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Stephen Chen

At the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xian, Shaanxi province, sits an unremarkable-looking device called the TPG1000Cs.
It could become Starlink’s worst nightmare.
The TPG1000Cs is the world’s first compact driver for a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon, capable of delivering an extraordinary 20 gigawatts of power for up to one full minute.
Measuring just four metres long (13 feet) and weighing only five tonnes, it is compact enough to be mounted on trucks, warships, aircraft or even satellites.
According to estimates from some Chinese experts, a ground-based microwave weapon with an output over 1GW could severely disrupt or even damage Starlink satellites operating in low Earth orbit.
Until now, similar known systems could only operate continuously for no more than three seconds and were far bulkier.
For example, Russia’s Sinus‑7 driver could run for about a second, delivering roughly 100 pulses per burst, yet weighed around 10 tonnes.
China has repeatedly warned that Starlink poses a serious threat to its national security.
Chinese military researchers are now developing new “Starlink killer” weapons – including high-power microwave systems and lasers – that could counter big constellations of low-orbit satellites in a cost-effective way if needed.


SpaceX has been lowering the orbital altitude of Starlink satellites to reduce collision risks. However, this also makes them far more vulnerable to attack from ground-based directed-energy weapons.
If China eventually deploys the TPG1000Cs in space, its invisible strikes would become even more lethal and harder to detect.
These advances were detailed in a paper published on December 30 in High Power Laser and Particle Beams, a Chinese peer-reviewed journal, by a team led by Wang Gang from the Key Laboratory on Science and Technology on High Power Microwave at NINT.
The TPG1000Cs can deliver up to 3,000 high-energy pulses in a single session – well beyond comparable systems.
The device “has already accumulated more than 200,000 operational pulses, demonstrating stable and reliable performance and opening the way for multi-platform deployment of high-power systems”, Wang and his colleagues wrote.
Wang’s team made several bold design innovations. They replaced high-strength steel with aluminium alloy, cutting the system’s weight by a third.
They also etched wavy grooves into insulating plates, effectively lengthening the surface path – much like winding mountain roads prevent electrical currents from “cutting corners” and causing discharges.
Whereas traditional energy-storage components were designed like long, straight tubes, requiring considerable length to store enough energy, the new design uses a dual-U-shaped structure that allows energy to bounce back and forth – achieving the same performance in half the space.
The researchers also documented simpler changes that led to major gains, such as replacing the insulating oil to allow the driver to store significantly more energy.


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The 20-gigawatt Tesla-type pulsed power driver can operate continuously and stably for a minute. Photo: Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology

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Ground-based and compact Chinese technology can disrupt or damage Starlink satellites operating in low Earth orbit


Ground-based and compact Chinese technology can disrupt or damage Starlink satellites operating in low Earth orbit.


Chinese scientists build world-first 20GW microwave weapon that can fire 60-second bursts

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Ground-based and compact Chinese technology can disrupt or damage Starlink satellites operating in low Earth orbit

Ground-based and compact Chinese technology can disrupt or damage Starlink satellites operating in low Earth orbit