Real life 'Death Star' created by China using microwave beams to blast satellites

A weapon using microwave beams just like the Death Star in is claimed to have been invented by

It is said to be able to wipe out enemy satellites in orbit and is currently being used in trials for possible military use in the future. Once just in the realms of science fiction with lasers used to destroy in Star Wars, scientists in have been working on the development of high-powered microwave weapons in recent years.

If successful the weapons have the ability to disrupt electronic devices including for example computers, radars or satellites. The real-life Death Star can concentrate microwave radiation into a single beam and in order for this to happen the electromagnetic pulses have to hit the same target at a speed of within 170 trillionths of a second.

In order to do this, it would require better timing than found on atomic clocks which has been considered up until now as impossible. But the breakthrough is said to have been achieved in precision synchronisation.

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And now Chinese scientists have said that it can be used in including the weapons - with the finer details of how the microwave weapons work kept secret as it is highly classified. It is believed that the weapon uses seven vehicles to fire the microwaves, reported the South China Morning Post. And while they are spread out over a large area, they are all aiming at the same target.

In the Chinese journal Modern Navigation it states that current weapons in existence don’t have “effective combat capabilities” due to a lack of precision. The error in synchronisation should not exceed 170 picoseconds, say scientists and the greater precision has now been achieved by using optical fibres to connect the microwave-transmitting vehicles.

It is also reported that the scientists have created beams which are stronger than the sum of the individual beams. And using this technology, Chinese scientists say they could suppress signals of satellites, “achieving multiple goals such as teaching and training, new technology verification, and military exercises”.