post one of these being deployed through the streets of NYC or around 1600 Pennsylvania.  Who's knows, he just might be behind the deployment to tout for business.

The price of military electronics is about go sub-orbital.