China develops laser weapon that can destroy satellites in space

China develops laser weapon: The device can generate a wave burst measuring 5-megawatts in the Ka-band

Researchers in China have developed the “Relativistic Klystron Amplifier (RKA)”, a microwave machine that can jam or destroy satellites in space.

As Taiwan News reports, the device can generate a wave burst measuring 5-MW in the Ka-band, a part of the electromagnetic spectrum increasingly used for both civilian and military purposes.

Although not powerful enough to shoot targets from the sky from the ground, RKAs can be mounted on satellites, which can then be used to attack enemy assets in space by burning their sensitive electronics.

Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) are systems that use concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to harm or destroy enemy equipment and/or personnel in physical conflict.

Although China denies that the RKA is a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW), if the system is built on a large scale, it could send a beam strong enough to rip through fast-moving metallic materials, Taiwan News reported.

In fact, a Beijing-based space scientist anonymously told the media that the technology could function as a high-powered weapon, adding that its power is “just too overwhelming to think about.”

Space is becoming an increasingly hot geopolitical zone. This comes after recent revelations that China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide vehicle, which took off from a low-orbit location in August last year.

Responding to the news in November, Thomas Caraco, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, said the US needs to deploy space-based sensors to counter the Chinese military’s new missiles. is required, reported Taiwan News.

In addition, the recent conflict in Ukraine could also pose a greater risk of conflict in space and threatened satellites.

Russia and Western cooperation in space for decades is rapidly ending, reports Taiwan News, with the most recent Russian space director threatening that Moscow might refuse to correct the course of the International Space Station, Which will make it crash to earth.

Also, last year Russia destroyed one of its own legacy satellites that created massive debris in space.