ATLAS-I: EMP Testing Facility
The ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), also known as Trestle, was an electromagnetic pulse generation and testing site built during the Cold War. It is located near Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Design and Purpose of ATLAS-I
ATLAS-I was the largest NNEMP (non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse) generator in the world and was designed to test the radiation hardening of strategic aircraft systems against EMP pulses such as the ones aircraft were expected to be exposed to during a nuclear war.
Trestle was composed of two parts: Two giant EMP generators capable of simulating the electromagnetic pulse effects of a high-altitude nuclear explosion and a giant wooden trestle designed to support the aircraft being tested.
Closure and Legacy
The ATLAS-I program was shut down in 1991 as the Cold War ended and as computer simulations became reliable and cheaper.
The (wooden) Trestle is still visible from the air but is slowly degrading as it is no longer being maintained.
-RBM
