Innovative Multi-Target Electronic Warfare Weapon

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Electronic warfare is said to be the next big frontier, and this new Chinese multi-target weapon design might be revolutionary.

Researchers at the Southeast University in Nanjiang China revealed their new design for a new and innovative electronic warfare weapon. Unlike other EW weapons, this one can reportedly launch multiple beams of electromagnetic waves from a single antenna and target multiple objects simultaneously.

According to Interesting Engineering, electronic warfare is the next frontier of warfare, and it is seeing intense technological development. Current advanced EW weapons are capable of suppressing weapons and radars as well as an adversary’s ability to communicate, navigate, and collect information in areas of conflict.

Electronic warfare pods themselves resemble missiles that are mounted under the wing of a fighter jet, but these devices have so far been able to only suppress targets in one direction using high power. The new device developed by the Chinese researchers has far greater abilities.

According to a publication in the South China Morning Post, the prototype images of the design show a honeycomb-like, open-ended and waveguide structure antenna. A modern EW weapon typically uses multiple units of transmitting and receiving antennae (controlled by a computer), and while these units can work independently to engage different targets when emitting electromagnetic waves, they end up with limited power and frequency ranges.

The team’s breakthrough was reportedly enabled by the manipulation of electromagnetic waves emitted by each unit, where the frequency of suppression can be individually adjusted for each target. It is important to note that the increase in the number of targets could lead to increased numerical processing that might overwhelm the chips. Nevertheless, this issue was solved by a new algorithm developed by the team that reduces the computational load.

This information was provided by Interesting Engineering.