Chinese military experts are working tirelessly to devise ways to counter the Starlink satellite network, which could help Taiwan during a potential PLA attack.
Elon Musk had earlier stated: If you attempt to take out Starlink, this is not easy because there are 2000 satellites. That means a lot of anti-satellite missiles. I hope we do not have to put this to the test, but I think we can launch satellites faster than they can launch anti-satellite missiles.
Now, researchers in China claim to have developed a powerful microwave weapon that could take down Starlink without using anti-satellite missiles.
Developed by a team of Chinese scientists at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xian, Shaanxi province, the “TPG1000Cs” is touted as the world’s first compact driver for a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon. The device is capable of delivering an extraordinary 20 gigawatts of power for up to 1 minute, Chinese media claims.
Chinese scientists say that Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit could be seriously disrupted or even damaged by a ground-based microwave weapon with an output of more than 1GW.
However, until recently, comparable devices were much larger and could run continuously for only 3 seconds. For instance, Russia’s Sinus-7 driver weighed around 10 tons, could run for about a second, and emitted about 100 pulses per burst.
The TPG1000Cs, on the other hand, is only 4 meters long, weighs only 5 tons, and is reportedly small enough to be installed on trucks, warships, planes, or even satellites. According to Chinese theory, the device is significantly more powerful than similar devices and can produce up to 3,000 high-energy pulses in a single session.
A group led by Wang Gang from the Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on High Power Microwave at NINT apparently described the development of the weapon in a paper published on December 30 in the Chinese peer-reviewed journal High Power Laser and Particle Beams. The TPG1000Cs “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 teammates wrote.
Wang’s group developed several audacious design advancements, including reducing the system’s weight by a third by using aluminium alloy in place of high-strength steel.
In another such innovation, they etched wavy grooves into insulating plates in the same way that winding mountain roads stop electrical currents from “cutting corners” and producing discharges, extending the surface path.
Additionally, the paper claims that the new design uses a dual-U-shaped structure that allows energy to bounce back and forth, delivering the same performance in half the space, in contrast to older energy-storage components, which were designed like long, straight tubes and required a significant length to store sufficient energy.
The NINT scientists described how they substituted a small dual-U-shaped construction for conventional straight-tube designs in their system, which would effectively allow energy to bounce back and forth.
It is pertinent to note that, to reduce the risk of collisions, SpaceX has begun lowering the orbital altitude of Starlink satellites. At the same time, this leaves these satellites far more vulnerable to attack by ground-based directed-energy weapons.
The Chinese report claims that if Beijing deploys the TPG1000Cs in space, its invisible hits would become even more deadly and harder to detect.
China Is Making Starlink-Killer Weapons
The development of this device is part of a long-drawn-out effort to build “Starlink-killer” weapons, as Beijing considers the Starlink network to be a threat to its national security.
Experts in Beijing fear that these satellites could be used against China for reconnaissance in times of peace, and for targeting critical Chinese assets in times of conflict, triggered by an impending invasion of Taiwan.
Shortly after Russia launched the invasion on February 24, 2022, Mykhailo Fedorov, the then deputy prime minister of Ukraine, requested Elon Musk to activate SpaceX’s Starlink satellites for use in Ukraine.
Musk responded almost immediately, saying, “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route,” and just like that, Ukraine gained access to communication and internet networks essential for conducting operations against Russia. The success of the satellite-based solution had such an impact on the battlefield that Moscow was forced to devise new tactics for detecting and neutralising Starlink signals.
China has been keenly watching the growing utility of Starlink in combat and feeling threatened by the constellation. A group of Chinese scholars, for example, cautioned in May 2024 that China would face “severe tests” in response to the Starlink network, which might be used to provide US military assistance to Taiwan in the event of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
Therefore, China has been pursuing the development of weapons to neutralise Starlink Satellites. In fact, Chinese researchers have published dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals, developing the best method to destroy thousands of Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO), as previously reported by EurAsian Times.
A group of Chinese scientists simulated a space operation against a Satellite constellation and claimed to have found that just 99 Chinese satellites could successfully approach 1,400 Starlink satellites in roughly 12 hours. These satellites may be outfitted with lasers, microwaves, and other tools to carry out tracking, reconnaissance, and other operations.
However, directed-energy weapons—such as microwave and laser weapons—have emerged as the preferred mode of countering Starlink.
Before the TPG1000Cs, Chinese scientists developed a compact power source in 2023 that could drastically reduce the size of a high-power microwave weapon capable of downing Starlink satellites. At the time, the reports claimed the device could produce up to 10 gigawatts of power at a frequency of 10 pulses per second.
In January 2025, reports suggested that Chinese scientists had developed a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon capable of producing electromagnetic pulses with an intensity similar to that of a nuclear explosion.
The weapon reportedly employed advanced phased-array transmission technology to precisely focus energy, which extended its range. Furthermore, the design purportedly increased its destructive power and allows it to attack multiple targets simultaneously.
The potential of China’s most recent HPM weapon to generate Ku-band electromagnetic pulses—a wavelength used by communication satellites like Starlink—has been demonstrated through tests. Starlink satellites are susceptible to attack because they use commercial-grade components to cut costs and feature large antennae to pick up weak ground signals.
In July 2024, researchers from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) contended that if China’s security were at risk, PLA submarines armed with laser weapons would destroy SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.
The research stated that a submarine fitted with a megawatt-class solid-state laser can fire at satellites while submerged, then retract its “optoelectronic mast” before diving back to the ocean floor. A step-wise guide was published to eliminate Starlink satellites, as reported by EurAsian Times at the time.
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