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[...] An anonymous source, identified as a former Dynex exec, told The Sunday Times that the acquisition of Dynex Semiconductor by Chinese railway firm Zhouzhou CRRC Times Electric in 2008 "could have helped the development" of the Chinese navy's new railguns.
Dynex produces, as its name suggests, semiconductors, in particular insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). These can be used as critical components in railguns and similar catapult-type technologies thanks to their very high voltage and current ratings.
"In these big electronic systems... you need to be able to turn on and off big power very, very quickly. And your standard power switches are too slow," the former Dynex exec told the newspaper.
The basic principle behind a railgun is that a current passed between two rails via a sliding armature generates an electromagnetic field that flings a projectile carried in the armature out into the great beyond. A little lateral thinking easily turns this into an electromagnetic catapult. To make it work you need seriously high currents and voltages – sufficient to generate 160MJ, if this paper is taken at face value.
[...] The national security implications of this tech transfer are obvious, and troubling. Britain's post-Brexit answer to maintaining national prosperity is to go full throttle into cutting-edge technologies, racing ahead of other countries to commercialise and license the technologies we develop. If that comes into conflict with our strategy of using Chinese capital to cover the upfront costs, and the result is that British advanced technologies find their way into Chinese weapon systems, that will not only make the world a less safe place, it will potentially harm Britain's standing with its allies – particularly the US, which is keen to confront Chinese challenges to its hegemony.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by pipedwho on Tuesday March 06 2018, @05:42AM (4 children)
"Could have helped" is weasel words. In reality, there are dozens if not hundreds of Chinese made IGBTs that could have been substituted in to do the same job. Maybe a few months of extra R&D to get there if there was some specific parameter that wasn't available off-the-shelf, but nothing earth shattering.
IGBT technology is old news. Like 40 year old technology that has steadily improved over the years. Even back in the '80s with crappy ones that used to latch up when pulsed too hard, there were ways around that with good circuit design.
These days pretty much everything is made in China. Maybe someone has a cutting edge 'non-Chinese' variant of something that is 5% better - today. Tomorrow, there will be another 10% improvement from someone else.
So saying the Chinese buying Dynex 'could have helped' the development of Chinese rail guns, is like saying Wikipedia 'could have helped' Xi-Xing Ping extend his term indefinitely because of a Wikipedia article on how another historical figure rose to power. It is a meaningless phrase intended as nothing other than click-bait.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06 2018, @06:50AM (2 children)
China is playing to win. They demand technology transfer and "shared" ownership of joint ventures, and we demand nothing in return. This won't end well for us.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06 2018, @08:09AM (1 child)
"And we demand nothing in return?" The company demanded £8 million for its sale. So it was not "nothing". The Chinese evidently bought them for their technology, and the Board of Directors of Dynex thought the Chinese gave them a good deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06 2018, @11:56AM
Well, over here in America, executives get a bonus for laying off their workforce.
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Tuesday March 06 2018, @07:42AM
Was just going to say the same thing. You could pick any component you like and write a scaremongering article on it: Copper? Chinese railgun. Plastic? Chinese railgun. FR4? Chinese railgun. M5 bolt? Chinese railgun. Flour? Lo mein noodles eaten by guys building the Chinese railgun.
Sheesh.