At China’s Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, there’s a nondescript device called the TPG1000Cs. It could be Starlink’s worst nightmare, which has become an indispensable item on the Russian-Ukrainian front. It’s the world’s first compact driver for a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon, capable of delivering an extraordinary 20 gigawatts of power for one full minute, the South China Morning Post reports.
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With its aluminum alloy construction, the TPG1000Cs is only four meters long and weighs just five tons. This makes it small and compact enough to be mounted on trucks, aircraft, and even satellites. By mounting it on satellites, operators can easily combat satellites that have been marked as a threat.
The team behind the TPG1000Cs published their findings in a paper in the journal High Power Laser and Particle Beams. In their paper, they explain that the system can deliver up to 3,000 high-energy pulses in a single session, far exceeding the performance of other similar devices.
“The system has already accumulated over 200,000 operating pulses, demonstrating stable and reliable operation and paving the way for multi-platform deployment of high-energy systems,” the scientists wrote in their paper.
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With an output power of even 1 GW, a ground-based microwave weapon could disrupt Starlink satellites or even damage the satellites themselves. For example, the Russian Sinus7 driver could operate for about a second, delivering about 100 pulses per burst. Despite these relatively limited capabilities, the system weighed about 10 tons. In addition, the Russians are developing other weapons against Musk’s satellites.
As Chinese officials have repeatedly warned that SpaceX's Starlink satellites pose a threat to its national security, the country has been developing and already testing “Starlink killer” weapons, including powerful microwave systems and lasers.
It's worth noting that SpaceX is lowering the altitude of its Starlink satellites to reduce the risk of collisions with other satellites and space debris. This move could also make the satellites more vulnerable to attacks from ground-based systems.
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Earlier it became known that the Russian military has increased the use of drones equipped with Starlink, trying to bypass the Ukrainian air defense system. Shortly after that, the Ministry of Digital Transformation announced the introduction of the so-called “white list” of Starlink terminals in Ukraine. For security reasons, authorized terminals will operate in stationary mode, and while the rest are moving, SpaceX will limit their speed.
It has already been reported that the occupiers lost control of the front due to a Starlink failure. The Russians stopped the assaults, and there is panic and chaos on the front.