China has developed a new piece of military technology that could one day be used to disrupt satellite networks such as Starlink. Researchers at a research facility linked to the Chinese military, Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology (NINT) say they have built the world’s smallest driver for a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon, a system that could potentially be used to disrupt satellite networks such as Starlink.
The device measures about four metres long and weighs roughly five tons, making it significantly smaller than comparable systems.
The study said, “The system has demonstrated stable operation over continuous one-minute durations, accumulating approximately 200,000 pulses with consistent performance.”
Similar known systems until now could only operate continuously for no more than just a few seconds and were far bulkier, making them difficult to install in smaller weapons systems. The TPG1000Cs system, on the other hand, can generate electrical pulses reaching 20 gigawatts, according to the study. This far exceeds the roughly 1 gigawatt output that experts say a ground-based microwave weapon would need to potentially disrupt low-Earth-orbit satellite networks such as Starlink.
The United States, Russia, and China have all been exploring whether high-power microwave technology could be developed into weapons capable of disrupting satellites.
Destroying satellites using conventional weapons can create large clouds of orbital debris that may threaten other spacecraft, including those belonging to the attacking country.
Microwave weapons, in contrast, could theoretically disable electronics without creating significant debris, potentially offering strategic advantages and a degree of plausible deniability.
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