China unleashes ‘Death Star’ weapon: Is it time to worry?

China unleashes ‘Death Star’: Is advanced space weaponry a cause for concern?  

China has unveiled a terrifying new weapon that could obliterate satellites with a Star Wars-style mega-beam. The high-powered microwave (HPM) weapon was first tested in 2024 and is already raising alarm bells in the West.

China’s laser focus on space warfare

In scenes straight out of a sci-fi horror blockbuster, Chinese scientists successfully converged seven microwave beams into a single mega-beam- much like the Death Star’s planet-smashing laser. The test secretive tests – carried out in western China – saw the beams fuse with pinpoint accuracy over 1,100 miles away, demonstrating the ability to knock out orbiting satellites.

Unlike traditional cyberattacks or jamming signals, these high-powered microwaves could permanently destroy satellite electronics, turning billion-dollar space assets into floating scrap metal. Think less ‘laser sword’ and more ‘ion cannon.’ Imagine a city’s entire power grid being wiped out in an instant – not by a cyberattack or a bomb, but by an invisible microwave blast. Or, an entire airport’s radar and communication towers going dark, leaving pilots blind mid-flight. This is the raw power of this incredible weapon.

What’s the target?

The real concern? This isn’t just an academic experiment. China’s military is developing the tech to suppress or destroy navigation and communication satellites – vital for everything from GPS to missile guidance. With space now the ultimate battlefield, this could be a game-changer.

Documents from a Chinese journal, later picked up by the South China Morning Post, revealed the weapon’s shocking precision. Each vehicle transmitting the beams was synchronised to within just 170 picoseconds – a few trillionths of a second – by fibre-optic cables.

Unlike anti-satellite missiles, which leave a dangerous trail of debris, microwave attacks could wipe out a satellite without a trace – no explosions, no space junk, just a lifeless hunk of metal drifting through orbit. That makes them harder to detect and even harder to prove.

China has arguably been obsessed with countering the West’s dominance in space since the 1990s, developing a range of anti-satellite weapons. The problem with missile strikes, like those from China’s SC-19 system, is that they’re expensive, highly visible, and turn low-Earth orbit into a scrapyard. Microwaves, on the other hand, leave no mess – just mayhem.

Is advanced space weaponry a worry for the future?

Right now, the technology still faces huge challenges. A full-scale version of the weapon would need gigawatts of power – 1,000 times more than the megawatt-class energy systems currently being developed. Even China’s most powerful lasers struggle to reach those energy levels.

But that’s not stopping them. The People’s Liberation Army’s new Aerospace Force is already training units in how to use HPMs, while a report from the U.S. Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute warns that only the highest levels of the Chinese military – namely the Central Military Commission – would have the authority to launch an attack.

For now, this ‘Death Star’ weapon remains in development. But if China’s military starts ramping up tests, it could signal that a devastating new class of space weapons is closer than we think. Where are we heading?

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