The Defense Special Weapons Agency and its predecessors have already developed models that closely reproduce the effects of the high-altitude tests over the Pacific, which were validated by underground nuclear testing.
The Times failed to mention the fact that a blue-ribbon, congressionally mandated EMP Threat Commission produced a number of studies confirming the reality of a scenario in which ballistic-missile-delivered high-altitude electromagnetic pulse attacks could occur, with "catastrophic" effects on the United States.