Getty Image
Scientists in China say they have been able to successfully create a converging energy beam weapon. Which, in case you were wondering, is kind of like the Death Star superlaser that destroyed the planet Alderaan in Star Wars and was used on the planet Scarif in Rogue One.
No, really. The South China Morning Post wrote about this new converging energy beam weapon and said, “This is similar to the Death Star seen in the Star Wars films. To build up the energy required to destroy a planet, the vast space station needs to converge eight laser rays into a single beam.”
As for how the Chinese scientists did such a thing, they report that this “new type of high-power microwave weapon … combines electromagnetic waves with ultra-precise timing technology to boost power output to attack a single target.”
The scientists say they have already completed experimental trials on its potential military use. This, as one might imagine, was not easy.
Technology journalist Peter Ray Allison of Live Science explains, “The weapon system consists of multiple microwave-transmitting vehicles that are deployed to different locations. Each of the vehicles fire microwaves with high-precision synchronization. These merge together into a powerful energy beam to attack one target.”
For this new converging energy beam weapon to work, the microwaves have to be fired within millionths of a second of one another (in other words, be more precise than the atomic clocks on GPS satellites). Plus, as if that isn’t hard enough, they also have to arrive and be positioned within millimeters of their correct firing locations. They also must be perfectly level.
The Chinese scientists claim they have been able to achieve this using seven transmitting vehicles (as opposed to the eight used by the Death Star). They also claim that this new high-powered microwave weapon has proven capable of “achieving multiple goals such as teaching and training, new technology verification, and military exercises” such as suppressing the signals of American GPS and other satellites.
Scary, right? Well, according to Allison, there is still a long way to go before this weapon becomes practical.
“Microwaves cannot operate over long distances as dust and moisture scatter the waves,” he wrote. “This can be countered by increasing the power, but doing so presents significant logistical challenges as batteries currently do not have the energy storage capacity to provide that amount of energy.
“Quite possibly, the Chinese research team has been able to achieve a converging microwave weapon system in a controlled environment. However, the real world is vastly more chaotic, which will present huge challenges for any technology that relies on such a high degree of precision.”