MUMBAI - The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc) here is in the final
stages of assembling a powerful electron accelerating machine named
''Kali-5000`` which, its scientists say, can potentially be used as a beam
weapon.
Bursts of microwaves packed with gigawatts of power (one gigawatt is 1000
million watts) produced by this machine, when aimed at enemy missiles and
aircraft, will cripple their electronics systems and computer chips and
bring them down.
uencies.
According to scientists, ''soft killing`` by high power microwaves has
advantages over the so called laser weapon which destroys by drilling
holes through metal.
Kali-5000 will be ready for testing by the end of this year, according to
Mr P H Ron, head of the accelerator and pulse power division at Barc and
chief designer of India`s first star wars weapon.
However, in the present form India`s beam weapon is too bulky - it weighs
26 tons - including tanks containing 12000 litres of oil. Mr Ron said some
''compacting`` was possible.
He said Kali (kilo-ampere linear injector) machine was developed for
industrial applications and that the defence use was a recent spinoff. He,
however, declined to elaborate.
Describing it as a machine ''bordering basic research,`` Atomic Energy
Commission Chairman Rajagopalan Chidambaram admitted in an interview that
it has military potential. ''There are some technologies we have to be in
touch with because they may become useful (later),`` he said.
Development of the Kali machine was mooted in 1985 by Dr Chidambaram, then
director of Barc, but work earnestly began in 1989.
Mr Ron said the machine essentially generated pulses of highly energetic
electrons. Other components in the machine down the line converted the
electrons into flash x-rays (for ultra high-speed photography) or
microwaves. The electron beam itself can be used for welding.
The Defence Balistics Research Institute in Chandigarh is already using an
x-ray version of Kali to study speed of projectiles.
Another defense institute in Bangalore is using a microwave-producing
version of Kali which the scientists use for testing the vulnerability of
the electronic systems going into the light combat aircraft under
development and designing electrostatic shields to protect them from
microwave attack by the enemy.
According to Barc scientists, the Kali machine has for the first time
provided India a way to ''harden`` the electronic systems used in
satellites and missiles against the deadly electromagnetic impulses (Emi)
generated by nuclear weapons.
The Emi wrecks havoc by creating intense electric field of several
thousand volts per centimeter. The electronic components currently used in
missiles can withstand fields of Just 300 volts per centimeter.
While the Kali systems built so far are single shot pulse power systems
(they produce one burst of microwaves and the next burst comes much
later), Kali-5000 is a rapid fire device, and hence its potential as a
beam weapon.
According to Barc-published reports, the machine will shoot several
thousand bursts of microwaves, each burst lasting for just 60 billionths
of a second and packed with a power of about four gigawatts.
The high power microwave pulses travel in a straight line and do not
dissipate their energy if the frequency falls between three and ten
gigahertz.
According to Barc scientists, a microwave power of 150 megawatts has
already been demonstrated in earlier versions of Kali.
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