As China develops cutting-edge deep-sea surveillance, the nation's navy is concurrently designing a satellite-mounted laser to locate and destroy enemy submarines.
The satellite, which will be able to spot targets 500 meters below the surface, would also be used to gather data on the world's oceans, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Monday.
The project, dubbed ‘Guanlan,' which translates into “watching the big waves,” was launched in May at the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology in Qingdao, Shandong.
Although the satellite is designed by the Pilot National Laboratory, key components are being developed by scientists at over 20 research institutes and universities across the country
According to Song Xiaoquan, one of the researchers on the Guanlan project, the satellite would render the upper layer of the oceans “more or less transparent,” cited by SCMP.
“It will change almost everything,” Song said.
For more than half a century, weapons designers around the globe have been attempting to build a light detection and ranging (lidar) laser that would target submerged submarines.
When a laser beam hits a submarine, some of the light-energy pulses bounce back. Those pulses are detected by sensors and analyzed by software to discern a target's location, speed and physical dimensions.
In real-world applications, however, lidar technology is easily affected by a…