China’s top naval scientist proposes a Star Wars-style ‘supership’ to convert nuclear energy to kinetic force weapons
- Breakthroughs in electromagnetic launch technology pave the way for a nuclear-powered warship to carry rail gun, laser and high-powered microwave: Ma Weiming
- Researchers do not say when the supership will be built, but say China is ready to take the idea from science fiction to the real world
“It will completely overturn the combat formation of naval fleets that has been in place for over a hundred years,” he said in a peer-reviewed paper published in Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society journal on June 13.
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China’s so-called supership could do the job of almost an entire carrier fleet, Ma and his colleagues said in the paper while describing a new naval combat system that brings together electromagnetic weapons and a powerful nuclear-powered electrical system.
According to a computer generated photo in Ma’s paper, the warship carries a large number of aircraft but differs from a traditional carrier.
While many aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered, their electrical systems are typically designed to power the ship’s propulsion and other basic systems. Their primary role is to provide air support for naval operations, rather than engaging in direct combat.
The super warship is armed with new electromagnetic weapons such as rail guns, coilguns, rocket launchers, laser weapons and high-powered microwaves.
The ship’s advanced technology “cleverly and effectively transform the energy from the ship’s power source into the electromagnetic energy needed to power high-powered weapons,” according to the paper.