China develops microwave weapon to attack satellites in space

China has gained a major edge over the United States (U.S.) and Russia in the space-weapons race as it has developed the world’s smallest driver for a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon.

The driver could be used in high-power microwave weapons that could potentially disrupt the hostile satellite networks such as Elon Musk-owned Starlink.

According to a recent study published by researchers at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology (NINT), a facility linked to the Chinese military, they have developed a device named TPG1000Cs which makes microwave attacks harder to detect and attribute than conventional anti-satellite weapons.

TPG1000Cs is a four-meter-long, five-ton device, smaller than comparable systems developed elsewhere.

The study claimed, “The system has demonstrated stable operation over continuous one-minute durations, accumulating approximately 200,000 pulses with consistent performance.”

The development could mark a major breakthrough in space-weapon technology as previously known systems could hold stable operations for only a few seconds and they were much larger in size as well.

Only one gigawatt power is needed for a ground-based microwave weapon to disrupt low-Earth-orbit satellite networks, while China was able to generate electric pulses reaching 20 gigawatts using the TPG1000Cs.

Great powers such as the U.S., China and Russia have long been looking to develop high-power microwave technology as it is far superior to conventional weapons which pose the risk of large clouds of orbital debris. Whereas, microwave weapons could disable the electronics of hostile satellites without creating a significant amount of space debris.