Microwave is a type of electronic warfare that uses microwave radiation to cause interference or damage to enemy electronic equipment. The advantage of microwave is that it can hit targets quickly, covertly, and precisely without creating personnel or environmental pollution.
The disadvantage of microwave ** is that it requires a lot of power and volume, can generally only be installed on expensive aircraft or ships, and is easily detected and jammed by the enemy.
But Chinese scientists and defense industry engineers have broken this limitation by developing a microwave source that can be mounted on a variety of small drones and is more powerful than any existing microwave source in the world, a technological breakthrough that they claim has the potential to permanently change the balance of military power.1
The core component of this microwave source is a device called a traveling wave tube, which is a vacuum tube in which electrons can generate microwave power. Originally developed during World War II as a microwave generator, Chinese scientists have transformed the technology into an ultra-sensitive antenna that eliminates the need for radar on drones.
Published in the journal High Power Lasers and Particle Beams, they say that this microwave source can output high-power microwaves in an ultra-wide frequency range, even comparable to larger ones such as professional electronic warfare aircraft. UAVs can use this microwave source as a radar to detect targets on the ground, on the water, or in the air, while jamming enemy radar and communications. Integrating so many different functions in a small box was previously considered impossible because some components, such as radar transceivers and jamming devices, interfere with each other when working.
We are the first in the world to do this," said Li Jianbing, a researcher at the 29th Institute of China Electronics Technology Group and a professor at the PLA Strategic Support Force Information Engineering University. China is the king of drone production, and now, with their cheap and smart drones, China has sparked a new arms race.