China's new microwave weapon can
disable missiles and paralyze tanks
EMP/high powered microwave cruise missiles, like
the CHAMP, built by Boeing for DARPA, can sneak into enemy airspace to disable
a wide range of C4ISR, air defense, missile and armored targets, even in some
cases destroying electronic systems permanently. Such systems will become a
necessary part of 21st-century warfare.
For over 6 years, Huang Wenhua and his team at the Northwest Institute
of Nuclear Technology in Xi'an have been working on a potent microwave weapon.
This one, which recently won China's National Science and Technology Progress
Award, is small enough to fit on a lab work bench, making it theoretically
portable enough for land vehicles and aircraft.
Said another way: it's small
enough to be convenient, but powerful enough to totally down enemy electronics.
A microwave weapon like this could even be fitted to a missile (like the U.S.
CHAMP electronic warfare missile) or drone.
Generally, microwave weapons shut down electronic
systems (even those with traditional shielding against EMP) by bombarding the
target with energy pulses between 300 and 300,000 megahertz. This amount of
directed energy interferes with and overloads electronic circuits, causing them
to shut down. The higher the energy produced by the system, the greater the
disruption (and even physical damage for some very high-powered microwave
weapons) of the targeted electronic systems like engines and communications
systems.
China can find a wide variety of uses for an
electronics killing ray. Defensively, microwave weapons could be part of
electronic warfare booby traps, ambushing and disabling enemy vehicles and
robots. At close ranges, it can be mounted on vehicles, warships, and even
aircraft, to disable and distract missiles, small UAVs and even the personal
and vehicular electronics of hostile forces.
But the real combat potential of the microwave
weapon comes in offense. Carried in by a stealthy drone or cruise missile, it
would be able to disable sophisticated enemy defenses like SAM and anti-ship
missile batteries; fry enemy radars, communications, and control systems;
paralyze tank battalions; and even neutralize other EW platforms.
Popular Science
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