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China's new microwave weapon can down missiles and paralyze tanks

No mention of range, and I'm betting it's SHORT. The US looked into microwave weapons in the 90s (remember the movie Real Genius?), but range was always the primary limiting factor, so we went with EMP instead.
 
I think it should be pointed out that the intensity of microwaves in a microwave oven are fairly high (1000 watts),
yet the holes in the door allow light but not microwaves to escape.
 
KevinKohler said:
No mention of range, and I'm betting it's SHORT. The US looked into microwave weapons in the 90s (remember the movie Real Genius?), but range was always the primary limiting factor, so we went with EMP instead.
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Why is the military supposedly alarmed?
 
longview said:
I think it should be pointed out that the intensity of microwaves in a microwave oven are fairly high (1000 watts),
yet the holes in the door allow light but not microwaves to escape.
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Right. A Faraday cage effectively protects against microwave emissions.
 
KevinKohler said:
No mention of range, and I'm betting it's SHORT. The US looked into microwave weapons in the 90s (remember the movie Real Genius?), but range was always the primary limiting factor, so we went with EMP instead.
Click to expand...

Range and power requirements have always been the limiting factor of microwave weapons. It's a simple matter of physics. In order to produce the energy needed over the range needed, the power requirements were too much to make an effective battlefield weapon.
 
MaggieD said:
Is this an EMP weapon? I'm betting we already have them.
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No, it's a focused microwave emitter. More precise than an EMP bomb. Microwaves can be directed, but the energy needed to sustain them doubles with the distance. Think of your household microwave. You turn it on, and the lights dim. Well, that's just over the distance of less than a foot. Imagine the energy needed to be effective over 100 feet. 1,000 feet.

EMP is more like a bomb...it goes off, all electronics in that radius of effect goes out. So, friendly fire.
 
I know it isn't possible yet, but theoretically could something like this be scaled down for law enforcement? Such as for being a car chase to a hault safely? Or would it necessarily fry the driver and passengers as well?
 
I think the inference of the article is that a microwave weapon could target the control system of electronics.
Remote controlled systems need a communication path, it would operate in the same frequency range.
It could be a problem, but the workarounds would not be too difficult.
Directed energy is by definition directed, I.E. it comes from a source, and travels in a straight line.
If the detector for the control system, does not "look" at the source, it does not see it.
If the time window the detector of the control signal is not lined up with when the source is transmitting, again, nothing.
If the internal logic, is optically isolated from the control signal, and has a prearranged task, in the event of control loss.
It could continue on it's way, without any input.
These technologies are not new, they go back to microwave proximity shells in WWII.
 
BrewerBob said:
I know it isn't possible yet, but theoretically could something like this be scaled down for law enforcement? Such as for being a car chase to a hault safely? Or would it necessarily fry the driver and passengers as well?
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I would not go as far as saying it is not possible, it likely is not small and cost effective.
 
Thoreau72 said:
My bet is the US also has something like this, but they just don't publish it in Popular Science.
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They have

U.S. military sees more use of laser, microwave weapons | Reuters
I would hazard a guess the US is ahead of China on this.
Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall, the top U.S. arms buyer, said Pentagon funding for directed energy programs would remain steady at about $300 million a year for now, with larger-scale demonstrations to start in about five years.

Kendall said directed energy offered a less expensive way to counter ballistic and cruise missile threats than the expensive interceptors used now, and urged industry to focus development efforts on those threats.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the conference the Navy was encouraged by testing of a laser deployed on the USS Ponce in the Gulf, which can destroy small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles, and can also be used as a telescope.
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