The Chinese company DFH Satellite Co, Ltd, which specializes in satellites, has created a new power system for particle beam and other space weapons. In this case, we are talking about weapons installed on satellites.
The fact is that there are currently thousands of satellites in Earth's orbit. Destroying them with the help of, for example, missiles is an incredibly expensive task. It can also greatly pollute the orbit. Therefore, to combat enemy satellites, another weapon is needed - cheaper, reusable and capable of destroying thousands of targets. This is where directed energy weapons can come in handy.
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In particular, it could be a laser. However, to protect the satellite from the effects of the laser, it can be covered with special materials that will reflect most of the energy – as a result, the laser will be completely ineffective.
Therefore, in space conditions, a particle-beam weapon can be much more effective. A laser sends a beam of photons to the target, while a system based on a particle beam sends a bunch of electrons, protons, ions or neutral atoms to the target. Thanks to a special mechanism, they are accelerated to a speed close to the speed of light.
This, in addition to causing some mechanical damage, creates strong X-ray, gamma and electromagnetic radiation, which simply burns out all the electronics on the satellite. To protect a satellite from particle beam weapons, it is necessary to shield them, for example, with lead, which can be very expensive and such protection is obviously impossible to deliver to orbit.
In terrestrial conditions, such weapons do not work well, as between the target and the emitter there is air, which the beam from the sent particle beams hits. But in space conditions there is nothing between them, so the particle beams can reach the target without hindrance. That is why such a weapon must be located in orbit, for example on a certain satellite or spacecraft, making it a "satellite destroyer" or "space fighters".
However, to power such a weapon, it requires a large amount of energy. At the same time, the energy pulse must come simultaneously, with extreme precision for greater effect. The charge itself must be powerful, and the dimensions of the power system must be small enough to fit on the satellite.
So in China, they have created just such a system, as reported by South China Morning Post. Their device delivers 2.6 megawatts (MW) of pulsed power while maintaining pulse synchronisation accuracy of just 0.63 microseconds in ground tests. The size of this system is currently unknown.
This system consists of solar panels that produce low-voltage electricity, which is then converted to high-voltage energy and stored in 36 separate power modules. From there, this energy is supplied to all the necessary systems through special ultra-precise controllers. In China, it is noted that existing pulsed power supplies have a power of 1 megawatt and an accuracy of worse than 1 millisecond, which is quite a big difference compared to what was achieved by Chinese developers.
It is worth emphasizing that at the moment this is only a power system, which, although it is the heart of the future satellite-fighter of other satellites, is still far from creating a ready-made sample of a beam weapon. In addition to military purposes, such a power supply system could be used in civilian satellites to perform certain tasks too.
But, apparently, this technology is interesting to China primarily because of the possibility of its military application. Already now, satellites that are engaged in reconnaissance, provide military communications and satellite navigation play a significant role in war - therefore, it is strategically important to have effective means to combat enemy satellites.
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