China develops microwave weapon capable of attacking satellites

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

This driver could be used in microwave weapons that may disrupt enemy satellite networks, including Elon Musk-owned Starlink. These weapons work by damaging satellite electronics instead of destroying the satellite itself.

According to a recent study by researchers at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology (NINT), which is linked to the Chinese military, the new device is called TPG1000Cs. The study said this technology makes microwave attacks harder to detect and harder to trace compared to traditional anti-satellite weapons.

The TPG1000Cs device is about four meters long and weighs five tons. It is much smaller than similar systems developed by other countries.

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

This development is seen as a major breakthrough because earlier systems could only work for a few seconds and were much larger in size.

Experts say only one gigawatt of power is needed to disrupt low-Earth-orbit satellites using ground-based microwave weapons. However, China has reportedly generated electric pulses of up to 20 gigawatts using the TPG1000Cs.

Major powers like the U.S., China, and Russia have been working on high-power microwave technology for years. Unlike traditional weapons that can create dangerous space debris, microwave weapons can disable satellite systems without producing large amounts of debris in space.