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Chinese scientists build powerful microwave weapon that can fire from a moving truck, using Stirling engine to cool technology
- Scientists in China have used the cooling properties of the Stirling engine to boost the strength of a high-power microwave weapon
- Tests of the weapon show it consumes just one-fifth of the energy of current methods and can operate continuously for four hours
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
13
Stephen Chenin Beijing
A research team in China has developed a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon driven by four compact and efficient Stirling engines.
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These engines, which efficiently convert thermal energy into mechanical energy, working together as a reverse heat pump and can help a superconducting coil generate a magnetic field with a strength of up to four tesla.
This is then harnessed to drive high-frequency electromagnetic waves that are powerful enough to suppress drones, military aircraft and even satellites.
This is the world’s first openly reported HPM weapon based on Stirling engine technology.
The intensity of its continuous, steady-state magnetic field reaches 68,000 times that of the Earth’s magnetic field, or close to half of the magnetic field strength that can be generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe.
Microwave weapons without a huge energy cost
The weapon system, which can easily fit into a truck, boasts a significant reduction in energy consumption for generating a strong magnetic field compared with existing technologies.
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