Chinese scientists claim to have developed an advanced directed-energy weapon similar to the Death Star in Star Wars, capable of focusing multiple microwave beams onto a single target.
China has been developing high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons in recent years with the potential to disrupt sensitive electronic components, including radar systems, computers, communication infrastructures, and even missiles and satellites.
Such systems can be much cheaper than firing interceptor missiles which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The focussed beams from such directed-energy weapons may also cause minimum collateral damage, making them beneficial for use in politically sensitive environments, experts say.
However, creating such an efficient technology has been a challenge as the microwave beams need to arrive in sync and in the same form for effective function.
Current weapons of the type do not have “effective combat capabilities”, researchers note in the Chinese journal Modern Navigation.
This is mainly because the error in sync between each microwave-producing component, called vehicles, should not exceed 170 picoseconds – or trillionths of a second, scientists say.
Such precision is greater than the time resolution of atomic clocks on GPS satellites.
Now, Chinese scientists say they have achieved this “ultra-high time precision synchronisation,” the South China Morning Post first reported.
They claim to have achieved this synchronisation by connecting microwave-transmitting vehicles using optical fibres.
Using the breakthrough technology, scientists say the combined microwaves could end up with power “1+1>2” – hinting that the output is more than the sum of the individual beams.
Using the latest technology, Chinese scientists say they could suppress signals of American GPS and other satellites, “achieving multiple goals such as teaching and training, new technology verification, and military exercises”.
The advance comes following a breakthrough last year in which the country’s researchers achieved a time synchronisation precision of 10 picoseconds over a distance of 1,800 km (1,100 miles) using optical fibres.
The specific features of the weapon and its parameters remain confidential.
Experts have previously noted that China’s research into directed energy programmes is likely aimed to negate specific US strengths by affecting the sensors on US precision strike weapons and satellites.
Chinese academic publications suggest that microwave beam weapons are developed more for use on space platforms like satellites, while advanced lasers are being built for land, naval, or air.
