Chinese scientists build world-first 20GW microwave weapon that can fire 60-second bursts

South China Morning PostEN 1 min read 100% complete by Stephen ChenFebruary 5, 2026 at 12:00 PM

AI Summary

short article 1 min

Chinese scientists at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology have developed the TPG1000Cs, a compact high-power microwave (HPM) weapon. This device, measuring four meters long and weighing five tonnes, is capable of emitting 20 gigawatts of power for up to 60 seconds. Located in Xian, Shaanxi province, the TPG1000Cs is designed to be mobile, potentially mountable on various platforms like trucks, ships, or satellites. The weapon's high power output could potentially disrupt or damage satellites, such as those in the Starlink network, operating in low Earth orbit. This marks a significant advancement as previous HPM systems were bulkier and had much shorter operational durations.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

low Earth orbit 50% Xian 60% Shaanxi province 60% Starlink ×270% Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology 80% China 80% TPG1000Cs ×290%

Keywords

microwave weapon 100% high-power microwave 90% starlink 80% 20 gigawatts 70% satellite disruption 60% weapon technology 60% tpg1000cs 50% low earth orbit 50%

Sentiment Analysis

Negative

Score: -0.30

Source Transparency

Source

South China Morning Post

Classification Confidence

85%

Geographic Perspective

China

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis.

Topic Connections

Explore how the topics in this article connect to other news stories

No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.

microwave weapon high-power microwave starlink 20 gigawatts satellite disruption weapon technology tpg1000cs low earth orbit

Explore Full Topic Graph

Find Similar Articles

AI-Powered

Discover articles with similar content using semantic similarity analysis.