Chinese scientists say they have proven that hypersonic weapons can utilize 6G technology for communication and target detection. This technology is also claimed to be the answer to a number of blackout problems that often occur at levels five times the speed of sound.
"This breakthrough has implications for the effectiveness of weapons and defense systems, and could lead to critical improvements in China's space defense," said the team led by Professor Yao Jianquan, one of China's leading laser scientists. /2/2022).
Their paper about the experiment was published in the Journal of the National University of Defense Technology. The research team in Tianjin said they had achieved full penetration of the signal-blocking plasma shield around the hypersonic weapon with electromagnetic waves.
Hypersonic weapon communication
Hypersonic weapons have difficulty maintaining communication with the outside world because they are constrained by heat, ionized gases appear on their surface, and block electromagnetic waves. This issue also concerns defense applications as ground-based radars cannot identify and lock onto hypersonic targets behind plasma shelters.
Yao and colleagues from the school of precision instruments and optoelectronic engineering at UTianjin University have developed a laser device that can produce a continuous beam of electromagnetic waves in the terahertz band, the frequency range between microwaves and infrared that is also used for 6G.
Experimental results in the field show that these terahertz waves can easily enter and leave the plasma produced by hypersonic weapons at 10 times the speed of sound or even faster.
Terahertz radiation can penetrate materials. Full-body scanners using this technology have been used at some airports to detect items hidden under cloth.
6G for weapons
The communications industry believes that 6G smartphones will not only transmit data at speeds hundreds of times faster than today, but can also monitor vital life signs such as gestures, breathing and glucose levels due to their extremely high sensitivity to terahertz waves.
This technology has been studied intensively for applications in the military, such as radar for stealth aircraft detection or high-speed communications in space.
But using 6G on hypersonic weapons is more challenging. Several previous studies have found terahertz signals in the lower frequency range normally used for communications can deteriorate as they pass through the plasma.
Higher frequency waves penetrate barriers more efficiently but cannot travel far in the atmosphere. A hypersonic weapon traveling at Mach 5 in the atmosphere can reach an effective communication distance of up to 60km with a 5-watt transceiver at a high frequency of 2 THz, according to researchers from Northwestern Polytechnical University and the Shanghai Aerospace Control Technology Institute.
The terahertz device Yao's team built works at a slightly higher 2.5Thz frequency. They do not estimate the reach of their technology in an open environment.
Experiments show that terahertz waves have significant potential in military applications. But if high-frequency waves are to be used in radar for missile defense, the radar must be very powerful and the antennae very large to reach longer ranges.
Even before the 5G battle ended, China and the United States had started the race towards 6G. With funding from the US military, SpaceX's Starlink communications satellite network will receive future quality-of-service upgrades with terahertz technology and increased download speeds of up to 10 Gbps on ground terminals, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk. To note, Starlink download speed is currently around 100 Mbps.
China launched the world's first 6G satellite with terahertz technology in 2020 to conduct high-speed communications experiments in space. In the field, Chinese scientists have conducted experiments on 6G data transmission and reached speeds of several hundred gigabytes per second.
Some industry experts believe commercialization of 6G will take a decade due to technical challenges. Terahertz waves are more like laser light than radio waves and cannot propagate or move around obstacles.
Terahertz antennas must always point to a base station on the ground or in space. The error signal frequency will increase with the distance required for communication or target detection.
To solve this problem, China is developing a compact terahertz antenna with synthesized aperture radar technology and a high-altitude base station over the Tibetan plateau to integrate the future 6G network in space and in outer space.