China may have overcome the big challenge to build high-power microwave (HPM) weapons after having solved the riddle of generating electromagnetic pulses—that are akin to energies released by nuclear explosions—without any damage to the device releasing these pulses.
HPM guns fire bursts of ‘microwave bullets’ at the speed of light that melt electronic circuitry rendering lethal and deadly incoming missiles useless, destroy computers and communication networks, blind radars, wreak havoc on communication systems, stop vehicles on their tracks, and make aircraft and ships go awry.
There is an ongoing race among the world’s major military to develop HPM weapons that can be a colossal force-multiplier in military capability especially in countering anti-radiation missiles, destroying electronic systems, aircraft, drone swarms, salvos of missiles and even satellites on low earth orbits.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported: “Inside a power divider the size of a household pedestal fan, the electric field strength exceeds 80,000 volts per metre—comparable to the electromagnetic pulses generated by nuclear weapon explosions.”
The report adds that the electromagnetic waves generated by the compact Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) device can even exceed a total power of one gigawatt.
While the technology is being developed, the deployment of such HPM weapons by China may still take time.
The weapon uses “phased-array transmission technology instead to ‘precisely focus energy, increasing its effective range and enhancing damage effects, enabling simultaneous attacks on multiple targets’”.
The development is due to the “breakthrough” achieved by a joint team of military researchers from the National University of Defence Technology in Changsha and the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xian.
The Chinese government has primarily mandated the Xian-based Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology with the development of HPM weapons.
DEWS are of two types—high power lasers (HPL) and high power microwaves (HPM). While the narrow means of HPLs can cover only a smaller target area, HPM weapons, because of their wider coverage area, can devastate salvos of missiles or drone swarms.
China has already developed HPL weapons. A US defence department report said: “By the mid-to-late-2020s, China may field higher power systems that extend the threat to the structures of non-optical satellites”. China has already developed a system (LW-30) that can take out unmanned aircraft systems and precision-guided weapons. This was first unveiled at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Moscow in 2019.
It is commonly believed that while nuclear weapons and missiles held primacy during the Cold War, satellites and communication technology are the dominant military tools at present times, but the future military technology will be dependent on DEWs to a large extent.