China may be the first to deploy a microwave air defense weapon

FPI / November 1, 2021

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

China and the United States are in a race to develop microwave weapons to defeat swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Beating similar U.S.-made systems to the field, Norinco has revealed a new ground-based and mobile microwave weapon that will help counter unmanned and loitering weapon systems.

They can also be designed to attack enemy electronics from missiles or be launched into space to be used as anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons.

Usually an indication that it has already entered service with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Chinese weapons maker Norinco for the first time marketed its mobile “High Powered Microwave Weapon System” at the Zhuhai Airshow in early October 2021.

Using a new 8-wheel armored carrier likely a product of the South Industries Corporation, a competitor and partner to Norinco, the weapon combines a small radar/optical detection system on a collapsible mast with the square radiating surfaces of a microwave weapon.

It was revealed in a South Industries/Norinco video that also featured the new CS/SA5 30mm Gatling gun on the same 8-wheel armored carrier, the LD3000 30mm Gatling gun-based air defense system and a variety of radar.

While performance specifications were not provided for the microwave weapon, the video did show that it was capable of causing small commercial rotor-based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to stop operations and fall from the sky.

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