Did Chinese scientists just bring down an unmanned plane with an electromagnetic pulse weapon?

The experiment could be the first publicly reported Chinese field test of the technology

China is trying to catch up after the US brought down 50 drones in a single blast in an experiment two years ago

Reading Time:3 minutes

The weapons are designed to disable electronic systems using pulses. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:00am, 26 Aug 2021Updated: 12:42pm, 26 Aug 2021

An unmanned aircraft was brought down by a powerful electromagnetic pulse in what could be the first reported test of an advanced new weapon in China.

A paper published in the Chinese journal Electronic Information Warfare Technology did not give details of the timing and location of the experiment, which are classified but it may be the country’s first openly reported field test of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.

China is racing to catch up in the field after the US demonstrated a prototype EMP weapon that brought down 50 drones with one shot in 2019.

The latest experiment, carried out by the defence contractor China Electronics Technology Group (CETEC), concentrated on a larger, single aircraft which was brought down while flying 1,500 metres (4,920ft) above sea level.

Meanwhile, a separate study said Chinese researchers were working on an 80-gigawatt EMP weapon – a power output equivalent to four times that generated by the Three Gorges Dam.

“It will put us on par with the Americans,” said Professor Gao Huailin and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the paper published in Scientia Sinica Physica, Mechanica & Astronomica on Tuesday.

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