World War 3: China is building SPACE LASERS to hunt submarines in US and Russia SHOWDOWN
CHINA is developing a laser-equipped satellite to hunt submarines 1,640ft below the surface in a direct challenge to the United States and Russia.
By JOE DUGGAN
Express.co.uk
Thu, Oct 4, 2018
Project Guanlan’s artificial space laser beam will be one billion times brighter than the Sun, researchers claim.
The Chinese project aims to boost ocean surveillance and allow the super power to collect data on the world’s oceans as well as track subs.
Russia and the US can recognise submarines 300ft below the ocean’s surface.
But most superpowers’ subs can sink to depths of 1,600ft, meaning Moscow and Washington could be overcome by China in the race to monitor the world’s oceans.
Song Xiaoquan, a researcher involved in the project, believes the programme would allow China to monitor the upper layer of the Ocean.
He said: ”It will change almost everything.”
China hopes the satellite will make the upper layer of the sea “more or less transparent”.
But experts claim such deep-sea surveillance is “mission impossible” as lasers cannot penetrate that deep.
Project Guanlan – which means “watching the big waves” – was launched in May.
Scientists are working on the satellite’s design at a laboratory, with key components developed at more than 20 research and universities.
Researchers have tried for more than half a century to develop a laser spotlight for hunting submarines using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology.
When a laser strikes a submarine, the rebounding pulses are picked up by sensors and analysed by computers.
Researchers believe the high-powered laser beam could scan an area as wide as 62 miles (100km).
But other experts have expressed doubt about the bold new Chinese project.
An anonymous researcher from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences told SCMP: “They project researchers won’t be able to break through the darkness guarded by Mother Nature.
“Unless of course they are Tom Cruise, armed with some secret weapons.”
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