China has developed anti-satellite laser weapon, claims Hong Kong based

Taipei: China has successfully developed a powerful laser capable of targeting critical satellites of the US orbiting the earth. This system developed by the Chinese scientists can destroy the US satellites with a wave burst of 5-megawatts. The Hong Kong based News agency Asia Times published this information.

The Chinese scientists from Sichuan Province have developed a microwave system called Relativistic Klystron Amplifier (RKA), producing a laser wave burst of 5 Megawatts in the Ka-band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This band is generally used in civilian as well as military applications. The Ka-band is used for intercepting and jamming the enemy systems as well.

As per the information shared by the Chinese scientists, RKA with a 5 Megawatts capacity can jam or destroy satellites in space. Currently, this laser system from the ground is ineffective against satellites in orbit. However, it can be used to target a satellite from another satellite in space. The news agency warned that the system could prove dangerous against the US drones from the ground.

Currently, the design capacity of 5 Megawatts would be incapable of targeting and destroying satellites in space from the earth. Ground-based microwave weapons capable of hitting satellites would require more than a gigawatt of power to jam or damage modern satellites effectively. This laser created from electromagnetic energy is included in the Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) category. But China claims that the RKA system does not fall in the DEW category.

The Taiwanese media and US analysts are drawing the international community’s attention towards the various tests conducted by China in the last few months. Last year, in August, China tested a nuclear-clad, Hypersonic Glide Vehicle. This Chinese Hypersonic Glide Vehicle reached the outer limit of the earth’s atmosphere. A Taiwanese website had claimed that these Hypersonic Glide Vehicles could carry anti-satellite laser systems.

Thomas Caraco, senior analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said that China has started militarising space, the biggest threat to the United States. At the same time, Caraco expressed a concern that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine may trigger the space conflict. Caraco claimed this would be a security concern for countries with satellites in space.