Chinese scientist claims to have created beam weapon

Chinese scientists claim to have created a focused energy beam weapon , but many suspect they were influenced by watching too much Star Wars?

Remember the moment in " Star Wars " when the Death Star destroyed Alderaan? Eight lasers converged at a single point to form a super-powerful laser that obliterated the planet. It was a memorable scene that demonstrated the relentless power of "Star Wars."

While it's unclear whether they were inspired by this scene, Chinese scientists claim they've created a new type of microwave weapon that combines multiple high-powered electromagnetic waves . They can then focus them on a target.

This new type of microwave weapon combines multiple high-power electromagnetic waves. (Illustration: Variety).

The weapon system consists of multiple microwave vehicles deployed at different locations. Each vehicle fires microwaves with high precision synchronization. They combine into a powerful energy beam to attack a target.

Microwaves are narrow beams of energy that need to be precisely aligned to focus. This means that the timing of the microwaves needs to be controlled within microseconds.

Each microwave vehicle must also be positioned to within millimeters, according to the team. China's BeiDou satellite navigation system is capable of providing millimeter-level positioning accuracy, but that still falls short of the requirements of the new weapon system.

To try to overcome this, laser rangefinders were installed on each transmission vehicle to achieve millimetre-accurate positioning. Any changes in the surface meant that the microwave transmitters would not be properly aligned.

The activation synchronization must be within 170 picoseconds (or 170 trillionths of a second). To put that into perspective, a typical computer takes 330 picoseconds to complete a single processing cycle. To overcome this challenge, scientists connected the transmission platforms using fiber optics to ensure they were properly synchronized. Each weapon system vehicle is also directly controlled by a mobile command center.

According to the South China Morning Post, a scientist involved in the project claimed that the combined power of the focused microwave beams had a combined effect of '1+1>2' - although such a claim violates the law of conservation of energy. However, a powerful coherent microwave is more useful than many smaller microwave sources.

It is possible that the Chinese team was able to achieve a focused microwave weapon system in a controlled environment. However, the real world is much more chaotic, which would pose enormous challenges for any technology that relies on such high precision.