  We discuss the electromagnetic collisions of high energy protons, pions and
kaons with atmospheric nuclei. In particular, we use the equivalent photon
approximation to estimate (i) the diffractive collisions where the projectile
scatters inelastically off a nucleus, and (ii) the usual radiative processes
(bremsstrahlung, pair production and photonuclear interactions) of these
charged hadrons in the air. We then include the processes in the simulator
AIRES and study how they affect the longitudinal development of extensive air
showers. For $10^{9-11}$ GeV proton primaries we find that they introduce a
very small reduction (below 1%) in the average value of both $X_{\rm max}$ and
$\Delta X_{\rm max}$. At a given shower age (relative slant depth from $X_{\rm
max}$), these electromagnetic processes slightly increase the number of charged
particles at the shower maximum and reduce the number of muons when it is old,
decreasing by 1% the muon-to-($\gamma+e$) near the ground level. the
muon-to-(${\gamma} + e$) near the ground level.
