CHINESE researchers have developed a compact power source that could see its microwave weapon dramatically reduced in size.
Microwave weapons use focused and powerful beams of Radio Frequency energy to transmit frequencies of ten megahertz up to 100 gigahertz.
China's device can generate up to 10 gigawatts of electricity at a rate of 10 pulses per second, a new report from SCMP claimed.
Energy sources that intense produce microwave beams that can kill chips in planes, drones, and even Starlink satellites.
Typically, energy sources that powerful require a lot of complicated (and large) machinery.
However, this new system could fit into a bookshelf, according to a team of researchers led by Shu Ting from the College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies at the National University of Defence Technology in Changsha, Hunan province, China.
This new compact weapon could allow the Chinese military to put microwave cannons on the back of trucks for targeted strikes.
It could also let them shoot down Starlink satellites, which was a motivating factor for Chinese officials after seeing them successfully deployed in the Ukraine invasion, per SCMP.
Shooting down Starlink satellites the traditional way (via missiles) would be too impractical and expensive.
The new system, however, could work around the clock if it's plugged into a city power grid, Shu said.
Still, it required trial and error to get to this point, with some of the teams' early experiments ending in short circuits.
The final product comprises an electron accelerator with a DNA-strand-type design.
More specifically, it features electrons in two spiral tubes that look like the double-helix structure of DNA.
China is not the only country that is experimenting with microwave weapons – both the United States and Russia have produced their own, as well.
